About this Event
For the sixth annual Lucas J. Daniel Lecture in Sustainable Systems, , VP of Strategy at Substantial and author of (Rosenfield, 2023), shares her insights.
Sheryl’s talk, "Designing For A More Equitable World with Systems Thinking," will happen at the newest building on Illinois Tech’s Mies campus, the Kaplan Institute, which is home to the Institute of Design.
In-person attendees will also be the first to receive ID’s 2024 report on the state of design. This event will also be streamed.
A Q&A and discussion with ID faculty member will follow the talk.
Whether design thinking can have actual impact in today’s complex world is a real question, and some design practitioners have become disillusioned with approaches that emphasize products and profit over people. In this talk, Sheryl discusses how there is still a spark of value in some of the tenets of design thinking, but to make it really shine, and to design for a more just and equitable world, systems thinking needs to be at the center of the designer’s practice. Sheryl will share stories, approaches and methods that help designers kickstart or expand on their systems thinking practice and will consider the challenges and assumptions that designers have about systems thinking.
is currently VP of Strategy at Substantial. She drives a human-centered design practice that is focused on systems thinking and evidence-based design, working on everything from robotic surgery experience design to reimagining K-12 education through service design. In her work with consultancies such as Substantial, frog, and Adaptive Path, she has worked with a diverse base of clients including the Gates Foundation, Microsoft, IHME, and IKEA. She holds a B.A. in journalism and political science from Syracuse University.
Faculty Organizers
is Co-Director of ID’s Food Systems Action Lab and has worked as an innovation leader at IDEO, the national office of the YMCA, and Feeding America to achieve community wellbeing through collaboration with local collectives.
is Visiting Assistant Professor at the Institute of Design, where she teaches courses in the politics of design, critical contexts of design, and the philosophical context of design research. She develops justice-oriented design methodologies for professional practice. Her forthcoming book, (Bloomsbury, September 2024) is a practical guide to working on real-life briefs in the design studio.
The focus of ID’s annual event in memory of ID alum Lucas J. Daniel (1974–2017) is to drive discourse in sustainability and systems design, areas Lucas was passionate about. Lucas was a 2005 Institute of Design (ID) graduate who spent 11 years at Chicago design and innovation consultancy gravitytank. There he applied holistic, systems-level thinking to food innovation.
At the Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech, we look at the world in new ways to create the change we hope to see in it. Since our founding by Bauhaus émigré László Moholy-Nagy in 1937, we’ve continually turned design into a powerful tool anyone can use to transform the systems that shape our lives—from cities, education, and finance to food, healthcare, and technology.
We’re the only US design school devoted completely to graduate students, and the first to offer a PhD. By uniting science and rigor with creativity and rapid iteration, we’re recognized around the globe as pioneers in human-centered design, systems design, and other methods that apply design to the real world.
It’s through these unique approaches that students, communities, and corporations learn to observe the systems they’re surrounded by—and envision the new worlds they can build from them. Here, learners and leaders discover what design makes possible. How it enables us to adapt with the speed, scale, and complexity of life. To anticipate change and the impact of our actions. And, most importantly, to imagine—then create—brighter futures for us all. Learn more about ID at id.iit.edu.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech, 3137 South Federal Street, Chicago, United States
USD 0.00