Hi, I'm Melanie. I believe how we design can be transformative as what we design.

I am an innovation leader, strategist, and experience designer who crafts programs, services, and gatherings for human flourishing.

I geek out about how people make change, together. My practice is focused on bringing relationship, joy, care, and wholeness to organizational & systems change.

 

Background*

For 15 years, Melanie has championed participatory approaches to the design of places, programs, & products. Currently, she partners with purpose-driven organizations to bring new initiatives to life and guides teams through strategic conversations and moments.

Recently, she launched Meta’s first Community-in-Residence program, a pioneering program investing $5M in digital community builders and embedding them in product teams. She grew ecosystems partnerships and new program development. She is a collaborator of New_Public, a non-profit focused on healthier digital public spaces.  

As an early leader at Dalberg Design, she cultivated the gender and civic innovation practices. Melanie seeks topics and processes that are messy, taboo, or complex— that need creative conversations and experiences to unlock shared insight. Sometimes that looked like working with young women on the first female-controlled HIV prevention product, collaborating with midwives to create a safe abortion investment strategy, designing a convening for 500 resilience leaders to share learnings, or creating a humanitarian response toolkit. Clients included Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities, USAID, Clinton Global Initiative, Gates Foundation, Sustainable Trade Initiative, World Bank’s Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), Elton John AIDS Foundation, and Humanitarian Innovation Fund.

Melanie began her career at the intersection of learning and design, collaborating with architects, educators, and families to design new schools—including Chicago’s first Montessori high school. She worked with TheThirdTeacher+, a learning design consultancy within CannonDesign where she grew the practice's research and strategy offering and collaborated with the George Lucas Education Foundation (Edutopia) and progressive schools across the US. She led knowledge management for Perkins+Will's education architecture studio, empowered education entrepreneurs as a fellow in the Chicago Public Schools' new school incubator, and helped launch the Jane Goodall Institute's youth education program in the Midwest.   

Melanie is a passionate neighbor-designer. She was the founder and curator of The League of Awesome Possibilities, a design collaborative focused on building healthier local economies through participatory placemaking funded by the Awesome Foundation, GOOD magazine, and City of Chicago. She was invited to sit on StateFarm's NextDoor Community Innovation Council and serves as a trustee for the Awesome Foundation

As a facilitator, Melanie’s been called a “design doula” and “human cartographer”— unlocking the human side of systems change. In 2023, she was awarded a Mira Fellowship to investigate what designers can learn from human development practitioners about designing for change. She is trained in Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead methodology and completed the Strozzi Institute’s Embodied Transformation coaching program.

Melanie holds a degree in social policy, organizational change, and leadership development from Northwestern University. She is an adjunct professor in community and life-centered methods at School of Visual Arts and Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. She is an ambassador for Women in Innovation and design advisor to IRC’s Airbel Innovation Lab. She is an avid pedestrian, possibilitarian, and potluck enthusiast. She splits time between Brooklyn and the Midwest.

*excuse the third-person formality, this is overdue for a rewrite!

Currently seeking 2024 collaborations.

What’s on the horizon for you? Let’s talk about your latest co-design, strategy, or facilitation project.

Limited availability in 2023— but let’s chat! I’m taking facilitation, advisory, and collaboration opportunities.

Coming up & Recent

Recent Highlights

From partners:

In my world:

“To see small beginnings is clearness of sight.”
— LAO TZU

Need some magic?

Skills

Speaking

Poetry

“hi” from “Anything is Possible” by Matthew Hoffman, Chicago

“Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead... Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”
— SUSAN SONTAG
“ A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other’s lives. ”
— WENDELL BERRY

My creative leadership coaching philosophy:

“I feel lighter.” “I came in feeling really stuck, but now I’m full of energy.” “You really see me. Things I didn’t even see in myself.”
I began to fold coaching into my practice organically. Conversation after conversation, I realized the work I was doing on the periphery of my design practice was actually the the work. Messy, bold, world-changing work takes leaders who can step into the fullness of their creative leadership. The thing is? As strong as you are as a leader, you often need a soft space to land to sort through things.

I have a special knack for being able to coach creative, purpose-driven leaders into feeling integrated and inspired. I bring a design lens and appreciative inquiry approach to this work with individuals and teams. I coach leaders on inner work, relational dynamics, leading design teams, social entrepreneurship, and systems change.

  • Pathmaking and wayfinding in careers or organizations

  • Leading creative teams and co-design practices

  • Developing voice, vision, and values

  • Getting unstuck and finding clarity

  • Facilitation coaching and designing key moments

  • Using prototyping to accelerate learning and innovation on teams

At the core is helping leaders feel seen, whole, held, and possible— so they can channel their inner creative spark in their work.

Seen • Whole • Held • Possible