While a graduate student in the MA in Social Design program at MICA, I conducted thesis work on the issue of sexual assault on college campuses. While not a survivor of sexual assault myself, I have seen the way the issue impacts survivors, those close to them, and the broader college campus culture. I met, talked, collaborated, and conducted small brainstorming sessions with Title IX Coordinators, Sexual Violence Prevention Coordinators, other university staff, and students from five different schools in the Baltimore area. The main intervention idea that stemmed from the research and brainstorming sessions was a toolkit for advocates of sexual assault survivors to use to get their work jumpstarted, expand their education on the subject, change misconceptions, and serve as a general “How To” guide. Along with this toolkit, a simple website could exist that would connect an advocate or survivor to the policies, resources, and community services on their specific campus and within their specific city. Involving all the students on a campus in this issue is important, but it is equally important that those students are educated on the subject and can provide support to survivors of sexual assault. This idea is simply a starting point in tackling this widespread problem. It will not eliminate the problem, but it may be a small way to push a lever and make a change within the larger ecosystem of this issue.
___________________________________
Maryland Institute College of Art | Spring 2017
Working with a team of graduate students at MICA through the school year of 2017-2018, we researched ways to increase the rate of Baltimore youth (ages 15-24) getting tested for STIs in the city. In our research, youth expressed stigma, fear, and a lack of knowledge about testing options as their most common reasons for not getting tested. After brainstorming and prototyping ideas with youth and healthcare professionals, we divided into two teams, one focused on the in-clinic testing experience and the other focused on messaging to spread awareness of testing options. As a member of the messaging team, we worked directly with youth to develop the main message, content, logo, and brand for the campaign. Our end result was the “Stay Sexy, Stay Healthy, Get Checked” campaign, a fresh and fun initiative to promote sexual health and STI testing among Baltimore youth. The initiative aims to increase the number of youth going to an STI clinic for the first time and to motivate youth to take control of their own sexual health by getting “checked” for STIs. We created a bright, colorful, and celebratory brand that also includes accurate, valuable information on testing options. After graduation, a classmate and I continued working on the project, finalizing and printing the final pieces of the campaign and developing an implementation guide. The “Stay Sexy, Stay Healthy” campaign began it’s rollout the following Fall.
___________________________________
Maryland Institute College of Art | Fall 2016–Summer 2018
Special thanks to the Baltimore City Health Department, the Johns Hopkins Center for Child & Community Research, and the Youth Advisory Council.
The goal of this project was to reduce the number of mother to child transmissions of HIV in Baltimore. Work was started before I joined the MASD grad program, and I was brought onboard to follow through with the original team's prototype concept of a resource guidebook. The purpose of the guidebook is to combat the main reason why moms dealing with HIV are apprehensive about adhering to their appointments and medication - basic human needs for family survival takes priority over complying with treatments. If mothers knew where to turn for help to meet these basic needs, they would be more likely to adhere to their treatment and medication, in turn preventing HIV transmission from mother to child. Although this project focused on mothers living with HIV, we realized that mothers all over the city may experience similar issues, such as homelessness and poverty, and need the same information on resources. We worked directly with mothers through a variety of workshops to collect information on the resources they used and understand their personal experiences. We wanted to make sure that this project was created "by Baltimore Moms, for Baltimore Moms," in an effort to aid moms in similar situations.
___________________________________
Maryland Institute College of Art | Spring-Fall 2017
Illustrator: Emily Joynton
Special thanks to the Baltimore City Health Department and mothers throughout Baltimore.
2017 Biomimicry Global Design Challenge Finalist: Open Category
___________________________________
Working with two members of my graduate class, we entered the 2017 Biomimicry Global Design Challenge, sponsored by the Biomimicry Institute. The theme of the competition was climate change, and as part of the project we had to propose an intervention idea based on natural forms, strategies, and systems (the core study of biomimicry). My team took a local approach, researching how climate change and increasing temperatures impacts the health of vulnerable populations of Baltimore residents, and used the nearby Chesapeake Bay as our biological inspiration. Through a series of conversations, workshops, and brainstorming sessions with environmental, biological, and healthcare professionals across the city, we developed ideas that would connect individuals in low-income areas to resources to help combat the heat. Our proposal was a service called Cool Down B’More. This service would repurpose community spaces to serve as “Cool Stations" where individuals who don’t have air conditioning could go to combat the heat. The service would also include expanded bus routes (“Cool Circulator”) to shuttle people in low-income neighborhoods to the “Cool Stations,” as well as printed materials to educate residents on the service and the health benefits of cooling down. Residents would take ownership and care of the space, creating a mutually beneficial relationship between the two. Our proposal ended up being one of the finalists in the “Open Category” of the challenge, joining the ranks of five other teams from all over the world.
___________________________________
Maryland Institute College of Art | Spring 2017
Project Team: Naeeme Mohammadi, Rachel Serra, and Mimi Yang
Please visit the Biomimicry Institute’s website to learn more.
One of the projects in my graduate program partnered students with the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety & Quality. Working on a team with three other social design students, we tackled the issue of patient misidentification from the incorrect use of patient safety bands. Nurses we talked with expressed their issues with the new Electronic Health Records (EHR) system in the Johns Hopkins hospitals and how it impacted their workflow and ability to work closely with their patients. Some patients had issues with wearing the bands the way they were supposed to, causing problems for the staff when they tried to identify the patient. Our task was to develop ideas around how the patient safety band could be rethought, as well as how issues with it could be addressed, within the current system. Based on research and direct observation, our proposed interventions ranged from high-tech, long-term solutions to more minor, easily integrated ideas. Our work was originally presented to a small group of Johns Hopkins staff, but was followed up by a full-scale proposal to the entire Patient Safety Committee at Johns Hopkins.
___________________________________
Maryland Institute College of Art | Fall 2016
Working as a team with two of my graphic design classmates, we researched the problems surrounding childhood diabetes. Our conclusion was that teaching children healthy eating habits as a preventative measure is the best way to ensure that children can avoid a diabetes diagnosis as they enter their preteen years. Focusing on children between the ages of 6–8, we created a narrative cookbook, featuring a friendly main character, Rusty the Raccoon. Children and parents read a short story about Rusty's adventures in search of healthy food and then make a recipe together that correlates to the story. The cookbook also comes with a cooking kit for children to aid in the cooking process that features an apron, chef's hat, measuring cups and spoons.
___________________________________
University of Cincinnati | Fall 2014
Working with graduate nursing students, I investigated the topic of concussions and how detrimental they can be to an individual's health. Focusing on how to get a concussed patient back to a normal life, I narrowed my target area to children ages 0–4, a population of individuals that frequently experience concussions. Children go through significant changes and development in the first four years of life. Oftentimes accidents happen as they begin to develop their motor skills and explore the world around them. Not only that, but children this age are nonverbal or just beginning to understand how to express themselves through language, making it hard for parents or caretakers to understand what they are experiencing. For this group I developed RecoverRight, a mobile application for parents and/or caretakers of an infant or toddler who has been diagnosed with a concussion. Guardians can use the program to log and track the symptoms the patient experiences throughout their recovery and view this data to see the positive progress the child is making. The goal is to help alleviate the worry that results from taking care of a child with a concussion.
___________________________________
University of Cincinnati | Fall 2014
For this project, I focused on the healthcare issue of autism in children, specifically looking at light sensitivity. Individuals with autism experience various sensory issues related to any or all five senses. Those that experience light sensitivity may have a hard time with bright lighting, lighting that changes abruptly, lights that flicker, or lights that make a buzzing sound when turned on (a part of also having a sensitivity to sound). Because of this, it can be important for those with autism to have control over their lighting situation. This insight led me to design a "light box” tool. The user can turn the light on or off, adjust the intensity, and change the color and temperature of the light (specifically adjusting through a range of blue tones, as blue is found to be a calming color). To create this light box, I incorporated multiple interactive components (a button, a potentiometer, a sensor, and a neopixel matrix). I wired these components together and coded their functionality using Arduino, an open-source micro-controller hardware and software system, which allowed the controls of the box to function correctly. I created models of the final box in Rhino and 3D printed the final form. The final prototype is small in scale, but with more rounds of iteration, could be scaled up to control the lighting for an entire room.
___________________________________
Maryland Institute College of Art | Fall 2016
