Q & A's with judges, speakers, and more
WELCOME LETTER FROM BDC’S EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
VIEW THE BDC SUMMIT 2021 MIRO BOARD
College for Creative Studies, Detroit: Joseph Cardenas, Sarah Craven
Design Academy Eindhoven: Manuel Steitz, Coltrane Mcdowell, Serina Tarkhanian
Universidad de los Andes: Valentina Pérez Escobar, María Alejandra Parra García, María Valentina Forero Sierra, Lina Natalia Sánchez Medina, Laura Camila Velasco Ortega, Daniela Julieth Barón Gutiérrez
The Design Village: Tanish Agrawal, Arshad Bajil Kuttasseri, Kunika Sharma, Natasha Singh
Nest Makerspace: Camilla Cabrera, Austin Henry, Roberto Mendoza, Alec Saldana-jauregui, Samuel Gil-silva
Spelman College: Mika Campbell, Grace Burch. Abigail Gordon, Savannah Adams
Aalto University: Ena Naito, Louise Kallai, Emilia Ikävalko, Sari Kupiainen
Ball State University: Dominic Zelli, Jonathan Alexander, Ashlyn Sterling, Erin Mawhorter
School of the Art Institute of Chicago: Kelly Yue Xi, Sara Selmic
Dr. Janina Jeff is the first African American to graduatewith a Ph.D. in Human/Medical Genetics from Vanderbilt University. She alsoreceived a Master’s degree in Applied Statistics from Vanderbilt University anda Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Spanish minor from Spelman. After her Ph.D.,she pursued postdoctoral training in the labs of Eimear Kenny, Ph.D. and ErwinBottinger, MD at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her research careerwas focused on population genetics, specifically studying complex and admixedpopulations (descendants with African ancestry) and discoveringpopulation-specific genetic risk factors of common disease. She is currently a senior bioinformatics scientist atIllumina where she creates population informed genotyping arrays. In additionto her work in genetics she is also a science journalist with her podcast, InThose Genes, an international award-winning podcast that uses genetics todecode the lost histories and futures of African descendants. Episodes can befound on Spotify, Apple, and all major podcasting apps.
Kathy High is an internationally renowned interdisciplinaryartist/educator who collaborates with scientists and activists, and considersliving systems, animal sentience, and ethical dilemmas of biotechnology andmedical industries. She is Head of the Arts Department and Professor of Videoand New Media and oversees a laboratory in the biotech center at RensselaerPolytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. She is a supporter of community DIY scienceand ecological art practices and is Project Coordinator for NATURE Lab UrbanEnvironmental Education Center with The Sanctuary for Independent Media. She iscommitted to queer and feminist approaches to reshaping ecological bio-science researchand learning-by-doing, and to collaborations with our local communities.
Lisa Margonelli is Senior Editor at Issues in Science andTechnology. She is the author of Oil on the Brain: Petroleum’s Long StrangeTrip to Your Tank (2007) and Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites andTechnology (2018). Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Wired, Slate’s FutureTense, Pacific Standard, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times,and San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications. Formerly the Editor inChief of Zócalo Public Square, she wrote about energy policy at the New AmericaFoundation from 2006-2012. She lives in Maine.
