Anne H. Berry is a writer, designer, and Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Design at Cleveland State University (CSU). Her research focuses on race and representation in design, and ethnic and racial disparities within the field of graphic design. She has been featured in Communication Arts magazine, Letterform Archive, and Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators: Conversations on Design and Race by Kelly Walters. Her published writing includes “The Virtual Design Classroom” for Communication Arts magazine, “The Black Designer’s Identity” for the inaugural issue of the Recognize anthology featuring commentary from Indigenous people and people of color, and the co-authored article “The Intersection of Electoral Politics and Design Education” for the international design research journal Message.

Berry and collaborator Sarah Edmands Martin are co-creators of the award-winning project Ongoing Matter: Democracy, Design, and the Mueller Report (OM) which was highlighted in the AIGA Eye on Design op-ed “Making Public Information Actually Accessible to the Public is the Responsibility of Designers.” Berry is also a 2018 Design Incubation Fellow and managing editor of The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression, and Reflection which was published in February 2022 and included in Fast Company’s “Best Design Books of 2022” and the 2022 Non-Obvious Book Awards Long List.

Kelly Walters is an artist, designer, researcher and founder of the multidisciplinary design studio Bright Polka Dot. Her practice includes teaching, writing, and experimental publishing, with a particular focus on race and representation in design. Her ongoing design research interrogates the complexities of identity formation, systems of value, and the shared vernacular in and around Black visual culture. She is an Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the BFA Communication Design Program at Parsons School of Design at The New School in New York.

Lesley-Ann Noel is an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Art and DesignDesign Studies at North Carolina State University. Her current work is situated at the intersection of equity, co-creation and futures thinking. Her research interests are emancipatory research centered around the perspectives of those who would traditionally be excluded from research, community-led research, design-based learning and design thinking. She practices primarily in the area of social innovation, education and public health. She promotes greater critical awareness among designers and design students by introducing critical theory concepts and vocabulary into the design studio e.g. through The Designer’s Critical Alphabet and the Positionality Wheel. She is co-Chair of the Pluriversal Design Special Interest Group of the Design Research Society. Before joining North Carolina State University, she was the Associate Director of Design Thinking for Social Impact at Tulane University. She was also a lecturer at Stanford University and the University of the West Indies.