Dr. Lesley Ann Noel | Decolonizing Design & Research Accountability

Wrap Session 35: Lead Product Designer at Headspace, Terrell Griffith who at the time of the recording was a Senior Product Designer, takes the Royal Court through his very mindful & thoughtful journey into Design. From attending a small design school in his hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut, to working at ESPN/Disney and then having a career awakening in the midst of the global transformational year of 2020. In search for deeper purpose in helping the Black design community, Terrell also joined the organization Where are the Black Designers. Terrell details his own personal anxiety experience that drove him to downloading the Headspace⁠ app and ultimately applying to a design role at the mindfulness & meditation company after seeing a position on the job board he built for the Where are the Black Designer's website. This heartfelt episode that also includes a shout out to Terrells mother, helps to inform and celebrate a linear path to a career in design that was supported very early by Terrells family. Be inspired and encouraged by Terrells journey in this gem dropping cool & calm conversation.

Wrap Session 34: In this episode Ere Santos , currently a Animator Supervisor at Walt Disney Animation Studios, takes the Royal Court on a captivating story telling journey of rejections and triumphs as he pursues his dream of becoming an animator and working at PIXAR Animation Studios and Sony Pictures Imageworks. Born in Nigeria, raised in Scotland & currently living in Canada Ere, who started out as a self-taught animator describes his process and experience working on the critically acclaimed animation, Spider-man: Across the Spider-Verse . Ere also shares how he hopes sharing his career journey, animation process and work across social media will inspires others especially other black kids to purse their animation dreams. Other animation movies Ere has worked on include Hotel Transylvania and Spirit Untamed. This episode inspires and encourages the Royal Court to remember a dream deferred is not a dream denied.

Wrap Session 33 Design & Culture: In this episode, The Royal Court heads to sunny San Diego, California where we wrap with music lover, Lakers fan and Content Design Manager at Intuit, Aladrian Goods. Aladrian candidly shares her journey from Marketing Events to UX Content Design, from working 3 part-time jobs at the same time to funding her Design Education, and describes the early days of ClubHouse helping to grow one of the largest Design rooms. Finally, Aladrian shares gems on leadership, becoming a People Manager, a list of resources that have helped her along her career including, Content Design by Sarah Richards and Writing is Designing by Micheal Metts , as well the songs she finds joy listening to by Stevie Wonder and Kendrick Lamar. Another episode overflowing with Energy, Vibes and Inspiration. Listen Now!

Wrap Session 32 Design & Culture: From Accra, the capital of Ghana, Tech Wrap Queen heads back to the continent of Africa to wrap with Eric Puplampu, Co-Founder of UX GHANA and UX Product Designer. Eric shares his journey to a career in UX, his involvement in the early days of the popular Design Mentorship site ADPList ,as well as the inspiring & exciting origin, future, and importance of UX GHANA ⁠ - a community of UX, UI, product designers and product managers shaping the future of the industry in Ghana and Africa as a whole. Eric drops gems on the importance of tapping into local African design talent and recommends several African books on design to help with decolonizing design bookshelves Spirit of African Design and Contempary African Design Eric's passion and energy will leave the Royal Court ready to visit Ghana. Until then you can enjoy the rhythms from the popular Ghanaian artist Sarkodie that Eric mentions during the wrap session.

Wrap Session 31 Design & Culture:  Jahan Mantin and Boyuan Gao join the Royal Court for an in-depth discussion on how they are helping leaders, organizations, and individuals co-design a more equitable world. As the founders of Project Inkblot,  a BIPOC-owned and operated company that provides transformational design education, programs & support through Inkblot Design™ framework (formerly Design for Diversity™ or D4D) - their team equips people to become co-designers who with intentionality build for equitable futures. In this wrap session, we learn how the two New Yorkers' and their creative paths working at magazines brought them together and how their own passions for Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) birthed Project Inkblot⁠. Jahan Mantin⁠ and ⁠Boyuan Gao⁠ also share how they lead, coach, and create the dialogue to help others understand what it really takes to design equitable products & experiences and describe how the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd shifted their mission.

Wrap Session 30 Design & Culture: On the heels of his debut book," Reimagining Design: Unlocking Strategic Innovation," out March 8, 2022, Kevin Bethune takes the Royal Court through his journey from his humble beginnings as a child in Detroit, his career in a nuclear power plant as a mechanical engineer before heading to Nike and now Founder and CCO of dreams • design + life.  In this episode of deep career & strategic design knowledge, Kevin drops gems on how stretch assignments helped him navigate a career into Design and how polymaths & pillars along his journey including Dori Tunstall at Ontario College of Art & Design University(OCAD), John Meda, fellow Nike Alumni D'Wanye Edwards and former Tech Wrap Queen guest Ian Spalter have all inspired his trajectory.  Kevin Bethune LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbethune/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/dreams-design-and-life Websites: https://www.dreamsdesignandlife.com/ https://www.kevinbethune-reimaginingdesign.com/ https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/reimagining-design Instagram: @kevinbethune @dreamsdesignandlife Twitter: @kevinbethune @d_d_and_l

Wrap Session 29 Design & Culture. From her roots in New Orleans to Silicon Valley, Design Director Dee Speed shares her journey from pivoting out of medical school all the way to leading a design team as the first Black Design Director at Alphabet where she heads up a team at YouTube Music.  With her cool & sage advice, Dee takes the Royal Court through her 20-year professional journey including stops at Disney and Yahoo. This episode is filled with regal conversation including Dee's love for music, AfroBeats and wearing Grillz to meetings, to hard truths about being the first, mistakes people make when interviewing for design roles and how she wants to see less ego in Design.  Dee Speed LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deespeed/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deedee9_14/

Wrap Session 27 Design & Culture. We kick off Season 3 of Tech Wrap Queen with an international episode with medical student and medical illustrator Chidiebere Ibe whose medical anatomy picture of a Black fetus in the womb went viral across social media & the world. In this episode Chidiebere shares how the loss of his mother at a young age further secured his mission to become a doctor & how another disappointing life event led to him creating the illustration of the black fetus.  A self-taught illustrator, Chidiebere describes how he used his talents to draw the human anatomy so he could learn while still applying to medical school. The lack of Black representation in medical books caused Chidiebere to create his own depictions of medical symptoms in an effort to help change the way Black people are viewed and treated in the health care ecosystem. The now-famous illustration of a black fetus inside of a the womb of a black mother has been featured across the world and on CNN, CBS This Morning and countless international articles.  This episode will encourage you to never give up on your dreams and leave you inspired.  Check out all of Chidiebere illustrations Twitter: @ebereillustrate Instagram: @ebereillustrate LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chidiebere-ibe-206ab81a9/  

Renee Reid aka "Thee Renee", the Queen of Tech Wrap Queen closes out Season 2 with a special shout out to the Royal Court and a reminder to get ready for Season 3, filled with even more table shakers and innovators in Design, Tech and Culture.  Be sure to catch up on all Season 2 episodes before the news ones are released in February 2022. www.techwrapqueen.com https://www.instagram.com/techwrapqueen/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/techwrapqueen/  https://www.facebook.com/techwrapqueen https://twitter.com/techwrapqueen

Wrap Session 26 Design and Culture. Get to know the amazing Harrison Wheeler in a whole new way. In this fun wrap session, this Senior Design Manager and host of the podcast Technically Speaking shares his journey from his college days as a featured football player in the EA sports NCAA video game, becoming a stock photo favorite for media campaigns and how more Black representation and leadership is Design is needed.  https://www.gettechnical.io/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/hmwheeler/