Jon Kolko is an Associate Creative Director at frog design. He has extensive experience in the professional and academic worlds of interaction design, working with and around complicated technological constraints in order to solve the problems of Fortune 500 clients. His present research investigates the process of design, with a focus on methods of synthesis used to translate research into insights.
Prior to working at frog, Kolko was a professor of interaction and industrial design at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he was instrumental in shaping the interaction and industrial design programs. He is the author of the text Thoughts on Interaction Design, is the editor-in-chief of interactions, published by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and he sits on the Board of Directors for the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). He holds a Masters of HCI from Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh, PA.
Suzi Sosa is the Founder and President of the MPOWER Foundation, a non-profit operating foundation dedicated to the empowerment of the underserved. Suzi is passionate about social entrepreneurship and social capitalism and seeks opportunities to harness the speed, scale, and creativity of the private sector with the compassion, transparency, and stakeholder models of the non-profit world.
Lauren Serota is an interaction designer at frog design. Lauren spent her formative years in public relations and promotions for the electronic music industry. She developed her own cultural anthropology curriculum while at SCAD, and continues to seek out information and perspectives that challenge and reinterpret norms.
Jon Freach is a Principal Designer at frog design. Jon has a 14-year background in the areas of user experience research and interaction design and has served in a broad range of roles, from designer to strategic planner and manager of best practices. Prior to working at frog, Jon was the Experience Research and Design Lead at fd2s, an environmental graphic design and wayfinding consultant based in Austin, Texas.
Justin Petro is the CEO of Thinktiv in Austin, Texas. Thinktiv is a venture accelerator—an ecosystem of people and technology focused exclusively on business innovation for brand, marketing, and technology challenges. Justin has worked with clients such as Dell, Pricelock, Siemens, and Merrill Lynch and holds patents in hardware, software and retail design. Prior to founding Thinktiv, Justin worked as the Director of User Experience at Design Edge, HCI specialist for Trilogy Software and Visual Interaction Designer at Maya Design Group.
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Ric Grefé
Executive Director
AIGA
Richard Grefé is the executive director of AIGA, the professional association for design. He is generally involved in all of AIGA's activities, although his major contributions are in strategy, formulating new initiatives to enhance the competitive success of designers and advocating the value of design.
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Carl DiSalvo
Assistant Professor
Georgia Institute of Technology
Carl is an assistant professor of Digital Media in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He earned a Ph.D. in Design from Carnegie Mellon University in 2006 and was a postdoctoral fellow at The Center for the Arts in Society and The Studio for Creative Inquiry (also at Carnegie Mellon) from 2006-2007.
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Jeff Daniel
CFO
Collaborative Research
Jeff has seven years experience in the HIV/AIDS field, primarily focused on Ryan White entities. He served on the Austin, TX TGA (Ryan White Part A) Planning Council for four years as Chair of the Needs Assessment and Priority Setting committee (1998-2002) and as Vice Chair of the Planning Council (2000-2002). Jeff has had substantial success reaching out-of-care populations and collecting public health data for this underserved group.
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Liz Danzico
Chair, MFA Interaction Design Program
School of Visual Arts
Liz is co-founder and chairperson of the MFA Interaction Design Program at the School of Visual Arts. She maintains an active user experience practice in New York, is user experience consultant for Happy Cog Studios, editorial board member for Rosenfeld Media, and advisory board member for Design Ignites Change. Through various roles in the past, she's helped build and shape in-house experience design teams. She has been editor-in-chief for Boxes and Arrows, board officer for AIGA/NY, and advisory board member for the Information Architecture Institute. She's been published in Adobe ThinkTank, Boxes and Arrows, Business Week, Eye Magazine, Gain and other publications.
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Robert Fabricant
Vice President, Creative
frog design
Robert is the Vice President of Creative for frog design where he leads frog's efforts to expand the impact of design into new markets and industries. An expert in design for social innovation, Robert is lead partner in Project Masiluleke, an initiative that harnesses the power of mobile technology to combat the world's worst HIV and AIDS epidemic in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Robert is an adjunct professor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where he teaches a foundation course in Interaction Design.
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Justin Petro
CEO
Thinktiv
Justin is the CEO of Thinktiv in Austin, Texas. Thinktiv is a venture accelerator - an ecosystem of people and technology focused exclusively on business innovation for brand, marketing, and technology challenges. Justin has worked with clients such as Dell, Pricelock, Siemens, and Merrill Lynch and holds patents in hardware, software and retail design. Prior to founding Thinktiv, Justin worked as the Director of User Experience at Design Edge, HCI specialist for Trilogy Software and Visual Interaction Designer at Maya Design Group.
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Richard Scheines
Professor of Philosophy
Carnegie Mellon University
Richard is a Professor of Philosophy, Machine Learning, and HCI at Carnegie Mellon University; he is also the Department Head of the Philosophy department. His research is on causal discovery, in particular the problem of learning about causation from statistical evidence.
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Chris Hyams
Founder and CEO
B-Side Entertainment
Chris is the founder and CEO of B-Side Entertainment, an Austin-based distributor and online marketplace for independent films. Through innovative technology and partnerships with IFC and dozens of international film festivals, B-Side helps movies find their audiences, and guides fans to their next favorite film.
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Emily Pilloton
Founder
Project H Design
Emily is the Founder and Executive Director of Project H Design. Trained in architecture at UC Berkeley and and product design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she started Project H to provide a conduit and catalyst for need-based product design that empowers individuals, communities, and economies. She has written for ID, GOOD, ReadyMade, taught design theory, and lectures worldwide about new social impact imperatives for the product design industry.