The SDA is a democratic, non-profit scholarly association registered with the Brønnøysund Register Centre in Norway.

Silvia Barbero
Chair
Dr Silvia Barbero has been Chair of the SDA since its foundation in 2018. She is the Deputy Coordinator, Design Programmes and an associate professor at Politecnico di Torino (Italy) where she teaches in the Systemic Design graduate programs and Design and Visual Communication undergraduate program. Silvia leads systemic design research in local economies, policy design, environmental production, innovation, through collaboration with companies, research centres, national and international networks. In 2005, she co-founded the Observatory of Eco-Packaging. She leads the Systemic Design Lab in Politecnico di Torino. Silvia is the scientific coordinator of many European projects about sustainable development and circular economy. She is the author of numerous books, papers in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters and reviewed international conference proceedings that you can find on her Politecnico di Torino profile.

Peter Jones
Vice-Chair
Dr Peter Jones is an SDA co-founder and professes the discipline at OCAD University, Toronto where he teaches in the Strategic Foresight and Innovation and the Design for Health graduate programs. Peter leads systemic design research in new economies, healthcare, media, community governance, social system and policy design, through collaboration in international networks. Since 2001, Peter has led the strategic innovation consultancy Redesign Network. He connects research and practice through founding commitments with the Flourishing Enterprise Institute, Drawdown Toronto, Bounce Beyond, the Agoras Institute, and OCAD’s Strategic Innovation Lab. Peter is convening the 12th year of Design with Dialogue, a community of practice to educate and socialize creative facilitation of dialogues for transformation. His publications are found at designdialogues.com

Cheryl May
Co-secretary
Cheryl May manages the Systemic Design Association’s digital assets and the Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium (RSD) proceedings on RSDsymposium.org. She is a doctoral researcher at London South Bank University, UK. She recently completed an eight-year tenure as an advisor and board member of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. Previously, she was the Social Innovation Generation practice lead at MaRS. She is a five-time executive director/CEO who has scaled up initiatives by establishing partnership networks and building systems that support collaboration and communities of practice. As executive director of Findhelp Information Services, she led the development of the 211 information system in Canada, which received the Head of the Public Service Award for Excellence in Service Delivery. Cheryl worked as a journalist and theatre director before founding a ‘green’ business that changed the course of her work to systemic design. She received her MDes in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCAD University, Canada.

Ryan J. A. Murphy
Co-secretary
Ryan Murphy is a PhD (candidate) in Management (Information Systems) at Memorial University. For over a decade, he has been working in Canadian K-12 and post-secondary education to teach and enhance programming for leadership, innovation, and changemaking skills. In his emerging research practice, Ryan studies changemakers and their tools. He explores how technology can support systemic change through the modeling and analysis of complex social systems and through the design of systemic strategies. He designs and tests tools for augmenting intelligence. He also examines how leadership and innovation skills are practiced and learned. You can find Ryan online at fulcra.design.

Evan Barba
Standing Member
Dr Evan Barba is an associate professor in the Communication, Culture and Technology Program at Georgetown University in Washington, DC and co-director of the Technology Design Studio, a multidisciplinary laboratory for the design and analysis of socio-technical systems. His research examines the close coupling of human-machine systems at every level of scale, from the personally embedded (brain-computer interfaces) to the extraterrestrial (satellite servicing systems). Evan is also an affiliated faculty with the Department of Computer Science, Program in Learning and Design, the Georgetown Environment Initiative, and the Global Cities Initiative. His research has been funded by NASA, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Laudato Si’ Fund, and others. Evan is also a lifetime maker and tinkerer and when not researching he enjoys creating all manner of artifacts from the purely functional to the absolutely ridiculous. He is one of the SDA founding members and joined the board in 2019.

Sine Celik
Standing Member
Dr Sine Celik is an architect and design researcher. Currently, Sine is Assistant Professor of Network-driven Systemic Change at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft. Sine’s research is situated at the intersection of systemic design, innovation research and network studies. Her work focuses on the role of social dynamics when designing for and with complex societal challenges. She earned her PhD degree from TU Delft with a thesis on the development of innovation ecosystems from a network-perspective. After her PhD, she joined Aalto University Design Factory in Finland for her postdoctoral studies, where she continued exploring ecosystems and design cultures. Sine has been actively engaging with the RSD and SDA community for over a decade and was one of the organizers of RSD10 in Delft.

Marie Davidová
Standing Member
Dr Marie Davidová|MArch, MNAL, PhD, SF HEA is an independent junior research group leader at the Cluster of Excellence IntCDC University of Stuttgart and a registered architect in Norway. She is a founding member and chair of Collaborative Collective practice design-research network NGO, a founding and a board member of Systemic Design Association, and a founding member and auditor of Creative Systemic Research Platform Institute. Before starting her position in Stuttgart, Marie had been a lecturer (teaching & research) at the Welsh School of Architecture and an affiliate of the Sustainable Places Research Institute at Cardiff University. At the same university, she is a member of the Biodiversity and Resilience Action Plan Committee. Marie founded the Systemic Approach to Architectural Performance research by co-design field. This field discusses the question of cities’ transition towards Post-Anthropocene.

Palak Dudani
Standing Member
Palak Dudani is a systems oriented designer and researcher with an interest in culture, social systems and the future of urban life. She’s a recipient of two international fellowships and has previously worked with humanitarian aid organisations and start-ups on healthcare, employability and education projects. She’s a strong advocate for systemic approach to design and believes that designers hold crucial roles and responsibilities within our transitioning societies. Currently, she’s part of the FUEL4Design Erasmus+ project at the Institute of Design, AHO. www.palakdudani.com

Johnathan Romm
Standing Member
Jonathan Romm is a senior design lecturer and researcher at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO). He is also a senior designer and consultant at the Norwegian design agency Halogen. Romm was trained as an industrial designer at the Danish Design School, specialising in design management and interaction design. He has previously held the position of Institute Leader of the Institute of Design and Vice-Rector at AHO in Norway. Jonathan has worked on various international and local design projects with companies such as Samsung, Telenor, Oslo Sporveier and the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. He is an experienced project manager and an enthusiastic coach and process facilitator. He has headed several innovative and interdisciplinary collaboration and research projects with academic institutions, public organizations and commercial companies. Over the past years, he has made contributions to both academic and popular publications related to several innovative and interdisciplinary design collaborations and research projects. He is currently engaged in design for service ecosystems research with a particular interest in the practice of working inside healthcare design labs.

Birger Sevaldson
Adjuvant Board Advisor
Dr Birger Sevaldson [dipl NCAD PhD] is a professor at the Institute of Design at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), Institute of Design. He is a design researcher and educator with a background in a broad field of design and architecture. As a design researcher, he focuses on design processes for uncertainty and complexity. He has defined systems oriented design as a designerly way of systems thinking and systems practice. He was the founder of the RSD symposia and a co-founder of the Systemic Design Association.