Announcing New Faculty for 2019-2020!

We are thrilled to welcome four amazing new faculty to Products of Design for the 2019-2020 academic year: Shanti Mathew, Megan Ford, Alexandre Hennen, and Jonathan Meléndez-Davidson. Meet them all below, and see them on the quad!

Shanti Mathew

Shanti is a strategist who believes in the power of government to help people build better lives. As deputy director of the Public Policy Lab, Shanti partners with government to incorporate communities in policy design, transform service systems to be more equitable and effective, and pilot new social programs. She has led work with the NYC Administration of Children's Services, the NYC Department of Education, the NYC Department of Homeless Services, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, among many other public-interest organizations.

Megan Ford

Megan Ford has been working in design and technology for over a decade and recently moved to NYC to build the argodesign studio. Her expertise lies in working with organizations to identify and execute on strategic level initiatives to build seamless brand experiences. Most recently, Megan built and managed a digital team at Gensler in San Francisco, which focused on designing and implementing experiences that bridge the digital and physical worlds. Megan believes that business and design go hand in hand - she holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins and a Masters in Design Leadership from MICA.

Alexandre Hennen

Alex leads Johnson & Johnson Design’s Medical Device Portfolio responsible for guiding multi-disciplinary teams through extensive innovation programs in robotics and digital surgery with an emphasis on experience design. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, he founded and led Continuum’s Los Angeles studio partnering with clients such as American Express, Target, BlueCross BlueShield, and Logitech to help in the definition and translation of their product & service strategy into meaningful brand encounters. He has taught experience design at Tufts University and lectures regularly at the Art Center College of Design, UCLA, and USC.

Jonathan Meléndez-Davidson

Jonathan Meléndez-Davidson is a design researcher and strategist at Johnson & Johnson Design. At J&J he is co-developing visions for the future of healthcare, leading sustainability efforts, helping simplify innovation, and delivering better experiences for patients, caregivers and consumers. The body of his work focuses on how to use design to help disempowered communities build capacities for resiliency (directly or indirectly). Before working at J&J, Jonathan helped small US Department of Defense manufacturers diversify their revenue streams, co-led a human-centered systems design course for a global IT company with a focus on responsible technology, mentored at a start-up incubator, and co-taught an undergraduate course on alternative research methods.