Umila Singh
Design Strategy & Research
Queens, NY
As a Guyanese-American growing up alongside other immigrant families like hers in Queens, New York, Umila saw diversity all around her until she entered the professional workforce. Observing exclusion in spaces has made inclusion a guiding principle in her work and drove her to design SHE (Survivors Healing & Empowered) Co-Lab, which emerged out of her master’s thesis at the Design for Social Innovation program at SVA. SHE Co-Lab is a co-design program where survivors of intimate partner violence and community members collaborate to generate sources of support for those experiencing domestic violence. Finding little opportunity for survivors and community members to inform what resources looked like in her community, she has facilitated a process where community members are designers rather than recipients of resources. She hopes to continue to use design to foster shared leadership, build programs and spaces rooted in inclusion and collaboration, and advance equity.