Welcome to the DFAmily!
Get to know the four NEW members of the DFA National team. Hailing from both coasts and everywhere in between, these new members are excited to support the DFA Network!
Joy Mutimura
Operations Coordinator · She/her · Chicago, IL
What does social impact work mean to you?
Social impact work means leaving the space you occupy in the world better than when you arrived. It’s doing my part to encourage, influence and create opportunities for future change makers and thought leaders.
What are you most excited about joining DFA National?
I’m looking forward to enhancing processes and streamlining operations in pursuit of expanding the reach and impact of DFA. I am also very excited to collaborate and contribute to DFA’s initiatives to expand opportunities and access to marginalized communities in the design field.
What experience(s) are you bringing to DFA?
Prior to joining DFA, I was Operations Lead for a professional beauty association producing a yearly industry trade show. With an educational background in Social Work, I’m looking forward to the opportunity to again combine my passion for service and social impact with a mission-driven organization.
What is something you’d like to share with the Network?
I am a co-founder of a collaborative called “Healthy Minds, Happy Hearts”. Our goal is to reduce the stigma, increase awareness and open discussion around mental health in the Rwandan diasporic community I grew up in after immigrating to America. We hold monthly meetings and work to bridge the gap between the older generations understanding and the needs of our youth.
Katie Shulman
Alumni Relations Coordinator · She/her · Detroit, MI
What does social impact work mean to you?
Social impact work expands the boundaries of the self—it hinges upon the understanding that we are all operating in a connected system. Participating in this work means that I am committed to continually widening my world view and learning through connecting with others.
What are you most excited about joining DFA National?
I am excited to expand the boundaries of what it means to participate in DFA. I am personally invested in the concept of life-long learning and am eager to join a team that believes in the expansiveness of design education.
What experience(s) are you bringing to DFA?
I am arriving at DFA with a background in both arts administration in various nonprofit art spaces and teaching in a higher education. I have always sought out opportunities where I can operate as both a problem solver and cheerleader. In my various past roles, I have worked closely with students (of all ages, in and outside of a typical academic institution) to ensure their success and growth as a creative practitioner.
What is something you’d like to share with the Network?
I am a fiber artist with an active studio practice that is deeply situated in ideation and prototyping through material exploration. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to learn from, invest in, and apply DFA’s design process to my personal work. I am interested in having conversations around expanding and solidifying ties between designers and artists.
Alex Sarkissian
Digital Marketing Intern · He/him · Los Angeles, CA
What does social impact work mean to you?
Accessibility is something we’ve all had to consider this past year, and to me, accessibility is a huge part of social impact work as it offers clear, targeted language.This is my new passion as a designer and I’m excited to practice it on a larger scale.
What are you most excited about joining DFA National?
I’m always interested in getting to know people outside of my bubble and now with the DFA National network, there is such a friendly, vibrant community to get to know. Amplifying student voices in any space is so important to me and I’m excited to see how I can support communities outside of my own.
What experience(s) are you bringing to DFA?
I’m currently in the Graphic Design BFA program at RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) and have really started stepping out of my comfort zone as a designer by shifting towards political design. In 2018, I led a Midterm Election student voter campaign and have since started remotely interning at The Wilson Center in Washington D.C., making visuals for a congressional audience.
What is something you’d like to share with the Network?
I’m a huge community college advocate! My time at Pasadena City College let me explore other mediums from AV work and to advocacy to painting and really got me passionate for working with communities outside of my own.
Shreya Raol
Digital Marketing Intern · She/her · New Jersey
What does social impact work mean to you?
Social impact work means that we don’t need to look far and wide to make a difference in this world. If we want to positively impact society, we can spur change starting with the communities that surround us.
What are you most excited about joining DFA National?
I am most excited about working with people of wide ranging backgrounds who will bring their lived experiences to their work and are also passionate about inspiring students to continue working in the social impact space. There are so many different avenues to explore when designing for social change.
What experience(s) are you bringing to DFA?
I graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a focus in Visual Communication Design. I recently completed an internship at USA Today as a Marketing Design intern. I worked with their sales team to ideate and produce graphics for yearly reports and social media. I wanted to transition into working in the social impact space. I’m so glad I found the team at DFA where I can get an inside look at how smaller teams are making a bigger impact.
What is something you’d like to share with the Network?
Please follow my brother’s journey across America called The Next Tide. He’s visiting 5 states over 5 months interviewing public, private, and community leaders. He aims to “investigate the disparities in economic opportunities across urban and rural geographies in America and the fraying social fabric across Americans in each community”. He’s just finishing up his first state – Utah – then he’s headed to Nebraska, Texas, South Carolina, and Ohio. Follow: thenexttide.org & Instagram: @thenexttide
