The Changemaker Series is an AIGA Austin Initiative focused on bringing design for good to the community. This talk will be a panel discussion from individuals that have made giving back a part of their everyday lives. Come to be inspired and join the community in building a movement for change.

Lauren Serota

Lauren Serota leads global research, strategy and design projects. She is a member of the founding faculty at the Austin Center for Design, and has trained and coached individuals and teams in design and design strategy across academic and commercial contexts. Her work blends design delivery and capacity-building models, grounded in a belief that those on the frontline are best suited to realize design work. Independently, as well as through past relationships with companies such as Lextant, frog and Studio D Radiodurans, she has worked with a volume of commercial, government, and nonprofit clients.

Adam Butler, Founder, The Butler Bros.

Adam’s ‘design for good’ operates along a continuum from; community mentor, project initiator, cause supporter, committee volunteer, studio principal, Molotov cocktail thrower and investor. He’s mentored social entrepreneurs, designed his own public safety campaign WAVE, co-founded Farmshare to grow organic farmers, sent electronic payments to causes and signed petitions using the internet, serves on the Zilker Elementary PTA school board, led branding design projects for Austin Parks, The Trail Foundation, We Are Blood, Upbring The College Board and has fashioned incendiary creative devices for Climate Reality, Clif Bar Family Foundation, Legacy and Truth Initiative and The Center for Science in the Public Interest. He’s also an investor in “gunk free” Real Good Gum which he hope’s you’ll buy online to help fund his do gooding.

Victoria O’Dell, Brigade Captain, Open Austin

Victoria O’Dell is a Texas native and designer that aims to make spaces diverse, inclusive, and empowering. Her day job is as a part-timer at Anaconda, Inc., a data science startup. The other part of her life is spent as Brigade Captain of Open Austin, a local community organization on it’s path to becoming a non-profit. She works to activate and educate a community of doers on local issues using data, technology, and design. Community is her buzzword and though she is fresh into her career she’s excited about the journey she’s found herself on and energized by the people that she has surrounded herself with.

Alan Holt, Principal Planner, City of Austin

Alan has dedicated his career as an architect in municipal government, in education, and in private practice, to promote well planned, vibrant, and healthy communities. In his current job as an urban designer with the City of Austin, Alan initiated and led the creation of the South Central Waterfront Plan, and he now oversees the plan’s implementation. The South Central Waterfront Plan provides the path to harness the coming tidal wave of redevelopment along Lady Bird Lake, directly across from downtown, to greatly expand public open spaces, create a new network of green streets, trails and public spaces, and promote the creation of hundreds of units of affordable housing. The South Central Waterfront Plan, which was adopted by City Council in 2016, was awarded by the American Planning Association as the Sustainable Urban Design Plan for 2017.

Moderator: Sam Kapila, Designer and Educator:

Sam Kapila is a designer and educator living in Austin, TX. She writes and speaks about Responsive Web Design, Diversity and Inclusion in Tech, and design research and process. She is the former Director of Academic Operations and Diversity at The Iron Yard and monthly contributor for net Magazine, and current Tech Ladies City Organizer for Austin, and featured in the documentary about the web, What Comes Next Is The Future.