THE FACILITATORS
Raising Places is designed by a team at Greater Good Studio, where we believe that human-centered action can move us all closer to equity. Since our founding in 2011, we’ve collaborated with incredible mission-driven organizations to make a meaningful difference in quality of life across the US and around the world. Learn more about the Raising Places team!
Sara is the project director for Raising Places and the co-founder and executive director of Greater Good Studio. Her experience spans kids, place and health—including innovation work in informal childcare, early literacy, school food, youth workforce development, tenants’ rights, neighborhood planning, health care and social services.
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Katie is a public health professional who recently joined the Raising Places project as a Research Fellow. She began her career working on initiatives at the intersection of food access, food security, and healthy eating -- from creating distribution channels between farmers markets and food pantries to getting her hands dirty gardening with kids. In recent years, she has focused more broadly on creating healthy, equitable community environments where everyone can reach their best possible well-being. Katie brings the following to all her professional endeavors: a love of listening to, learning from, and working people with diverse perspectives, a curiosity about the interconnectedness of all things, and a penchant for thinking outside the box to solve problems big and small. She is excited to lend her public health lens to the Raising Places project.
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Kareeshma joined Greater Good Studio as a Design Researcher with great excitement about bridging her experience in the built environment with the practice of human-centered design, and using design research to create positive, social and environmental impact. Kareeshma has studied architecture and urban and regional planning, with a focus on social impact design. Her professional experiences range from working with grassroots organizations and residents to elected officials on projects that span implementing quick, tactical interventions to developing long-term master and strategic plans. Throughout the Raising Places project she will be using her experience in the built environment to inform her work with local stakeholders to create healthy, equitable, and sustainable communities.
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Kyle is a Design Lead at Greater Good Studio. For Kyle, design is deeply rooted in critical thinking and organic creativity. He has a strong interest in people, culture and how we create meaning in the world around us. Kyle studied communication design at Washington University in St. Louis, where he began exploring how human-centered design relates to his deep interest in anthropological research. He has previously worked on projects with several community development organizations to address evaluating their planning processes, and with health ministry workers to redesign healthcare records in developing countries. He also has a range of experience working on projects focused on education in the US—more specifically on school district transformations, new models of learning assessments, and the high school transition experience.
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Allison is a designer at Greater Good Studio. She received her bachelor’s from Washington University in St. Louis, where she studied both design and social impact in tandem. While exploring the capacity of design to inform human thought and behavior in the Communication Design program, she also engaged in dialogue about identity, privilege, and equity through her role in residential life. Each became integral to the other. She has previously worked with a variety of organizations dedicated to youth programming in the fields of health and wellness, education technology, and environmental education. She also has experience working on projects benefiting foster children and local arts initiatives.
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Annemarie has always been noticing and making. She officially found her way to design research by both chance and study in architecture and American culture studies (bachelor’s from Washington University in St. Louis) and design for sustainability (master’s from Savannah College of Art and Design). Much of her work has been rooted in communities, and her previous role with Habitat for Humanity St. Louis is notable for focusing on engagement and communication with diverse community stakeholders. Annemarie has felt fortunate to work with committed leaders on a wide variety of issues, including early literacy, affordable housing, workforce development, and youth incarceration. She is currently an active volunteer at an early childhood center, where she shares her love of play and picture books. Annemarie believes that everyone makes choices based on their context, so that’s where we must begin.
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