S7E3: Sara Hendren

Sarah Hendren is an artist, design researcher, and professor at the Olin College of Engineering.

At Olin, Hendren challenges her students to listen to people and their particular needs as they think about scalable solutions for solving problems. While artists might be more receptive initially to Hendren’s approach, there are advantages to bringing people with disabilities into the classroom with young engineers, who

at their best understand the world as unfixed because they understand the world, how it’s built. So at a restaurant they’ll be like, “This table sucks. Why is the joinery on the corner like this?” Because they know it could be otherwise.

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By Jessica Helfand & Ellen McGirt

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer and a former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Communications Arts and Eye magazines. A member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame, Helfand received her B.A. and her M.F.A. from Yale University where she has taught since 1994.

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Ellen McGirt is an author, podcaster, speaker, community builder, and award-winning business journalist. She is the editor-in-chief of Design Observer, a media company that has maintained the same clear vision for more than two decades: to expand the definition of design in service of a better world. Ellen established the inclusive leadership beat at Fortune in 2016 with raceAhead, an award-winning newsletter on race, culture, and business. The Fortune, Time, Money, and Fast Company alumna has published over twenty magazine cover stories throughout her twenty-year career, exploring the people and ideas changing business for good. Ask her about fly fishing if you get the chance.