Professional Development and Career Resources

For this DesignPhiladelphia 2020 event, please join us for a discussion about navigating your career in the midst of uncertainty. How has the pandemic changed the design industry and how can we adapt and embrace these changes?

Join our speakers, Lucinda Sanders (MLA’89), chief executive officer of OLIN and adjunct professor of landscape architecture at the Weitzman School, Jack Conviser (MCP'09), city planner at the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, Thabo Lenneiye (MArch'10, IPD'10), entrepreneur-in-residence at the New York edition of the VC-backed Accelerator, Carissa Lim (C’16 MPD’17), senior service designer at Kaiser Permanente, Innovation & Design, and Parker Murray (MPD’19), product designer at Tushy as they engage with these important questions. The talk will be moderated by Sarah Rottenberg, adjunct assistant professor and executive director of the Integrated Product Design Program at University of Pennsylvania, Weitzman School of Design. We hope to motivate and inspire designers entering the workforce as well as current designers preparing for the next chapter of their career.

Registration required. Log-in information will be sent to all registered individuals.

About the Speakers:

Lucinda Sanders (MLA’89) is CEO of OLIN and Adjunct Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Weitzman School, and a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Lucinda’s recent prominent projects include the Carnegie Hall Rooftop in New York City and the Delaware River Waterfront Master Plan in Philadelphia. Lucinda also led an entry for the 2014 Presidio Gateway Competition in San Francisco. Under her leadership OLIN/LABS was formed. OLIN/LABS is focused on research-based, public interest design that positively impacts the people and environments of the 21st century with solutions that create a more just, humane, and livable world. She co-authored the book OLIN: Placemaking, published by Monacelli Press, which features a selection of the OLIN's most celebrated landscape architecture, urban design, and planning projects. The book includes a transcribed conversation focusing on the future of the landscape architecture profession. In 2008, OLIN received the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Landscape Design. Lucinda is the former President and the current Vice President of Leadership at the Landscape Architecture Foundation. In her role, she is working to identify and develop venues and partnerships to cultivate the next generation of leaders.

Jack Conviser (MCP'09) worked in the field of architecture for 12 years before making a switch to urban planning and urban design while gathering other experiences along the way. As an architect he has worked on residential work and a range of other projects in Colorado and New York, including market rate multi-family housing and affordable housing for the Metro Denver Habitat for Humanity chapter. As an urban planner and urban designer, Jack has spent 9 years working for the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, doing urban design and presentation work for district plans, advising on unique sites, and helping to administer Civic Design Review, the review of large scale proposals in a public forum. Transitional periods have included Peace Corps service in southern Africa and a year teaching math in a New York City public school. Jack studied architecture at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and urban planning at the University of Pennsylvania.

Thabo Lenneiye (MArch'10, IPD'10) is an entrepreneur-in-residence at the New York edition of the VC-backed Accelerator, Antler. She previously spent 8+ years in the Washington DC and London offices of Gensler, a global architecture and design firm, where she focused on aviation and urban design projects before shifting to an operations, business development and project management role. She was instrumental in setting up the firm’s Africa practice, where she worked directly for the Co-CEO on growing business in the region and was support staff for the 2016 Obama administration's Presidential Advisory Board for Doing Business in Africa. She also served as the inaugural secretary of the Board for the African Union Pan-African Women’s Diaspora Women’s Association. Thabo cofounded an e-commerce startup for the African market and is part of the University of Cambridge Accelerate network, where she received an MBA and was the recipient of the Judge Business School Regional Africa Scholarship. She holds a dual Masters of Architecture and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and has co-taught numerous graduate design studios – including a study in collaboration with the Office of the Mayor of Harare focused on developing a vision for the future growth of the city.

Carissa Lim (C’16 MPD’17) is a Design and Innovation Lead at Kaiser Permanente, the largest nonprofit healthcare provider in the USA. In her role, she focuses on using service design to amplify the voices of patients, providers, and staff to design solutions for complex healthcare challenges. Carissa has tackled projects ranging from designing ways to improve firearm safety and education, integrating telehealth into hospital and home spaces, curating the technology experience for the KP School of Medicine, and developing curriculum to spread human-centered design across the organization. She holds a Masters in Integrated Product Design from the University of Pennsylvania and has held roles at the Penn Medicine Center for Healthcare Innovation, University of Vermont Medical Center, and more.

Parker Murray (MPD’19) is a product designer from Sacramento, California currently working as a Product Designer at Tushy. He has a BA in Industrial Design from Swarthmore College and a Master’s in Integrated Product Design from the University of Pennsylvania. Parker’s previous product development experience is in housewares and ceramic goods. He loves cooking elaborate meals, techno music, and tiny objects.