Innovation for the Public Good: The Power of Social Workers Who Design

Many people think of social workers as clinicians, but they are complex problem solvers, systems thinkers, strategists, educators, innovators, entrepreneurs, and focused on the future. This talk will highlight the remarkable convergence of social work values and a design-based practice. Learn about how one social worker-designer is helping to lead this charge for the future of both disciplines.

Rachael Dietkus is a designer, licensed clinical social worker, and certified trauma professional dedicated to trauma-responsive practices in design. She is the founder and principal social worker-designer of Social Workers Who Design and works with design teams worldwide. After a 10-year career working with social justice and human rights non-profits, she earned her MSW in 2010. Rachael worked at Veterans Affairs for nearly seven years, followed by a tenure in higher education in senior administrative roles in both social work and design.

Rachael has served as an AmeriCorps member, a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Council, and a Governor-appointed statewide Commissioner with the Serve Illinois Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service. She will be finishing her MFA in Design for Responsible Innovation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign later this year. Her practice-informed research focuses on how and why trauma-informed and trauma-responsive methods are relevant and needed in design research and practice.

The zoom link will be emailed to all registered attendees two days and ten minutes before the event.