As an Experience Designer, Isabelle brings her experience in participatory design, facilitation, and social research methods to translate data into meaningful knowledge that can serve people and spark transformative change. Ever curious about how our physical and social environments can encourage more civically engaged cities, she also enjoys watching people unlock their own creative confidence.
Her first encounter with BIF was as a participant in the Student Experience LabÍs prototype for an educational reality series, When I Grow Up. Prior to joining BIF as an Experience Designer, Isabelle worked in the Chicago nonprofit scene on sustainability issues including cross-sectoral efforts to build regional resilience to climate change via participatory design processes. Additionally, she co-founded and served as the Chief Strategist of Kaya Collaborative, a student-created nonprofit that aims to inspire, educate, and mobilize youth in the Philippine diaspora as partners in long-term, locally-led social change in the Philippines. Throughout its first year, she helped recruit students nationwide for the first cohort of the Kaya Co. Fellowship and injected principles of community-driven design into the fellowship program.
Isabelle earned her B.A. in Architectural Studies from Brown University with a stint abroad in Copenhagen studying Urban Design. Her academic career was the marriage of her interests in the built environment and human culture, and she is continually looking to expand her knowledge.
If you want her to talk your ear off about a particular subject, ask her about mapmaking, Studio Ghibli films, or pad Thai.