Social Innovator and Design Leader Miya Osaki Named Chair of MFA Design for Social Innovation at School of Visual Arts

August 1, 2019, New York,NY—School of Visual Arts (SVA) President David Rhodes has announced the appointment of Miya Osaki as chair of the College’s MFA Design for Social Innovation Department, effective August 1, 2019. Osaki replaces the department’s founding chair, Cheryl Heller.

Osaki has served as a department faculty member for four years, and has acted as a thesis advisor and active contributor to the program, inspiring a new generation to be curious and empathetic in their explorations of how design can improve the world. She is currently collaborating with MFA Design for Social Innovation on an initiative to diminish the flow of young people from foster care to homelessness. Osaki has lectured and taught about design, health care and social impact at leading design schools and universities and other institutions, including Art Center College of Design (where she received her MFA), Pratt Institute, Princeton School of Engineering and Applied Science and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her work has been featured by LEAP Dialogues, American Heart Association, American Society of Clinical Oncology and AIGA. She is also the co-host and founder of Yah, No—a podcast about the intersection of design, business and health care—now in its fourth season.

Osaki is also a founding partner of Diagram, a NYC-based, minority- and women-owned design studio with a mission to create health care experiences that put people’s needs at the center. Diagram has partnered with a cross-section of global health care organizations, tech companies, nonprofits, government agencies and startups, including Amgen, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Google, NYC Health + Hospitals, Dignity Health, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke Cancer Institute, AbleTo, The Patient Revolution, Institute for the Future, Public Policy Lab, Sapient Razorfish, DigitasLBi (UK) and PublicisHealth. Osaki’s work has engaged renowned design teams and academics internationally.

“DSI is an incredible community and opportunity. I'm looking forward to continuing spirit of DSI as a place to learn about social design and shape its future,” said Osaki. “Positive change comes with care and curiosity. The goal is to prepare the next generation of creative, diverse designers who will question, inspire, and improve the world around us—to design, disrupt and transform in a way that has measurable and meaningful impact.”

Previously, Osaki was experience design director at Johnson & Johnson's Global Strategic Design Office, where she designed innovative solutions to manage chronic diseases. Her award-winning, patented interfaces have been launched around the world, notably the design of a low-cost blood glucose meter for developing countries, as well as pioneering collaborations with Apple and Philips. In this role, she spearheaded the Salon Speaker Series, bringing together leading thinkers and creatives in design, art and science. She was an early recipient of a Designmatters fellowship with the UNICEF Innovation Team, where she collaborated on the One Laptop Per Child initiative with MIT, Harvard and Pentagram, as well as a global awareness campaign for the Safe Motherhood initiative with the UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund).

MFA Design for Social Innovation at SVA is a graduate program at the intersection of design, social innovation and enterprise. It has welcomed students from 25 different countries, with diverse academic and professional backgrounds. The department’s curriculum, faculty and resources provide students with the design tools, skills and experience needed to become creative leaders in social innovation—unlocking new worlds of potential through mastery of research, synthesis, problem framing, community activation, change models, storytelling, innovation, metrics, game design, service design, entrepreneurship, leadership and visualization design. MFA Design for Social Innovation alumni are working in multinational corporations, in government, at global NGOs and creative consultancies, and are running their own businesses.