Designing resilient communities with Jocelyn Wyatt

Being a change-maker in the humanitarian space is universally understood to be driven by the desire to help others. Equally, a love of travel and being motivated by difficult and hard to manage problems can be a huge benefit to working in the sector.

Thanks to parents who were avid travellers, and her childhood home in Massachusetts being filled with foreign exchange students, Jocelyn Wyatt grew up curious about the world. After completing a BA in Anthropology at Grinnell College and an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management, she was on her way to Washington DC where she got involved in global development work. Her dream career, travelling and doing good, was set.

Wyatt is CEO of Alight, a humanitarian organisation where she leads a team of over 3,500 members globally as they work alongside displaced people to co-create high-quality services and programs that address their needs. She’s also the former CEO of IDEO.org, the nonprofit design organisation she co-founded in 2011 after leading IDEO’s social innovation practice, where she spoke widely about how Human Centred Design is changing the social sector.

She’s also worked for humanitarian organisations in Kenya and India, is a program advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative, an advisory board member to Marketplace, a board member for Airbnb.org, Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative, and an Aspen Institute First Movers Fellow.

Listen in as Vince and Jocelyn discuss being on the ground at IDEO at the birth of Design Thinking, how spending time in cultures very different to her own have shaped her, and how the Human Centred Design Toolkit democratised design. 

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