RF CUNY – Center for Systems and Community Design
I've been involved with CUNY's Center for Systems and Community Design on a project basis since 2021. As a non-expert in each of the projects I have contributed to, my role has been to synthesize and visualize different teams' research to aid in sharing it out to their partners and community members as well as develop and facilitate workshops to gather feedback and new insights in the spirit of human- and community-centered design in service of public health.
I first started working with Dr. Melissa Fuster (Tulane) on The LARiA Project (Latin American Restaurants in Action) summer 2021 to provide hands-on design support to co-create healthy eating initiatives alongside Latin American restaurants in New York City. The following year I worked with Dr. Terry Huang and Dr. Victoria Ngo (CUNY SPH), each of whom lead projects that aim to help specific New York City communities access mental healthcare resources. My latest collaboration with the Center took place Spring 2024 with Dr. Nasim Sabounchi (CUNY SPH) to help develop the agenda, materials and activities for two workshop sessions to explore how telehealth services can be used to connect people with opioid use disorders with medications and therapeutic services.
Below are some snapshots of work that resulted from this collaboration.