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Dr Charlotte Kessler is a transdisciplinary Design Researcher and Lecturer in Design. She sees design as a powerful change-making tool relevant to addressing complex issues, and applicable across a variety of contexts.

Charlotte holds a Bachelor & Master in Product & Service Design (ENSAAMA & Ecole Boulle, France), a Master in Design Futures (Griffith University), and a PHD (Queensland University of Technology) completed in 2022. Her thesis, Developing curricula that equip designers with capabilities to enact sustainable futures: A matter of ethos, draws from the voices of academics and graduate designers from four sustainability-focused design programs internationally to propose theoretical guidelines supporting design educators to develop, enable and sustain design programs that are responsive to a rapidly changing world, in turn equipping design graduates with relevant capabilities to create change towards sustainable futures.

Charlotte has worked on a range of sustainability-focused design and design research projects internationally. Her research is situated at the nexus between design, education, and sustainability. She believes that design education has an important role to play in situating design as key, change-making practice, in the context of sustainability transitions. She is interested in research that informs academics as they develop and implement sustainability-centred curricula and pedagogies, and that supports sustainability transitions in design practice. Charlotte has recently become involved in a research project on climate literacy in architecture in partnership with the Australian Institute of Architects, and the Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia.

Charlotte is currently working as Lecturer in Design in the School of Architecture, Design, and Planning at The University of Queensland. Previously, she was the Program Convenor for Design and Educational Design Lead at Griffith College, where she coordinated the accreditation and curriculum development processes for the new design program. Charlotte has developed and coordinated sustainability-focused higher education courses in the design field across multiple universities. She has taught in award winning courses including Impact Lab 3 Studio - Planet (QUT) awarded Vice Chancellor Award for Excellence and Wharton - QS (London) Re-Imagine Education Award for Design for Transformative learning through transdisciplinary collaborations, along with the Spatial History Unit awarded QUT Faculty of Creative Industries Teaching Award for Teaching Innovation and Excellence. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). She specialises in developing sustainability-centred Higher Education curricula and professional development resources for academic staff.

Dr Mehrnoosh Mirzaei is an interdisciplinary designer, design researcher, and educator. She is an Associate Lecturer in Design at the School of Architecture, Design and Planning. She obtained her Bachelor's and Master’s in Industrial Design (University of Tehran), focusing on Product Design. She completed her PhD at The Queensland University of Technology in 2023. The core of her PhD thesis revolves around the exciting potential of experiential learning and embodiment. Her research delves into the realm of disaster risk reduction education for children, exploring the efficacy of employing experiential learning and embodiment concepts within design-driven education. Through the framework of Research-through-Design, she embarked on a journey that involved collaboration with children as informants. The outcome of her research is a well-defined three-step model for devising initiatives that are both child-friendly and accessible to non-designers and practitioners.

Her research is transdisciplinary, exploring complex topics, developing innovative solutions, and outlining strategies for preferable futures. Mehrnoosh's extensive design background enables her to apply design-led approaches to investigate multifaced complex issues across healthcare and resiliency and risk perception domains with a focus on enhancing learning experiences. Her research interests lie in health and well-being, resiliency making, and Research through Design. Beyond her academic pursuits, Mehrnoosh has practical experience as a designer, boasting a noteworthy portfolio that includes collaborations with industries spanning the automotive, home, and toy sectors. She secured the Bronze A' Design Award in 2017 for her work "Escher". Her expertise extends to partnerships with government organisations, where she devises design-driven Risk Awareness programs tailored for children in Southeast Queensland. Additionally, she actively collaborated with hospitals and health services across Queensland, employing co-design to facilitate collaboration and incorporate the voices of healthcare practitioners in identifying the current system flow of the inter-hospital transfer system. Mehrnoosh applies these skills in the teaching area of interdisciplinary Design practice.