Learning Lab Tutors
Dr Niki Wallace
Dr Niki Wallace is a researcher, educator and designer with almost 20 years of teaching experience spanning the UK, Japan, and Australia. Niki’s teaching specialisms include complex collaboration and co-creation, sustainability and systemic interventions. They are an AHRC Innovation Scholar in partnership with the Design Council and Reader (Associate Professor) in Design for Transitions at University of the Arts London, where they also co-direct the Complex Collaborations Design Research Hub, co-convene UAL's EARTH Network and contribute to UAL’s Climate Emergency Network.
Niki was previously the director and principal of an Australian-based full-service creative studio and a living lab collective, working with broadcasters, corporations, local and state governments, as well as small-medium enterprises, and organisations and groups working in conservation and activism.
Dr Niki Wallace
Dr Niki Wallace is a researcher, educator and designer with almost 20 years of teaching experience spanning the UK, Japan, and Australia. Niki’s teaching specialisms include complex collaboration and co-creation, sustainability and systemic interventions. They are an AHRC Innovation Scholar in partnership with the Design Council and Reader (Associate Professor) in Design for Transitions at University of the Arts London, where they also co-direct the Complex Collaborations Design Research Hub, co-convene UAL's EARTH Network and contribute to UAL’s Climate Emergency Network.
Niki was previously the director and principal of an Australian-based full-service creative studio and a living lab collective, working with broadcasters, corporations, local and state governments, as well as small-medium enterprises, and organisations and groups working in conservation and activism.
Dr Kiran Kashyap
Dr Kiran Kashyap is a systemic designer, researcher and activist with over 15 years of co-design experience on Gadigal Country. As Executive Director of Regen Sydney, they use design-led approaches to embed relational ontologies, foster cross-sector alliances and foster new civic infrastructures. Kiran’s work is primarily focused on encouraging system-level transitions for the emergence of regenerative economics and bioregional governance.
Dr Emma Blomkamp
Dr Emma Blomkamp is a researcher, practitioner and educator of creative and participatory approaches to improving community outcomes. She leads New Know How, a social business specialising in co-design training and learning partnerships, and is also Honorary Fellow at The University of Melbourne. With a PhD in community wellbeing and public policy, and a co-edited book on the politics of cultural measurement, Emma publishes and presents internationally on public innovation, co-creation and systemic design. She is an active member of Enspiral and leads a community group focusing on climate adaptation and resilience in her local area.
Dr Joanna Boehnert
Dr Joanna Boehnert is a Reader in Sustainable Design Transitions at Bath Spa University, co-convenor of the Design Research Society’s Sustainability and Transitions Special Interest Group, and a founding member of the Systemic Design Association. She is author of Design Ecology Politics: Towards the Ecocene (2018) and co-editor of the upcoming Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Design Transitions (2027). Her recent research projects include AHRC funded “Transition Templates: Pathways to Net Zero+” and “Enacting Gregory Bateson's Ecological Aesthetics in Architecture and Design."
Samantha Jarman
Samantha Jarman is a Graduate Employability Lead at University of Arts London (UAL). She bridges creative education with real-world impact, supporting students to embed ethics, inclusivity, ecological design thinking and material literacies into their practice, by cultivating critical reflection and collaboration.
Her work centres on social entrepreneurship, community repair and circular economy approaches, translating systems thinking into hands-on projects and partnerships. Samantha is committed to place-based change, putting this into action as Co-Director of Brighton Repair Café and steering group member of the Community Repair Network UK. She has worked with national and international organisations including: The Restart Project, Green Architecture Day, Emmaus, Tech-Takeback and CC4D Uganda.
Catalina Mejía Moreno (PhD)
Catalina Mejía Moreno (PhD) is a Colombian-born, UK-based researcher, writer, and educator specialising in cross-cultural dialogue and socioecological, situated practices across Latin America, the Caribbean, and the UK. She is Climate Studies Lead at Central Saint Martins, where she developed the Climate Forum platform, and co-convener of the EARTH researchers network at University of the Arts London. Catalina holds degrees from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia), the Bartlett UCL, and Newcastle University. She has held fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust, Graham Foundation, and re:arc Institute, and serves on international architecture and research editorial boards.
Winifred Ahupa
Winifred Ahupa is a designer-researcher maker and writer exploring how people, places and systems shape one another. Her work sits at the intersection of design, cultural memory, ecological thinking and collaborative practice. She examines how care, participation and everyday acts of stewardship influence the futures we create together.
Working across research, storytelling, public programmes and design-led inquiry, she explores questions of belonging, reciprocity, circularity, community, and long-term thinking. Through workshops, essays, conversations, and creative projects, she investigates how cultural practices, social infrastructures and lived experiences shape the ways people learn to live well together.
