Tessa Laven
University of the Arts London
Bio
Tessa is a design researcher, strategic designer, and circular design practitioner whose work has been centred on climate transitions in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia. Much of her applied work has been at the intersection of justice, equity, sustainability and complexity – from co-designing policy and projects for Australia’s circular economy transition, to developing community co-design models and methods for a major Australian energy distributor, to undertaking qualitative research on youth justice outcomes with First Nations communities.
She has a particular interest in the use of systems thinking and collaborative design methodologies to inform climate transition strategies, and her PhD research is focussed on developing new approaches and practices in this field that draw from systems theory, transition studies, and design for sustainability methods.
Tessa obtained her degrees in Anthropology and Marketing from the University of Auckland and has been working in Melbourne, Australia for the last four and a half years as a strategic design consultant where she worked with a broad range of clients, including Australian Federal and State Government, regional water utilities, industry bodies, and international NGOs.