CCD alumni

Whether they joined CCD for a few months to work on one project or stayed for a few years, we are proud to have worked with them.

Dana Chisnell was a co-founder of the Center for Civic Design. Her work ranged from understanding poll workers’ attitudes about security in elections and their jobs in polling places to mapping the gap between how local election officials think and the questions voters’ have. She led research for the Anywhere Ballot, the usability of county and state election websites, voter guides, and how language access supports acculturation for new citizens. She was the originator and managing editor of the Field Guides To Ensuring Voter Intent. (2013-2020)

Jorge Agredo is a user experience and interface designer. As a civic design fellow, Jorge translated design methodologies for civic use, co-facilitated language access workshops, and conducted Spanish-language user testing. (2021)

Suzanne Chapman joined the Center for Civic Design from the United States Digital Service, lead strategy, user research, content, and design (with an inclusive design approach) for over 25 products that make it easier and faster for Veterans to get benefits and services. She brought a UX Generalist approach, with equal parts of user research, design, and content strategy to her work on voter registration modernization, research into how voters verify ballots, and project-based training for elections offices. She went on to work on a COVID-19 emergency response team at the Department of Health and Human Services. (2018-2020)

Maria Di Paolo is a UX researcher + design strategist with a passion for human-centered design. As a strategist implements a variety of research tactics, such as quantitative and qualitative strategies, brand identity development, and concept and user testing. She worked with CCD to imagine and test new NYC Voter Guides and led a research project, designing ballot cure forms, to test voter reactions to different designs. She holds an MS from Parsons School of Design in Strategic Design and Management. (2020)

Mark D’Ostilio, Nevins Fellow 2020. Through his background studying criminology and history, Mark has developed a passion for understanding inequalities in America. Granted the Nevins Fellowship through the McCourtney Institute for Democracy, Mark put his passion to use at the Center for Civic Design. Mark’s work focused on voting rights for citizens who have been incarcerated, exploring how advocacy organizations and state governments publish information about voting rights and how they can better meet the needs of citizens who have been incarcerated. (2020)

Nancy Frishberg worked on the pilot implementations of designs for County Voter Information Guides in California, and on the usability team designing and piloting auto-personalization for computer systems. Nancy has worked extensively on projects related to deafness and American Sign Language. Her book on sign language interpreting still serves as the basis for the national written examinations supervised by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf. (2015-2017)

Alex Haraseyko came to CCD from working at the User Research Lab at the University of Baltimore, where among other projects, they used eye tracking research to help a re-design of Pennsylvania’s VotesPA.com website in 2016. They worked on a range of projects during their time at CCD, including: designing and testing the audio script for an accessible ranked-choice voting interface; testing benefits application forms in Pennsylvania to ensure returning citizens understood they could register to vote; and leading Operation Envelope where they designed ballot envelopes for states who scaled up their absentee voting in 2020. (2020-2023)

Asher Kolieboi is a design researcher. He brought his extensive research and community organizing background to CCD and worked on projects including researching what makes great election websites for small to medium jurisdictions, redesigning Michigan’s Voter Information Center to make it simpler to navigate, conducting oral history style interviews to track attitudes towards voting by mail, and testing cure forms to see what makes voters most likely to complete them accurately. (2020 – 2024)

Anna Levy works at the intersection of structural and participatory accountability in public life on foundational and systemic design questions and strategic change efforts. Projects include work with the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) and groups in New York City trying to reduce the stigma and bureaucracy for justice-involved New Yorkers accessing civic or social services.  She teaches on emergency and disaster politics at Fordham University.  At CCD, Anna led research to understand voter trust and the challenge of voting by mail in the chaotic 2020 election year. (2020)

Joanne Locke brought over 30 years of expertise in plain language writing, editing, and training for the federal government and supporting US Department of Health and Human Services, ensuring that both plain language and health literacy principles were incorporated into all communication with the public. She is a co-founder of the Center for Plain Language, and co-chair of the federal Federal Plain Language Action and Information Network (PLAIN). At the Center for Civic Design, Joanne is the plain language expert working on human factors requirements for the EAC’s VVSG 2.0 standards for voting systems and Healthy Voting. (2017-2020)

Colin MacArthur led our work on voter registration modernization and worked on research on ranked-choice voting ballots and designed a test for accessible voting systems. He also led internal projects that shaped our thinking about the philosophy behind our work and how we evaluate success, and many internal tools and processes. Before joining the Center, he worked at 18F, the federal government’s digital consultancy. He went on to be the head of design research at the Canadian Digital Service. (2017-2018)

Ethan Newby is the Center’s go-to statistical expert, borrowing him from his work as a usability consultant for companies from Twitter to Microsoft. He worked with Dana and Ginny Redish on the use of language in ballot instructions, and with the Center on the analysis of the content on county election web sites and in California voter guides. (2013-2016)

Grace Oh is an information design with a passion for translating complex systems into clear visuals to make civic spaces more accessible for voters. At CCD, she created icons and instructional illustrations on election processes for election offices and designed voter information materials and forms, including for vote by mail. She previously worked at The Civics Center, Providence Children’s Museum, and DownCity Design. She holds a BFA in industrial design and illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design. (2022-2024)

Maggie Ollove brought skills in design-led research, workshop facilitation, and prototyping to find innovative solutions to social challenge to all of her projects. Her work at Center for Civic Design included creating national templates for vote-by-mail materials, research on how voters get information and mental models for voter registration,  leading the usability working group in Virginia, and running project-based training for elections offices in Wisconsin, Oregon and Elections BC. She went on to join The Lab at OPM (Office of Personnel and Management). (2016-2020)

Christopher Patten led our work on Ranked Choice Voting and language access, all the while expertly designing and facilitating collaborative workshops for community advocates and elections offices. Christopher translates design methodologies for use by government and non-profit stakeholders. Whether he’s facilitating co-creation workshops or debating design thinking, he brings a critical approach to his role as a designer working in non-design settings. His work prior to joining CCD spanned the fields of policy, education, and transportation. He went on to join The Lab at OPM (Office of Personnel and Management. (2017-2021)

Robert Pérez joined CCD for 4-months during which time he led an independent research project on bilingual youth voters in San Mateo County, California. In a series of moderated interviews, he set out to hear stories from bilingual citizens about their experiences to discover pain points and barriers to accessing voter registration information, civic engagement, and the next steps in the voting process. See the final report here. (2022)

Taapsi Ramchandani is a civic anthropologist. She brought her expertise in asking too many questions to projects for Participatory Budgeting Project, research into designing language access, and best practices for ranked-choice voting, automatic voter registration, and vote-by-mail package design. She now leads Poocho, a digital research agency based in India. (2016-2017)

Lindsey Slutz is a UX designer. She brought her extensive background in web and UX to create a Website Resource Guide for election officials, improve CCD’s own website, and enhance language access for voters. (2024)