KDI People

Linsey Griffin

Associate Professor of Apparel Design and Co-Director of the Human Dimensioning^© Laboratory

Linsey is an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, specializing in the development of wearable health and safety products. She has conducted wearable product research with organizations including the UMN Medical Center, Park Nicollet Health Services, 3M, and NASA. Linsey’s design, research, and teaching perspectives are informed by eight years of international apparel industry experience in the United States, England, South Korea, India, and Spain. She received a PhD and MS in apparel studies from the University of Minnesota and a BS in textile and apparel design from Cornell University.

Carlye Lauff

Assistant Professor and Graduate Program Director, Product Design

Carlye is an assistant professor of product design at the University of Minnesota, where she directs the product design graduate program. She earned her PhD from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow studying the role of product prototyping in business company contexts. Carlye’s research is in design theory and methodology. She studies how designers engage in the product development process and then improves tools and methods to support them. Carlye works at the intersection of multiple disciplines including engineering, product design, education, management science, and the social sciences. She often draws on qualitative and mixed-methods research and collaborates across diverse disciplines. Carlye has worked with more than 25 global companies in industries including medical devices, consumer electronics, transportation systems, educational toys, and footwear and apparel.

Alanna Nissen

Kusske Design Initiative Coordinator

Alanna is an arts administrator and project manager with experience in a range of creative fields, including craft, design, and fine arts. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in art history from Grinnell College and a Master of Arts in liberal studies from the State University of New York. Her graduate research focused on gender and supernatural belief in late medieval and early modern England. Alanna joined the College of Design in 2021 as coordinator for the Kusske Design Initiative.

The KDI coordinator supports the overall initiative and KDI participants; develops high-level planning, oversight, and implementation of events and activities; and manages all aspects of KDI operations.

Carol Strohecker

Dean's Associate, College of Design 

Dr. Carol Strohecker is a professor at the University of Minnesota and former dean of its College of Design. She has published and presented widely on topics related to learning theory and the development of environments in which people can learn through creative processes. Her works in interactive media resulted in four U.S. patents for computational methods. Before coming to Minnesota, Carol served as vice provost of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and as the inaugural director of the University of North Carolina’s Center for Design Innovation (CDI). Previously she conducted research on learning environment design and technology-enhanced learning at Media Lab Europe (the European partner of the MIT Media Lab) and MERL (Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs). She has served as an advisor for various programs of the European Commission and the US National Science Foundation. She also co-founded the NSF-funded global Network for Sciences, Engineering, Arts, and Design (SEAD), through which she advocated for supporting transdisciplinary collaboration. A former Executive Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and an Arts Management / Research Fellow at the US National Endowment for the Arts, Carol has taught at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art), Media Lab Europe, Learning Lab Denmark, CDI, and Harvard GSD. She studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she received the Master of Science in visual studies and the PhD in media arts and sciences.

Neda Barbazi

Product Design
Kusske Research Assistant, Fall 2023–Present

Neda is a product design PhD student who holds a Master of Architecture and a Bachelor of Fine Arts. As a multidisciplinary designer, researcher, and entrepreneur, she explores the intersection of design, science, technology, business, and human behavior. She is passionate about gathering insights and driving creative solutions through human needs and desires. As a research assistant in KDI, Neda collaborates with Co-Principal Carlye Lauff on a project centered around Octo, an educational caregiver for children with congenital heart disease.

Julianne Bur

Human Factors & Ergonomics
Kusske Research Assistant, Fall 2022–Spring 2023

Julianne is a human factors & ergonomics MS student with a BS in apparel design from the University of Minnesota. With specialized fields of apparel as the guiding inspiration for her work, Julianne applies exceptional technical precision to fabricate her designs. Incorporating her background as a human factors intern at NASA with her pattern-making skills, she designs apparel for optimal comfort and quality of fit. As an eager apparel innovator, she aspires to apply her focus on human factors to the diversity of soft goods production.

Jacob Dommer-Koch

Architecture
Kusske Scholar, 2022–2024

Jacob Dommer-Koch is an architecture major pursuing minors in landscape design & planning and interdisciplinary design. He hopes to leverage community-driven and ecologically innovative architecture for urban-scale climate action. Jacob is a certified welder who has worked as a resident welder, fabricator, and metal artist at Can Can Wonderland. He loves finding new ways of upcycling reclaimed materials; past projects have ranged in scale from thematic furniture to shipping container conversions to dog toys. Jacob has also worked as a biological researcher in Tortuguero National Park in Costa Rica, where he studied the ecological impact of human activity on biodiversity. His research included coastal conservation, marine turtle tracking and nest monitoring, and biodiversity surveys of spider monkeys and tropical birds.

Nicolas Donoso

Product Design
Kusske Scholar, 2023–2025

Nicolas Donoso is a product design student who has a passion for art and design, which he uses as a means of self-expression. Nicolas’s passion for design began as a child when he would spend entire days transforming sand into cities and rocks and twigs into spaceships. He brings elements of his Ecuadorian and American identities into his art and design work, believing it to be great way to share about oneself and connect with others. He is the co-founder and president of the Collaborative Arts Club, a campus organization aiming to bring students of all disciplines together through a shared passion for art. He hopes to continue growing a community that promotes artistic growth and interconnectedness through art and design.

Torey Erin

Landscape Architecture
Kusske Research and Administrative Assistant, Fall 2021–Present

Torey is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and writer. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the University of Minnesota and is currently pursuing her Master of Landscape Architecture. Torey is the recipient of the Jo Tushie Endowed Fellowship, Minnesota Artist Initiative Grant, UMN Landscape Architecture Recruitment Fellowship, and Springboard Hinge Artist Residency. Her films, sculptures, and installations are centered around impermanence. Her work has been exhibited in multiple venues, including Silverwood Park, Franconia Sculpture Park, Rosalux Gallery, Mirrorlab, FilmNorth, and Soo Visual Arts Center.

Christine Flauta

Landscape Architecture
Kusske Fellow, 2022–2024

Christine Flauta is a Master of Landscape Architecture student from O’ahu, Hawai’i. She received her bachelor’s degree in geography at the University of Hawai’i–Manoa. Christine worked for the State of Hawai’i under the Division of Forestry and Wildlife doing non-native plant management and forest restoration. She aspires to combine her knowledge of ecology and culture with her growing knowledge of landscape architecture to help build people’s connection to place and deepen their understanding of the environment.

Joseph Hillenbrand

Graphic Design
Kusske Scholar, 2022–2024

Joseph Hillenbrand is a graphic designer who is continually striving to find the balance between simplicity and storytelling in his work, which has a strong focus on logo and brand identity design. Coming from a nomadic upbringing, he brings his varied experiences from the largest of cities to the smallest of towns into his process. Joseph is the creator and host of the podcast Magic Wand, which he describes as “the non-stuffy design podcast where the black turtlenecks come off.”

Nandhitha Karunakaran

Apparel Studies
Kusske Research Assistant, Fall 2023–Present

Nandhitha is a graduate student pursuing a degree in apparel studies with a concentration in product development. She received her bachelor’s degree in apparel production from the National Institute of Fashion Technology in India. Her undergraduate research focused on stitchless technology and seam properties in swimwear development, and she completed several internships in apparel manufacturing. Her current focus is on sustainable fashion. As a Kusske Research Assistant, Nandhitha supports KDI Co-Principal Linsey Griffin.

Tse-Hsun Kuo

Human Factors & Ergonomics
Kusske Scholar, 2022–2024

Tse-Hsun aspires to be a healthcare product developer with the skills to shrink the gap between manufacturing and research. He has a BS in physical therapy from National Taiwan University and an interest in biomechanics—a background which will enable him to share his knowledge about the human body through an interdisciplinary approach to design. Tse-Hsun is interested in the integration of human research and design and, through KDI, he intends to solve healthcare problems by coupling new technologies and development methods to create well-designed and well-fitting healthcare products.

Valeria Lopez

Graphic Design
Kusske Research Assistant, Spring 2021–Fall 2022

Valeria is a graphic design PhD student at the College of Design. Her research interests and expertise lie at the intersection of art, design, and technology. Currently she is investigating the cultural effects and opportunities brought about by image-making techniques that use artificial intelligence. As a KDI research assistant, Valeria worked with KDI Co-Principal Eugene Park.

Paith Philemon

Human Factors and Ergonomics
Kusske Research Assistant, Fall 2021–Summer 2022

As a graduate student in human factors & ergonomics, Paith’s research interests are designing programming models and programming tools to make it easier for people to create the software they intended and applying these ideas to theory and implementation in the Wearable Technology Lab. Originally from South Sudan, Paith is a developer enthusiast, fueled by her passion to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to as many communities as she can reach. As a KDI research assistant, she worked with KDI Co-Principal Eugene Park.

Vanessa Segura Duque

Human Factors & Ergonomics
Kusske Research Assistant, Spring 2023‒Present

Vanessa Segura Duque is a doctoral student in human factors & ergonomics and a Fulbright Minciencias Scholar. Originally from Colombia, Vanessa holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial and product design from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Her interests include product development, research, and entrepreneurship. She has delivered presentations on topics including design, sustainability, environmental responsibility, and ergo-ecological models for product design and development. Vanessa is a KDI research assistant supporting KDI Co-Principal Linsey Griffin.

Emily Seifert

Human Factors & Ergonomics
Kusske Research Assistant, Spring 2023

Emily Seifert is a doctoral student in the human factors & ergonomics program. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in apparel design from the University of Minnesota, where she completed research assistantships in the Human Dimensioning^© Laboratory and was a teaching assistant for courses in apparel design and design thinking. In 2018, Emily was a global technical development intern at Nike; in 2021, she was an intern for the Wearables, Human Factors & User Experience Research Team at Google.

Audra Sims

Graphic Design
Kusske Scholar, 2023–2025

Audra Sims is an aspiring graphic designer and artist. Her areas of interest include social justice, minority representation, sustainability and environmental health, community work, and humanitarianism. She is majoring in graphic design and minoring in cultural studies and comparative literature. As an at-large representative for the Undergraduate Student Government, she aims to create safe spaces for discussion on combating systemic oppression. Before her time at the University of Minnesota, Audra lived in Phoenix, Arizona, where she gave back to her community through her position as historian in the Keystone Club at the Barker branch of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Scottsdale. Through her involvement in KDI, she hopes to learn more about how to incorporate social equity and sustainability into design.

Milo Tacheny

Product Design
Kusske Fellow, 2023–2025

Milo Tacheny is a Kusske Fellow pursuing their Master of Science in product design at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. As a non-binary outdoor gear enthusiast, Milo aspires to design gender-inclusive outdoor gear that goes outside the gender binary. For the last five years, Milo has worked in business operations with organizations on the cutting edge of technology, which inspired them to return to academia to better understand the relationship between humans and well-designed products. They received their bachelor’s degrees in English and visual arts with a focus in photography at the University of Minnesota in 2014. In their free time, Milo creates online content that focuses on innovative gear to help others feel confident in the outdoors.

Yiling Zhang

Apparel Studies
Kusske Cohort Facilitator (TA), Summer 2022–present

Yiling is an apparel studies doctoral student in the dress, history, and culture track and a Design Graduate Program Fellow. Her research focuses on fashion related to play, which is inspired by past work on Lolita fashion subculture and her interest in game theory, which she studied as an undergraduate economics major in China. Yiling holds a master's degree in design history and material culture, having studied at the Royal College of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. While in London, Yiling also curated two picture galleries for the Wellcome Collection, which focused on the histories of Chinese pillows and Chinese cloud collars. After completing her doctorate, she is interested in pursuing a position in fashion research.

Andria Banker Codner — MS, product design ’23 (Kusske Research Assistant, Summer 2022–Summer 2023)

Micki Grover — MS, product design ’23 (Kusske Research Assistant, Summer 2022–Spring 2023)

Noah Hertel — BS, product design ’23 (Kusske Scholar, 2021–2023)

Ashani Trinh — M.Arch ’23 (Kusske Fellow, 2021–2023)

Angelica Valencia — BS, interior design ’23 (Kusske Scholar, 2021–2023)

Alison Cloet — MS, apparel studies ’22 (Kusske Research Assistant, Summer 2022)

Aubrey Olson — MLA ’22 (Kusske Research and Teaching Assistant, Spring 2021–Spring 2022)

Paige Tomfohrde — MA, apparel studies ’22 (Kusske Administrative Assistant, Fall 2021–Spring 2022)

Marla Brown — MLA ’21 (Kusske Research Assistant, Spring 2021)

Cholong Kim — MFA, graphic design ’21 (Kusske Research Assistant, Spring 2021)

2021‒2022

Jessica Rossi-Mastracci — Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture
Eugene Park — Associate Professor of Graphic Design