FEBRUARY 2026

New Social Innovation Blogs | MFA DSI Alumni write and reflect

Writing, speaking, and sharing are essential to our work as social designers. These DSI alumni blogs are contributing to the growing and evolving field of social innovation.

Grace Kwon (MFA DSI ’20), Brielle Mariucci (MFA DSI ’24) and Edwin Mauricio Olivera (MFA DSI ’25), are asking the necessary questions: What is the future of service design? How do we design with care when AI is around every corner? How might we approach the ethics of research data collection? What impact do we want to have?

Grace Kwon (MFA DSI ’20) is a Service Design Lead at Spotify. Grace’s DSI thesis project, Untangling Philanthropy, focuses on disrupting power dynamics in philanthropy by challenging funders to cultivate collaborative partnerships with their grantees and ground relationships in trust. Grace’s most recent post, “Where is Service Design Headed,” analyzes the future of service design.

Brielle Mariucci (MFA DSI ’24) works at Public Policy Lab as a Design Research and Strategy Lead. Her DSI thesis project, At-oneness, co-creates with East New York residents and the Neighborhood Safety Initiative to increase community autonomy and agency in improving public safety. In her Substack post, “Designing Justly in Systems That Were Never Built for Justice,” Brielle analyzes the ethics of AI in systems change and how human-centered designers might approach data collection and AI assistance in their work.

Edwin Mauricio Olivera (MFA DSI ’25) is a Service Designer at Cambio Labs. For his DSI thesis project, Artecno, and throughout his work, Edwin develops STEAM-based after-school training programs in AI literacy and creative technologies for high school students in Bolivia and other areas. “Three Buses: Design for Social Innovation Trip from NYC to Montgomery, Alabama,” is a reflection on Edwin’s experiences during the MFA DSI Legacy Leadership Trip to Montgomery, Alabama (April 2025).

Subscribe to Grace Kwon’s Substack: https://gracekwon.substack.com/
Subscribe to Brielle Mariucci’s Substack: https://briellemariucci.substack.com/
Follow Edwin Mauricio Olivera’s Medium page: https://medium.com/@emauric.io