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Robin Newman

Robin Newman has spent much of her professional life working in communities across Canada, Guatemala, India, and Israel. In her most recent work, at Operation Groundswell, she led teams of youth through Guatemala to explore local issues of privilege, poverty, social disparity, and environmental devastation. During her time in India, Robin led focus groups in rural villages to understand the range of health issues faced by residents. While in Canada, Robin worked as a facilitator, writer, and field researcher on issues related to urban growth, local food production and security, and environmental sustainability. In 2010, Robin was named a “Leader in the Field” by the George Cedric Metcalf Foundation and granted a scholarship to work with a renowned Toronto-based environmental organization, Not Far From The Tree. Robin came to DSI to better put her passions into practice using design.

Since graduating from DSI, Robin has moved to Brooklyn and taken the role of Lead User Insight & Strategy Researcher at the New York Times. Currently, she supports the newsroom to improve their digital tools and bring quality journalism to life. Previously she worked as a user researcher and UX/UI designer at Huge, and was one of 300 applicants selected to join their UX school. While there, beyond her client work with organizations like Google, UPS, Goldman Sachs and the US Government, she founded the first-ever social impact sprint with partners like the FBI and the Carter Center in Atlanta. She is co-founder of Say No More, a game for girls and social workers to spark conversations about sex trafficking in the USA and Canada which received a 2019 grant from TELUS to digitize the game for girls in public schools across Canada and was the 2015 recipient of the 20k Sappi Ideas grant to distribute games across the USA. She loves to travel, hike in epic natural places and find meaningful ways to connect through arts and culture. This year she is joining Bridge To Health on a 10-day outreach program in Kenya to support piloting an open-source EMR (electronic medical records) system to better measure patient care and program impact of over 7000 patients each day in rural clinics.

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