RCA x Design for Good Academy Masterclass talk: Dr Dori Tunstall – Decolonizing Design

Dr Dori Tunstall and Dr Nick de Leon, Executive Education and Knowledge Exchange Lead for the School of Design at the Royal College of Art and a Trustee of Design for Good, reassess common design practices, discuss how designers can prioritise indigenous perspectives and take action to reduce environmental impact.

Dori is a distinguished design anthropologist, visionary organisational design leader, consultant, celebrated author, and coach. She is the renowned author of “Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook,” and a true path-breaker of progressive approaches that challenge conventional design paradigms that exclude and harm indigenous cultures, Black, and other diverse communities.

With a global career encompassing an Associate Professor of Design Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Swinburne University in Australia, respectively, Dori made history as the first Black and Black female Dean of a Design Faculty anywhere at OCAD University in Toronto, Canada. Her accomplishments have been recognised with numerous prestigious awards, most notably the 2022 Sir Misha Black Award for Distinguished Service to Design Education.

She established Dori Tunstall, Inc. in 2023, a firm dedicated to co-creating decolonial conditions of liberatory joy within companies and organizations through strategic consulting, care-shops, corporate education, and leadership coaching. You can find out more information about her incredible work and courses on her website.

Her current trajectory is firmly rooted in organisational transformation, corporate cultural learning, and dynamic leadership, all within the context of decolonizing design. Dori's indomitable spirit and unyielding commitment to fostering systemic transformation continue to catalyse change, bridging academia and industry and making a lasting impact.

If you are interested in reading “Decolonizing Design: A Cultural Justice Guidebook,” please find out more here.

If you are interested in keeping up to date with Dori and her work, please support her Instagram and LinkedIn.

About Design for Good

Design for Good is a non-profit alliance that aims to directly deliver measurable impact on society’s biggest challenges, on a scale only possible through global collaboration. Established in 2022, Design for Good’s founding alliance comprises leading organisations including General Mills, Logitech, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft led by Xbox, Nedbank, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Philips and the Royal College of Art.

Running from September 2024 – April 2025, the academy consists of 8 taught Modules plus 3 expert Masterclass talks with over 500 participants. It aims to empower experienced professional designers with the knowledge and skills to create solutions that address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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