Transdisciplinary Design

Kelly L. Anderson

Kelly L. Anderson is a research translator currently working within the field of education. Her work has encompassed informal and non-formal educational spaces since her industrial design days at Syracuse University; with an undergraduate thesis entitled What the World Around us Would Look Like if Designed by Children. After graduating, she worked for about a year in Syracuse before starting her Peace Corps service in Lesotho, southern Africa, where she was a Community Health and Economic Development volunteer. She worked closely with a small microbusiness women’s group who made and sold candles & vaseline, taught solar energy theory and installation at a vocational school, and assisted an HIV/AIDS support group at the local male prison during her third year extension. During her time in the MFA Transdisciplinary Design program, Kelly has been awarded several distinctions including: Merit Scholar, FEMA Appreciation Certificate, the John L. Tishman Scholarship, and IDEO / Knight Foundation Civic Design Fellowship. Her current MFA thesis project, entitled This is Water, explores chronic stress on high school students and what design can do to help mitigate the effects of that stress. She is, with her thesis partner Reid Henkel, creating learning experiences that empower students to address their stress and find their own thriving mechanisms. Specifically they are exploring the use of form-giving and reflective narratives to create systemic awareness around the students’ chronic stress.