About
Jacinda is renowned for her design, diversity, research, and strategy work. She has helped clients including Amazon, Adobe, Target, Kellogg, and others with their diversity recruiting strategies. She has led design thinking and community design education workshops for the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Boys and Girls Club, and numerous AIGA chapters. From 2016-2018, Jacinda served as the national chair of AIGA’s Diversity & Inclusion task force. She earned her A.A.B. and B.F.A. in graphic design from the University of Akron. In 2016, Walker obtained her M.F.A. in Design Research and Development with a minor in Nonprofit Studies from The Ohio State University. Her thesis, Design Journeys: Strategies for Increasing Diversity in Design Disciplines, has been widely hailed as a breakthrough work. This research explores diversity in design disciplines and investigates effective strategies to expose African-American and Latino youth to design careers. In 2022, she was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from Ringling College of Art and Design. In 2023, Dr. Walker won the Cleveland Arts Prize Mid-Career Award in design. Jacinda remains a strong advocate for young people and proudly mentors several design students on portfolio presentations, professional development, and career planning. Walker’s future goals are to help scale diversity in design education initiatives for corporations, school systems, educational organizations, and museums for underrepresented youth.
Currently, she is the founder and creative director of designExplorr, an organization that operates as a social enterprise to address the diversity gap within the design profession. DesignExplorr’s mission aims to design a diverse future by expanding access to design education for youth and raising awareness for corporate organizations. This work is done through collaborations that develop youth activities, coordinate diversity-building initiatives, and connect stakeholders to resources. Log onto designExplorr.com to learn more about their work developing youth activities and establishing design education initiatives.
Work
Learn about the areas of work in design, diversity, research, and strategy.
DesignExplorr
Research Projects
Visual Communications Work
Impact
Read the articles, interviews, and media recognition.
Increasing Diversity Article
Marketplace Interview
Diversity By Design
IDSA: Innovation Winter 2020
Alberini Family Speaker Series 2021: Jacinda Walker
Ringling College of Art + Design 2022 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Doctorate Degree Recipient
IBM Variables Article
AIGA D&I Webcast Series
Revision Path Interview #39
Let’s talk: Diversity | Where Do We Go From Here? Design Principles of Diversity
IDSA Women In Design
Deep Dive 2022
Cleveland Public Library Unsung Heroes 2022: As featured on Channel 19 News
Research with Adobe
Design Diversity Index
UCDA Design Conference
FSCJ Behind the Scenes:
Jacinda Walker
Works in Process Interview #22 with Jacinda Walker
Cleveland Arts Prize
Channel 5 News
An Anthology of Blackness: The State of Black Design
Powered by Design: An Introduction to Problem Solving with Graphic Design