Equity Design Strategist, Facilitator, and Coach
What’s possible through radical imagination?
Exploring this question is at the heart of Avery Staton’s (they/them) work as an equity design strategist, facilitator and coach. For Avery, radical imagination is not abstract – it’s a practice of designing more just futures, creating new ways of relating to one another and expanding what feels possible in our communities and institutions.
Avery weaves together expertise in equitable design thinking, city planning and public health to nurture the capacity of institutions to design with historically disadvantaged communities – not for them. As a healing-centered coach, certified by the International Coaching Federation, Avery also helps individuals align with their values, bringing imagination into personal growth and professional practice alike.
Their constellation of practice includes:
- Designing projects and strategies for co-creating interventions with, not for, communities
- Facilitating shifts in power dynamics between institutions and grassroots groups through more equitable, access-centered engagement
- Providing healing-centered coaching for clients seeking alignment in their work and relationships
- Developing toolkits and curriculum that help others practice equity and imagination in their own work
Avery’s work is structured around cultivating processes that make radical imagination tangible; turning “what if?” into practices of inclusion, accessibility, shared power and healing. They specialize in building collaborative spaces that bring out the best in people, expand our ability to co-create across differences and generate authentic connections.
They cultivate interdisciplinary, expansive work guided by questions such as:
- How might radical imagination guide us toward more equitable futures?
- What becomes possible when we share power?
- How can collaboration across differences transform both communities and institutions?
- What does it look like to design for healing?
Selected past work includes:
- Co-founding and co-leading Reflex Design Collective, an equity design consultancy that intervened in traditional design thinking field to center the expertise of communities typically kept on the margins
- A founding member of the Equity Design Collaborative, a group of organizations working to grow the field of equity design and expand design justice
- Independent facilitations of community-led design projects, coalitions, and healing work between community and government institutions
See Avery’s full LinkedIn profile here.
To connect or collaborate, reach out here.
Equity Design Strategy · Facilitation · Coaching 