Over her twenty-five year career Sylvia Harris championed “good design for the common good,” tirelessly promoting accessible communications for mass audiences. As founder and principal of Citizen Research & Design, she consulted to the nation’s largest hospitals, universities, and civic agencies on strategic design planning, public policy development, and innovation management.

Some of her career highlights include: creative director of the 2000 National Census for the U.S. Census Bureau; an appointment to the U.S. Postal Service Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee; advisor for Design Trust for Public Space, the African Burial Ground and AIGA’s Design for Democracy; educator at Yale University, The School of Visual Arts and The Cooper Union; and co-founder of the firm Two Twelve Associates.

Sylvia was a founder of the nonprofit, Public Policy Lab, which is dedicated to improving public services and empowering Americans through design and policy. She founded the Citizen Designer movement shortly before her untimely death in 2011.