In the era of COVID-19 and at a time when isolation and loneliness are two of the biggest contributors to declining health, what can design do to upend this trend? In this talk, Grace brings her experience and insight from designing for health and well-being and her journey into mixed reality to share the possibilities for design to grow our sense of togetherness.

Grace is Partner Director of Mixed Reality Design & UX Research at Microsoft. She believes in the power of human-centered design to cultivate positive change in people, systems and society. Grace leads a global team of industrial designers, UX designers, artists and researchers to imagine and bring to life a future where technology adapts to people to improve their lives. The team is dedicated to creating products and platforms for the next generation of spatial computing, with a commitment to ethically-responsible and inclusive design. Prior to joining Microsoft, Grace led Product and Marketing Design at Carrot, a digital health start-up focused on empowering people to take control of their health. Grace's passion for health and well-being was fueled over the course of her 12-year tenure at design and innovation firm, IDEO, where she was most recently the Executive Director of Health and co-led the Food & Beverage practice. She holds multiple patents and was awarded a Fast Company Innovation By Design Award for her work on the patient and employee experience for Planned Parenthood. In addition to her professional work, Grace has been dedicated to educating the next generation of creative problem solvers by teaching design thinking to students of engineering, business, psychology and medicine at Stanford D-school.