Meet our Jury Members!

2025 Judges

Jessie Kawata

**Design Director**
Jessie Kawata is a design leader, environmental advocate, TEDx speaker, and pioneer in space design working at the intersection of ecological design, biomimicry, and interplanetary exploration. At Microsoft, she led the Design for Sustainability program across Surface, Xbox, Hololens, and Windows,— advancing circular design principles and embedding sustainability into global product ecosystems. Previous to this, Jessie established the first in-house product and industrial design studio at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory where she infused human-centered systems thinking into interplanetary mission development and climate science.In 2025, she founded Design for Disaster Response LA, a creative community initiative mobilized in response to the unprecedented wildfires in Los Angeles—demonstrating the power of design as a tool for resilience and collective care. Jessie’s work bridges ecological design, systems thinking, and cosmic perspective, reminding designers that we are not only humans - we are Earthlings working with reciprocity alongside our planet.

Nathan Cooke

**Designer**
**Art Center College of Design (Product Design)**
Nathan is an avid runner and proud member of the SkidRow Running Club. He runs his age in miles every year, and is over the moon that his shelter dog of 2 years, Yama, has been able to join him on these runs. He also enjoys gardening, visiting botanical gardens, and eating ice-cream. To afford this lifestyle, Nathan teaches Product Design at ArtCenter College of Design, focusing on early term students developing their foundational skills. Prior work has included; Co-Founding Sanergy in Nairoi, Kenya, a company that turns human waste into fertilizer; Managing Director of Open Architecture Collaborative Los Angeles a non-profit pro bono architecture group; Professor and Lecturer at MIT and Harvard, two historic east coast universities; Sign Artist at Trader Joes, a native grocery store chain; and Delivery Man for Fugetsu-Do in Little Tokyo, one of two places that lay claim to the invention of the fortune cookie.

Jeff Kelly

**Creative Director, Designer, Producer, and Director**
Jeff Kelly is a creative director, designer, producer, and director from Los Angeles, California, with over 25 years of experience shaping campaigns that connect audiences to brands through bold storytelling and finely tuned design. He began his career designing at Sony Pictures Entertainment, eventually leading some of the most recognized film and entertainment marketing campaigns at 20th Century Fox, including Logan, Deadpool, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and The Martian. Drawn to work that breaks from the ordinary, Jeff blends big-picture creative strategy with a hands-on approach to design, leading projects from concept to execution across branding, key art, digital, AV, social, and experiential platforms. His collaborations span studios, global agencies, and household-name brands such as Disney, Marvel, Netflix, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Blizzard, Adobe, McDonald’s, Major League Baseball, Giant Records, and Full Stop Management. Along the way, his work has been recognized with 3 Cannes Lions, 3 Grand Clio Key Art Awards, 15 Clio Key Arts, One Show Gold, Webby, Shorty, and FWA honors. Today, Jeff partners with clients of all sizes through his consultancy Jeeto!, scaling teams of trusted collaborators in motion graphics, film, photography, social media, and analytics to deliver creative that sparks connection and longevity in the space..

Dan Gottlieb

**Designer, Design Educator, and co-founder of Padlab**
Dan Gottlieb is a Los Angeles–based designer and design educator. He is the co-founder of Padlab, a materials, lighting, and exhibition studio, and an Associate Professor in Spatial Experience Design at ArtCenter College of Design. Dan balances his time between shaping the next generation of designers and exploring the expressive potential of light and materials in the studio. He has co-led global ArtCenter Designmatters collaborations focused on social impact in Chile, China, Colombia, and Peru. These include Safe Niños, a partnership with the Santiago-based nonprofit COANIQUEM to co-create holistic healing environments for children recovering from burns. Dan has also co-led numerous cross-cultural, interdisciplinary studios in Japan, pairing ArtCenter students with students from Tama Art University around shared topics of global interest. His work with international NGOs and educational institutions includes the co-design and implementation of global exhibitions and exhibit lighting in cities such as Tokyo, Shanghai, London, Washington D.C., and at the United Nations in New York. Dan earned his Master of Architecture from the Yale School of Architecture in 2003.

Samantha “SamJan” Fleming

**Associate Chair for MGx, Graduate Graphic Design at ArtCenter College of Design**
Samantha “SamJan” is an accomplished creative executive whose career spans leadership roles with some of the world’s most influential and iconic companies, globally recognized lifestyle brands, and mission-driven non-profit organizations, including Sundance, The Walt Disney Co, ABC Networks, Viacom/Nickelodeon/MTV, HBO, Live Earth, Transworld Media, New Form Digital, EdTech Platform GoNoodle, Library Foundation of Los Angeles and ArtCenter College of Design. Her career spans film, television, and digital media, with expertise in strategy, content development, production, branding, advertising, design, experiential, publishing, consumer products, and emerging platforms.
Samantha considers herself fortunate to have begun her career at the legendary Children's Television Workshop in New York, where for six life-changing years, she was mentored by some of the finest and most generous minds in media history, otherwise known as the people who created Sesame Street – an experience that continues to inform her creative ethos.

2024 Judges

Robert Vargas

**Artist, Muralist**
**Honorary Doctorate Degree, Art Center College of Design (Illustration)**
A contemporary artist known for his mixed-media portraits, murals and live events, Vargas has painted murals around the globe, from his native Boyle Heights neighborhood to Paris. His work-in-progress “Angelus,” in downtown Pershing Square, is being painted on the side of a 14-story apartment building and is set to break the Guinness World Record for the largest mural completed by a single artist.
In 2021, the City of Los Angeles honored Vargas by naming September 8 Robert Vargas Day, in recognition of his contributions to the cultural life of the city, to the arts and as a leading creative force. Then last year, he was honored again by the City of Los Angeles, which designated the intersection of First Street and State Street as Robert Vargas Square. He recently completed a 150-foot-tall mural of Los Angeles Dodger Shohei Ohtani on the outer wall of The Miyako Hotel’s flagship Little Tokyo hotel in Downtown L.A.

Spatial Designer, Audio Visual Artist Assistant Professor, Art Center College of Design (Spatial Experience)

Andy Gutierrez was born in Kealakekua,Hawaii and raised in Los Angeles,California. He is an alumni(2017) & faculty member at Art Center College of Design under the Spatial Experience department. After graduating from Art Center, He spent 4 years living and working in Tokyo, Japan as a Spatial Designer. During those 4 years he spent a lot of his time designing exhibitions for clients such as Google,IBM, Nissan, and the Japanese Government. When not designing spaces he spends most of his time as an Audio Visual artist, working in the realms of Max msp, Touchdesigner, and Ableton. He is constantly seeking a connection between the synthetic and natural in our everyday surroundings, and how that may apply to space or sound.

Andy Gutierrez

AJ Dungo

**Illustrator**
**Alumni, Art Center College of Design (Illustration)**
AJ Dungo is an illustrator based in Los Angeles.
He has worked with great people at Nike, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bleacher Report, Doubleday & Cartwright, This American Life, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Nobrow, Flying Eye Books, ProPublica, Virgin Orbit, Chronicle Books, Medium, and SFMOMA.
His work has been recognized by American Illustration, Society of Illustrators, France Inter, and AD&D. He is the author of the award-winning graphic novel, In Waves.

Designer

Adjunct Professor, Art Center College of Design (Spatial Experience)

Cory Grosser is a globally renowned American designer. In 2002, he founded his eponymous studio in Los Angeles and has gone on to become one of America’s top interior and product designers. His career balances work for high-level European design brands, strategic engagements for large corporations, and teaching the next generation of designers at Art Center College of Design. Cory lectures about design internationally and his work has been featured in books, blogs, and exhibitions worldwide. Cory is considered an expert in his field and has served as a juror in serveral international design competitions including; The Good Design Awards, The Spark Awards, The Exhibit Design Awards, The Selection Committee for the Salone Satellite, Contempo, and the Bombay Saphire Designer Glass Competition.

Cory Grosser

Melodie Yashar

**Space Architect, Technologist, and Researcher**
**VP of Architecture & Building Performance at ICON**
Melodie Yashar is a space architect, technologist, and researcher. She is the VP of Architecture & Building Performance at ICON, a construction technologies company focused on large-scale additive manufacturing. Melodie oversees the architectural direction of ICON’s built work as well as the performance of ICON’s building systems to deliver optimally-performing structures that shift the paradigm of homebuilding on Earth and in space. Melodie is a professor at Art Center College of Design. In previous roles, Melodie was a research associate at NASA Ames, as well as a co-founder of Space Exploration Architecture, a research group developing human supporting design concepts for space exploration. Her background is in industrial design, architecture, and human-computer interaction with an emphasis in robotics.

Graphic Designer Associate Chair and Professor, Graphic Design BFA, ArtCenter College of Design

Monica Schlaug designs opportunities for designers. She works with Graphic Design faculty, the department leadership team, and other divisional and schoolwide teams to craft and support outstanding creative education for current and future ArtCenter Graphic Design students, helping them develop industry-leading skills. As a Professor, she utilizes 25+ years of experience building and analyzing brand and packaging systems, and managing and mentoring creative teams. Her teaching spans across ArtCenter's undergraduate and graduate programs, including co-teaching sponsored project and Designmatters courses that connect students to esteemed companies and organizations. Prior to joining ArtCenter in 2020, she held the positions of Senior Design Director at John Paul Mitchell Systems, Creative Director at AdamsMorioka, and Senior Designer at Addis in Berkeley, CA.

Monica Schlaug

2023 Judges

Photographer and Artist Associate, Art Center College of Design (Film)

Ricky Weaver's is an image-based Artist whose object-oriented practice allows space for theorizing images in a way that extends beyond the photograph. Her practice interrogates how body, hymn, scripture, and the everyday appear as image and how that image functions as both archive and vessel. Weaver has exhibited her work in the U.S. and abroad including fairs such as ParisPhoto, EXPO Chicago, and Art Miami, among others. Her work has been acquired by institutions including the Black Studies Gallery at UT Austin, The Detroit Institute of Art, and The Wedge Collection. In addition to her artistic practice, Ricky serves as Association of Independent College of Art and Design (AICAD) Fellow at ArtCenter College of Design and a Co-Director for The Institute for Black Girls in Film and Media.

Ricky Weaver

Virj Kan

**Designer, Engineer and Entrepreneur Alumni, Art Center College of Design (Product Design)**
Virj Kan is a designer, engineer, and entrepreneur. Her work investigates new paradigms for design, through transdisciplinary research and technology development. Whether it is in the domain of business, technology or art, her work centers on reshaping human relationships with the environment and each other by elucidating the abstract information landscapes we exist in. Currently, she is based in Berkeley, California and leads a sustainable materials company called Primitives Biodesign. Primitives produces furniture, interior surfaces, and product designs from custom engineered biomaterials using a range of biological materials to combat environmental issues in ocean conservation, plastics pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and food waste. Kan’s work has been recognized by numerous awards, including the SXSW Interactive Innovation Award, Golden Mouse Award at the ACM SIGCHI, Information is Beautiful Award, Green Award from the Greentech Festival, and Fast Company Innovation by Design. Her work has been featured in Ars Electronica, TED, Forbes, Dezeen, Vice, SXSW, Biocoder, Popular Mechanics, Design Boom, Gizmodo, Fast Company, and Museum of Fine Arts Boston. She holds a Master of Science from the MIT Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science from Art Center College of Design.

Tracy Enayah

**Designer** **Alumni, Art Center College of Design**
Tracy started her career at Nike creating brand experiences that bring the consumer and culture together through storytelling moments and continued this journey leading a creative team at the Walt Disney Company. She values unfiltered and genuine perspectives and realities where she often finds moments of inspiration. She has always been drawn to brands, projects, and people that are trying to move the world beyond the status quo of everyday design. She believes in the human aspect of design where legacy and representation of those special souls should be recognized and lived on. She most recently consults for global agencies building strong creative teams with fresh perspectives for clients such as Nike, Adidas, Disney, Google, Netflix, and Jordan.

Cora Neil

**Environmental Designer Founder of Trellis Plant + Design**
Cora Neil is founder of Trellis Plant + Design, an environmental design studio that focuses on product and landscape design that supports outdoor living. Cora is certified in Horticulture and her work emphasizes harmonious interaction with nature and native ecosystems.

**Mia Ferrera Wiesenthal**

**Industrial Designer** **Associate Professor, Art Center College of Design (Product Design)**
Mia Ferrera Wiesenthal is an Industrial Designer and Educator from New York City. She developed her passion for three-dimensional object design while studying fine arts and furniture design at SUNY Purchase College. Mia went on to work at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, which led her to pursue a Master's in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute, where she specialized in home goods and ceramic manufacturing. Mia's love for ceramics led her to Los Angeles, where she has designed for major brands such as Starbucks and TJ Maxx, earning international recognition and multiple patents for her tableware designs. Alongside her manufacturing and materials expertise, she collaborates with various companies, including multinational corporations and startups. Mia is also a full-time Associate Professor at ArtCenter College of Design, where she passionately supports her students' growth and advocates for their success in school and the design field.

Stella Hernandez

**Interior Designer Professor, Art Center College of Design (ENV Design)**
Stella Hernandez is a designer and educator from Bogota, Colombia. Stella has been teaching in the Spatial Experience Design (formerly Environmental Design), ACX and Designmatters departments at ArtCenter College of Design since 2014. After receiving her first Bachelor of Industrial Design from Xavier University in Bogota, Colombia, Stella worked for several companies within the furniture and hospitality design fields in South America. Pursuing her interest for spatial design, she moved to California and received her second bachelor’s degree in Environmental Design from ArtCenter College of Design. In Los Angeles, Stella worked as a designer for a prominent interior design firm, contributing to many high-profile luxury residential projects, from interior architecture design to furniture, lighting, and finishing details, with many projects featured in interior design magazines. Stella established her own studio in 2015, working with interior design studios, manufacturers, and private clients. Her lighting and furniture pieces have been featured in leading interior design markets around the country as well as residential projects in Los Angeles, New York and Texas. Stella collaborates with Nimble Studio, developing branded commercial spaces for well-known companies In Latin America and around the world. Recently her personal work has been focused on developing projects that promote her own cultural identity through the study and creation of designs that celebrate Pre Colombian cultures Iconography. Her most recent designs are focused on celebrating tradition, materiality and hand crafted techniques from her native Colombia.

2022 Judges

Yo Oshima

Environmental Designer Professor, Art Center College of Design (ENV Design)

Yo Oshima is a designer/entrepreneur/educator from Tokyo, Japan. After receiving a master of architecture degree from SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) in 2006, he worked on residential and institutional architecture projects at deegay day design in Los Angeles. In 2015, Yo established a multi-disciplinary design studio, Amisoy, LLC in Los Angeles. Amisoy's philosophy is "We only design cool stuff." In other words, Amisoy will design anything that is cool, including architecture, interior, furniture, products, motion graphics and graphic design. Since 2010, Yo has been teaching at Environmental Design department of ArtCenter College of Design.

Elyse Marks

**Experiential Creative Director Alumni, Art Center College of Design (ENV Design)**
Elyse Marks is an experiential creative director and designer specializing in branded architecture and immersive storytelling for live events. She has created award winning experiences around the globe for clients including Disney, Google, Salesforce Toyota, Mazda, Heineken and more. In her personal creative practice, she explores the power of healing through nature, science and tech. Elyse was born and raised in Los Angeles and studied Product Design at Rhode Island School of Design and received her degree in Environmental Design from Art Center College of Design.

Fernando Olmedo

**Entertainment Designer** **Professor, Art Center College of Design (ENT Design)**
Fernando Olmedo is an LA based entertainment designer and instructor working in themed entertainment, mobile and tabletop game industries. He's worked for clients such as Disney Interactive and Fantasy Flight games. When he's not working he spends his time playing dungeons and dragons and reading speculative fiction. He is currently an instructor at ArtCenter college of design teaching in the Entertainment Design department.

Jeffrey "Jeff" Higashi

Product Designer Professor, Art Center College of Design (Product Design)

Jeff Higashi is an associate professor in the Product Design and Interaction Design departments at ArtCenter College of Design. His courses look at designing for health and wellness. He is an excellent resource on designing for disabilities, creating wearable devices to improve health and wellness, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, smart clothing and IOT. He has a decade of experience in developing consumer electronics and he is also a pioneer on football injury sensor technology.