Dr. Andrea Wilkinson, Senior Researcher and Lecturer Design and Care

Andrea is a Professor of Design and Coordinator of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters in Design and Healthcare, Response_Able Futures and researcher in the Inter-Actions Research Group. A designer, researcher and lecturer (and mom!), she has expertise in interaction design, visual language communication, service design and design education. In her research, she mainly focuses on design equity and how empathy emerges within the designer through interaction and participation with ‘design-poor’ individuals (people with dementia, young people with autism, people with a disability, people on the fringes of society, etc). This relation-based design participation between designer and participant and necessary proxy participants informs design decisions (products, services, functionality) as well as a designer’s future creative practice.

In 2016, together with Dr. Hendriks, she co-founded the Dementia Lab Conference. A native of the US, but based in Belgium since 2010, Andrea is active mainly in Belgium, but has also worked in New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, Portugal and India in workshops and educational exchanges.

Since 2024, she has led a team from Sheffield Hallam University (UK) and the University of Aviero (PT), within the European Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) in Design and Health_Care, ResponseAbleFutures. ResFut brings together international top designers from diverse disciplines together in a two-year, intensive Masters programme focused solely on the care industry and creating impact through design. She is also involved with the Erasmus+ project EduCare looks at developing a care-centered educational framework for design education that promotes well-being, inclusion, and innovative teaching pracitces.