Valerie Fletcher, Institute for Human Centered Design executive director, will give a Paula G. Manship Endowed Lecture to the College of Art & Design titled “The Transformative Power of Designing for Human Experience” on Wednesday, November 12 at 3:30 p.m. in 103 Julian T.  White Hall.

Valerie Fletcher has been executive director since 1998 of the Institute for Human Centered Design (IHCD), an international design and education not-for-profit whose mission centers on the role of design in social equity across the spectrum of ability, age and culture. IHCD is a deep content expert in accessibility and Inclusive Design. IHCD was a pioneer in the Inclusive Design movement and also has run one of the 10 federally funded ADA Centers since 1996.

Fletcher writes, lectures, and works internationally. She generates opportunities for IHCD and has broad oversight of all consulting and design services. She created the IHCD User/Expert Lab in 2006 which has engaged hundreds of people with lived experience of disability to provide insights about what works and what fails in environments and technology for dozens of clients in the US and internationally. Her current research focus is building toward generating metrics for Inclusive Design from the extraordinary explosion of neuroscience.

She is councilor for the International Association for Universal Design (IAUD) in Japan and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Boston Architectural College. Fletcher has a master’s degree in ethics and public policy from Harvard University. The Boston Society of Architects awarded her the Women in Design award in 2005. The Helen Hamlyn Research Centre at the Royal College of Art in London named her Inclusive Design Champion 2022. She is on the jury for the inaugural International Union of Architects (UIA) Friendly and Inclusiv Spaces Awards.