2025 UCDA Design Conference: Resilience

Amina Cruz was born and lives in Los Angeles. She hitchhiked around the country before deciding to move to New York City, where she earned her BFA in Photography from Parsons School of Design. She also holds a MFA from UCLA.

Her interests are based in queer culture, film/analog photography, and exploring the space between transformation and identity. Her current work explores the outsider cultures of brown queer punks throughout the Americas.

Learn more: www.aminacruz.com

Sheharazad Fleming is an Iranian-American creative director whose work bridges strategic communications and visual storytelling to drive cultural and civic impact. As former Director of Digital Communications for the Mayor of Los Angeles and Creative Director for institutions like University of Southern California and Otis College of Art and Design, she has mobilized design in service of the people and narratives that shape Los Angeles. Sheharazad is the President and Board Chair of Corita Art Center, where she champions the legacy of artist, social justice advocate, and educator Corita Kent—an ethos she extends into her role as a professor at ArtCenter College of Design. She heads the community design studio WE MUST BE BOLD and serves as Editor-in-Chief of The Great Discontent, a platform dedicated to sharing the journeys of artists committed to using creativity as a catalyst for social change.

Learn more: sheharazad-fleming.com

Matthew Manos is the founder of verynice, a design strategy practice that gives half of its work away for free to nonprofit organizations. verynice’s clientele includes Apple, Google, UNICEF, NASA and the American Heart Association. Manos also served as inaugural chair of the Los Angeles Creative Advisory Board established by former Mayor Eric Garcetti. At the Academy, Matthew serves as Associate Dean; leads a robust portfolio of industry-facing initiatives that challenge students to develop projects in response to complex problems faced by individuals, communities, organizations, and society at-large.

Matthew has served as a guest lecturer at business accelerator programs, colleges, high schools, and universities around the world. With Apple Education, he created content and training on strategic foresight and creativity for 690 K-12 schools spanning 36 countries. Matthew has also served as a Founding Curriculum Designer for the Iovine and Young Center (IYC). Part of a nationwide effort to re-imagine high school, IYC is a public high school curriculum that integrates design, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Called “crazy or genius” by Forbes, and named one of seven millennials changing the world by the Huffington Post, Manos’ pioneering work in the fields of design and social enterprise has inspired thousands of practitioners to engage in socially and environmentally responsible business. An author and editor of numerous books and toolkits on design strategy, social innovation and creativity, Manos regularly speaks at institutions and events across the globe. His work and ideas have also been featured in numerous print, online and broadcast venues including Fast Company, MTV, Wired, Inc., and Business Insider.

Manos holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Media Design Practices from ArtCenter College of Design, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Design Media Arts from UCLA. Prior to his current teaching appointment at the Academy, Manos was a teacher at the Strelka Institute in Moscow, an adjunct professor in the Master of Business Administration in Design Strategy at CCA, and an adjunct faculty member at the ArtCenter College of Design.

Learn more: mattmanos.com

David Rager is an accomplished Creative Director with over two decades of experience in design leadership, brand building, and environmental experiences. As NASA's current Creative Director, he oversees the agency's visual brand and iconic Graphics Standards Manual and is responsible for reintroducing the NASA Logotype (Worm). Previously, Rager led teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Disney, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and the New Museum, and co-founded Weekends, a design studio operating between Paris and Los Angeles.

Learn more: davidrager.co

Louise Sandhaus is a graphic designer and educator, and the founder of The People’s Graphic Design Archive, a pioneering crowd-sourced platform dedicated to diversifying and preserving graphic design history. Until recently, she served on the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and is the author of the widely acclaimed Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires, and Riots: California and Graphic Design, 1936–1986 (2014). She also co-authored A Colorful Life: Gere Kavanaugh, Designer (2019) with Kat Catmur, published by Princeton Architectural Press.

Her contributions to the field include serving as a board member of Letterform Archive and as a former board member of AIGA. In 2022, she received the prestigious AIGA Medal in recognition of her exceptional impact on the design community.