Nan O'Sullivan

Nan has a strong background of serving in academic leadership roles, developing innovative initiatives and managing impactful curriculum and organisational change. Nan emphasises the critical position design holds at the nexus of innovation, technology, human and ecological health and societal well-being. Nan believes in building the self-efficacy of our students to be entrepreneurial and impactful as a part of meaningful aspirations and through their creative practice. Nan's roles have included Head of the School of Design Innovation,  Associate Dean (students), Wellington Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation, Deputy Head of School, and the Programme Director of the First Year and the founding Programme Director of the Design for Social Innovation programme. Nan is also an Advisor and Juror for the Don Norman Design Award - a global award that champions Humanity-Centered Design (HCD+) globally, emphasising the rights and well-being of humanity, encompassing diverse cultures, the environment, and all living beings. https://dnda.design/

Nan's work seeks to enable positive change through design and explores this alongside the design provocation Transition Design. She was awarded Principal Fellow (HEA) in 2021, acknowledging her global leadership in shifting design education towards greater inclusion of Indigenous and diverse knowledge and systems. Her teaching and research emphasise design's roles, responsibilities and impact within society and to the environment. Specific to Nan's scholarship is the incorporation of Indigenous, place-based knowledge and plural ways of thinking, doing and being as critical components within the narratives we articulate and work we do to drive social impact, community-building, and sustainable design practices. Nan embraces diversity and her inclusive approach to teaching, learning and research elucidates to a global audience the multiplicities and intricacies of the designed world, its vocabulary, technologies and its possibilities.

Nan pursues a learning environment in which our design graduates are well-versed, well-equipped, well-prepared and confident enough to confront the complex challenges of our time. Nan's leadership in the teaching and learning environment saw her awarded the Victoria Early Career Teaching Excellence Award and the Victoria Equity and Diversity Excellence Award in 2016 and 2017 respectively. 

Nan primarily teaches in the Design for Social Innovation programme, which has gained international recognition for offering an 'exceptional model of design education, uniquely rooted in mātauranga Māori and for its crucial role in developing a new generation of leaders ready to make a positive impact on our global community'.