about.

I'm an all-terrain collaborator with an eye for the details, a mind for the bigger picture, and a heart that falls in love with every problem it has ever met.

I have experience in:

tech / corporate
nonprofit
education
healthcare
mental health

I've worked with:

design + product teams
researchers + analysts
doctors + nurses
social workers
therapists + psychiatrists

who I am & how I work

I'm happiest when I'm doing interesting projects with interesting people while wearing an assortment of interesting hats.

I may have grown up wanting to be a marine biologist, but I've done pretty much everything else since. I've been an artist and a musician and a teacher. I've worked in painting studios, recording studios, fitness studios, classrooms, hospitals, research labs, several almond orchards, the occasional barn, and more than one bar band (those won't be listed here). Over the years, I've made drawings and photographs and radio shows and service blueprints and chat bots, and I've learned from everything I've ever touched. I have an MFA in Design, an MS in Community Development, and an IDK in everything else (but I'm willing to find out the hard way). I'm currently a Senior Service Designer at Headspace, where I'm helping my team imagine the future of how people care for their minds.

I grew up in the woods of far Northern California, and I'm currently based in the Davis / Sacramento area.

I'm always mixing methods.

I'm equally at home in everything from hosting focus groups for high-level concept development to kerning the second letter of a subheading 2.5 pixels to the right. Working across many different modalities has deepened my sense of possibility and the sharpened my skills in identifying and actualizing the next right thing in any project timeline.

I'm a one-person production studio (who plays nicely with others).

I have media training in visual/information design, audio, photography, and video — if there's a story to get across, there's probably more than one good way of telling it.

I'm at home in ambiguity.

I am well-acclimated to complexity and creative uncertainty. I am used to thinking on my feet and working with what I have, and I take satisfaction in hacking the tools I have on hand for new purposes. I have been told more than once that growing up in a scrappy little town has made me resourceful, and I consider this to be high praise.

I prioritize serving over solving.

Ethics are at the center of my work, and I’m mindful of how designers and researchers (and anyone else) can impose ideological and cultural norms on those they’re supposed to help. My practice is trauma-aware, consent-driven, and grounded in curiosity and humility. If I do my job right, everyone should feel heard (and no one should feel spoken for).

I make room for joy.

I've been known to show up to a workshop in costume and with a playlist at the ready. I believe in the power of play — not just as something that brightens up the work day, but as a way of connecting people to one another and thinking through problems in new ways. I am always looking for opportunities to bring games and narratives into my design and research practice, and I prioritize human-to-human connection with anyone I work with.

education & certifications

Formal education

MFA Design
University of California, Davis (2022)

MS Community Development
University of California, Davis (2021)

BA Design with Highest Honors
University of California, Davis (2015)

AA Studio Art with Honors
Shasta College (2013)

Credentials

National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach
NBHWC (2024)

Certified End-of-Life Specialist
Teaching Transitions (2021)

Select trainings

Mental Health Coaching Certificate
Headspace Training Institute (2023)

Alternate Futures Scenario Building Workshop +
Futures Thinking Specialization
Institute for the Future (2023)

Asking Different Questions — Research Training Series
Feminist Research Institute (2021)

Digital Storytelling Certificate
StoryCenter (2021)

experience & past work

Select experience

Senior Service Designer
Headspace (2022-present)

Storytelling & Audiovisual Technician
Imagining America Leading and Learning Initiative (2021)

Visual & User Experience Designer
UC Davis Center for Design in the Public Interest (2015-2017)

Research positions

Graduate student researcher
functional apparel: anxiety, pandemic protection
UC Davis Department of Design (2021)

Graduate student researcher
complexity, disaster preparedness, community gaming
UC Davis Department of Design (2019-2020)

Qualitative interview research resident
Hill Country Health and Wellness — CARE Center (2019)

Teaching positions

Design Instructor
University of California, Davis

DES 198 Documentation for Designers
Fall 2021 (seminar/studio)
DES 159 Design for Understanding
Spring 2020, 2021 (capstone studio)

Teaching Assistantships
University of California, Davis

DES 116 Visual Communication
Winter 2021 (studio)
DES 001 Intro to Design
Fall 2020 (lecture + discussion section)
DES 191 Functional Apparel Design
Winter 2020 (studio)
DES 170 Experimental Fashion
Fall 2019 (studio)

publications & presentations

Academic papers

Documentation for Designers: media-based self-reflection tools for undergraduate students
Transformative Teaching
AMPS (2022)

Documenting new design ontologies
DRS2022 Bilbao
Design Research Society (2022)

Chemical Reactions: an autoethnography of neuroendocrine illness & Facebook support groups
UC Davis Community Development Graduate Group
ProQuest (2021)

Chronic Design: toward an ethics of the unsolvable
Design4Health proceedings
Lab4Living (2020)

Chapters

Connecting Classrooms and Publics
Public Interest Design Education Guidebook
coauthored with Susan Verba and Sarah Perrault
Routledge (2018)

The Oddyssey
UC Davis Prized Writing
UC Davis (2014)

Lectures & Talks

Care x Design: Service Design in Mental Health Tech
2024 Pride Summit
Lesbians Who Tech & Allies (2024)

Documentation for Designers: media-based self-reflection tools for undergraduate students
Transformative Teaching
Amps (2022)

Documenting new design ontologies
DRS2022 Bilbao
Design Research Society (2022)

Documentation for Designers: cultivating media-based reflective practices
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference
UC Davis (2021)

awards & recognition

Project awards

Savageau Award in Design
Deshonesty
UC Davis Department of Design (2022)

Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award
Documentation for Designers
UC Davis Graduate Studies (2021-22)

International Institute for Information Design IIID Award, Gold
Outpatient Radio
UC Davis Center for Design in the Public Interest (2020)

Social Economic Environmental Design (SEED), Honorable Mention
Outpatient Radio
UC Davis Center for Design in the Public Interest (2018)

San Francisco Design Week Award, Wild Card category
Outpatient Radio
UC Davis Center for Design in the Public Interest (2018)

SAPPI Ideas that Matter Award (team)
The Communicating Pain Project
UC Davis Center for Design in the Public Interest (2016)

questions? collabs? requests? hot tips? projects? events? ideas? complaints? connections? pets? poems? scholarly interests? reflections? recipes?questions? collabs? requests? hot tips? projects? events? ideas? complaints? connections? pets? poems? scholarly interests? reflections? recipes?questions? collabs? requests? hot tips? projects? events? ideas? complaints? connections? pets? poems? scholarly interests? reflections? recipes?

trace manuel.

I'd love to hear what you're thinking:
tm@tracemanuel.com
or send a booking inquiry