Mira Azarm is GoodJinn

Notable Engagements

UMD Innovations in Teaching and Learning Conference
“Zombie Metamorphosis 101: Designing Learning Environments for Innovation,” with Erica Estrada-Liou, April 2015

You walk into your basement classroom and are greeted by bolted down chairs, chalkboards at the front of the room and a low-energy haze created by the combination of a post-lunch class hour and the darkness of a windowless classroom. As students start to zombie-walk in, you realize that although the project for your course has huge potential for impact, it is going to be next-to-impossible to raise the energy level, get students up out of the chairs dreaming up big, radical ideas. Creating the content to impart to students during a course session is only 20% of the challenge that we educators face every day: the other 80% consists of creating appropriate physical and emotional spaces, being intentional about modeling desired behaviors and cultivating the external partners. Designing learning environments for innovation is a framework that can help equip students with the skills needed to affect some of the world’s most complicated problems. We'll present the five pieces in this framework along with concrete and actionable examples and “things to try.”

AIGA DC Shine Mentoring Celebration
Keynote Speaker, May 2014 & May 2015

Designing Social Change: AIGA DC event
Panelist, Dec. 4, 2015

Social design is an attempt to find creative solutions to complex problems facing our communities—from food deserts to employment barriers. Join us on December 4th for an evening of short presentations followed by a panel discussion with four of MICA’s Robert W. Deutsch Social Design Fellows. Each fellow will talk briefly about how they’ve implemented social design principles—research, cross-disciplinary collaboration and prototyping—while sharing their personal stories, projects, and initiatives. More info

International Youth Foundation / YouthAction.net
Social design process webinars with Jonathan Erwin, April–August 2014

Can designers make a difference? Increasingly, designers are taking prominent roles in the creation of initiatives for solving social issues. Discover the emerging field of social design and learn strategies to implement a human-centered, collaborative approach to creating innovative social change solutions in this two-part YouthActionNet webinar series with special guest presenters Mira Azarm and Jonathan Erwin from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)'s masters degree program in social design (MASD) and YouthActionNet Fellow Jessica Lax, co-founder and director of the School for Change. 

Social Design: Tools for Change - Focus and Connect
Social Design: Grounding Solutions in the Creative Pr ocess

“Focus & Connect” Workshop
Better World x Design Conference, RISD & Brown University
September 2013 (with Jonathan Erwin) & September 2014

The social change process has many entry points but few guideposts. This workshop will guide you through the ups and downs of tackling a big social issue, teaching you how to focus goals and leverage connections to make attainable change. Come to workshop with a project in mind, or a willingness to learn tools of the trade.

Practice and Possibilities: AIGA Baltimore & MICA Social Design event
Panelist, April 29, 2014

Great change begins with a single idea. When multiple ideas converge, the possibilities are magnified. Social design is an evolving practice that supports collaborative environments and strives to discover creative solutions to our most complex problems through partnerships. The practice of social design has changed the way we interact with the world. As organizational silos begin to break down, the collaboration between disciplines has proven to have an incredible impact on successful problem solving. Join AIGA Baltimore at Maryland Institute College of Art for a lecture from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Social Design Fellows. Event recap

AIGA DC Design Continuum Fund Fundraiser
Keynote Speaker, Nov. 20, 2013

MICA Graduate Student Convocation
With Jonathan Erwin, August 26, 2013

Helping incoming graduate students feel better about their pending shower-free days and all-nighters.

UMD Alternative Breaks Reunion Event: React
Speaker, April 24, 2013

Baltimore Green week
Co-Presenter with Neighborhood Design Center, May 2013