Bio
Shilpa is Principal Faculty, Interdisciplinary Design Studies at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, where she heads the PhD Programme and the Liberal Arts Studies Programme and is mentor, Film and Video Communication. She has been involved in outreach projects with the government of India at NID working on social development projects. Shilpa is on the Advisory Boards of: Missing Billion Initiative & Philips Inclusive Health Facility Co Design Project, London (2022); McKinsey's Design for Good initiative (2022); Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on using human-centered design (HCD) in global health (2018) and the Core Project on women’s sexual/reproductive health in India, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania (2019-20); the Swiss Graduate Network of Use-Inspired Research in Design, Switzerland since 2018; and, Vice-Chairperson of the Indian Disability Studies Collective since 2021. She serves widely on international juries, PhD Defences and scientific committees. She has been awarded research grants in collaborative projects with Konstfack University, Sweden; Swinburne University of Technology in Australia (awarded by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research); University of the Arts, London (awarded by the British Council), London and Lucerne School of Art and Design, Switzerland (awarded by The Swiss Leading House South Asia and Iran). She has been Visiting/ Guest Faculty at Marist College, New York; HTW Berlin; Royal College of Art, London; Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne; School of Art and Design, Lucerne University; Politecnico di Milano, Milan among others. Shilpa has been the Founding Editor of The Trellis, a research based publication and a magazine called D/signed. She is the editor and author of the book 50 Years of the National Institute of Design: 1961-2011 (2013) and co-editor of the book, Indian Crafts in a Globalizing World (2017). She is co-editor of a special issue on Human Centred Design in Global Health for the journal, Global Health: Science and Practice, Taylor and Francis (2021).
