Ayse Birsel, IDSA, is co-founder of Birsel+Seck, New York City, with clients that include Herman Miller Inc., Hewlett-Packard, Hasbro, Moroso, Johnson & Johnson, Target and Toyota. Raised in Turkey and a Fulbright Scholar, she is a National Design Awards Finalist and recipient of the 2001 Young Designer Award from the Brooklyn Museum of Art. In 2008, the Rhode Island School of Design honored her with an Athena Award for Excellence in Furniture Design. She has won several top honors from the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) among others, and her work appears in such museums as MoMa and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, both in New York City.

John Caruso, IDSA, is associate professor at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He currently serves as Midwest district vice president on the IDSA Board of Directors, and he has been published frequently by the Society. He also speaks about industrial design to non-design groups such as the Wisconsin Presidents Organization and K-12 educators. An advocate of recycling, Caruso won an NEA grant to further his research into using high-content post consumer recycled and sustainable materials for products. His students have won numerous awards from IDSA’s IDEA, the International Housewares Association and the Dyson Competition.

Gregg M. Davis, IDSA, is principal at Design Central in Columbus, Ohio, where his focus on strategic thinking, brand strategy and user-centered consumer products has won international design awards for Whirlpool, LG and GE. A past member of the IDSA Board of Directors and executive editor of its Innovation Magazine, he has taught design, marketing and entrepreneurship at US business and design schools. An international presenter, he is developing methods to predict how people respond to a design. He also focuses on the cultural context of design as fuel for export-building innovation, working with designers at the Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico.

Dale E. Fahnstrom, IDSA, is professor of product design, Institute of Design/Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Most recently he completed project grants for the Mac Arthur Foundation Digital Learning Initiative to explore informal learning environments in libraries, resulting in a project called ThinkeringSpace. Fahnstrom’s clients range from Knoll International and Steelcase to Philips Electronics and NEC. His work in packaging design is featured in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and his Bulldog chair, designed with Michael McCoy, IDSA, was Knoll’s largest selling seating product throughout the ‘90s.

Aura Oslapas, IDSA, is a principal of A+O, a creative consultancy in San Francisco that collaborates with senior management to apply design thinking to their business challenges, helping them improve people’s daily experiences across products, services and environments. In addition to leading A+O for a collective 15 years, she has held senior posts at IDEO and SY Partners, building experience-focused practices and garnering design awards for many of her projects. With a Master’s from Cranbrook Academy of Art, she applies a wide range of qualitative research methods, creating experience scenarios, specifications and plans for clients ranging from Fortune 50 companies to cultural institutions and startups

Patricia A. Moore, Ph.D. FIDSA, is president of MooreDesign Associates, Phoenix, Arizona. Current projects include the Honolulu Light Rail and Medical Rehab Centers for the Veteran's Administration. Moore's expertise blends gerontology with design for insight into consumer lifespan behaviors. She pioneered immersive research and role play techniques. For three years, Dr. Moore traveled in the persona of an 80 year old, achieving the transformation with complicated prosthetics that simulated the sensory and appearance changes of aging. Her seminal work placed universal design in the public eye and her first book, Disguised: A True Story, will be followed in 2010 by The Business of Aging.