Katie is a creative professional working in ‘social design’, lecturing and practising in design and working with communities. Her work is nationally and internationally recognised. Katie designs tools for engaging communities in social and environmental change using making as a method for community engagement. She has extensive experience as an academic, charity trustee and community organisation founder.

Social design is becoming a more widely recognised field of creative practice and Katie has been at the forefront of its development. Social design can be defined as participatory approaches to researching, generating and realising new ways to make change happen towards collective and social ends, rather than predominantly commercial objectives or applying design methodologies to complex human problems. A lot of this work happens through social enterprises, charities and universities, and Katie has worked for over 20 years around the UK and internationally on social design projects. She has pioneered a new social design approach using place-based thinking for more sensitive and responsible working with communities. This work includes her extensive work with communities at South Bank Studios and Southlands Methodist Church and is published in her PhD thesis and other academic publications.

A keen lifelong maker, Katie moved into Southlands in 2019 to have space for more hands-on making and she has been very active in supporting the development of the studios and many community projects, making a significant contribution to the multiple communities within Southlands Methodist Church including Southlands Community Garden, Friends of Rowntree Park, York Sling Library and Planet Food Cafe.

Katie uses making as a method for community engagement. She also enjoys making for family, friends and occasional craft fairs. Katie works with a wide range of media and likes to experiment in mixing materials and methods. Her work is characterised by a strong sensitivity for colour and texture, exploring pattern making and abstract designs. She prioritise environmental sensitivity and is working with reclaimed materials and zero waste methods. She is a keen Zine maker.

Selected Positions and Volunteer Roles:

Katie has been a charity trustee at Space2, an award winning participatory arts and social change charity in Leeds, since 2015.

Katie is a member of the Design Feminisms Research Group at Northumbria University and is a part-time lecturer at Leeds Beckett University. For many years Katie taught at specialist arts summer camp Appel Farm in New Jersey, USA. She has organised and exhibited at multiple exhibitions including exhibitions about making and mental health.

In 2021 Katie became the volunteer co-ordinator for Southlands Community Garden - you can find out more about the garden on their Facebook page

Published in early 2023 Katie was a Guest Editor for a special edition of the Journal of Applied Arts and Health on ‘Well-Making and Making-Well: Craft, Design and Everyday Creativity for Health and Well-Being’. You can find out more about Katie’s article on makerspaces in social design projects here.

Katie is also a musician and music promoter as part of Let's Go Baboon with her partner Stuart. 

Qualifications include: 

BTEC ND Foundation Studies in Art and Design (Lincoln College of Art) 

BA (Hons) Three Dimensional Design (Leeds Metropolitan University)

PGCHE teaching qualification and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Leeds Metropolitan University)

Master of Arts by Research ‘Designing the change: a documentation of collaborative community based design practice in Leeds, UK.’ (The Leeds School of Art, Architecture and Design at Leeds Beckett University)

PhD ‘A place-based approach to grassroots social designing with communities’ (Northumbria School of Design at Northumbria University)