CTSA International Initiative Director, Lisa Naugle, is pleased to announce the new Guest Artist Speaker Series: Global Perspectives and Artistic Practice. The series intends to engage the UCI Community with national and international participants and focuses on promoting diversity of thought and practice in the arts.

Adah Parris is a futurist, cultural strategist, systems designer, and artist who uses a humanity-centered design approach to creative problem-solving in order to spark transformational change in cultures, communities, and organizations. A polymath and enthusiastic curator of people, patterns, and stories, Adah was recognized as one of the United Kingdom’s Top 100 Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Leaders in Technology in 2018. In 2019, she was nominated by Google as one of the TED Talks Global Emerging Innovators. In 2020, she was longlisted as one of the Most Influential Women in UK Technology. She is currently an Artist in Residence at The Design Science Studio (Buckminister Fuller Institute).

Adah has worked with businesses and individuals in marketing, advertising, media, entrepreneurship, technology startups, and education. Her clients include Unilever, Google, Universal Music, The British Council, Sainsbury’s, Ogilvy Labs, Innovate Finance, The EU Council, the British Film Institute (BFI), Wayra UK, The Friday Club, and ArabNet Dubai. Adah’s innovative approach and experience have led her to be a frequently sought-after keynote speaker for The House of Beautiful Business in Lisbon, the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) Emerging Technology Showcase, and the ArabNet Digital Summit in Dubai. She has spoken at Uniqlo Tate Lates, a response to Artist Jenny Holzer’s Truism: Technology will Make or Break Us. She has co-hosted The Fourth Group Political Summit 2018 – Citizens in the Digital Age. In November 2019, she hosted an immersive roundtable discussion on Cyborg Shamanism and the design of Future Technologies at the Tate Modern.

Adah’s current interests lie in the anatomy of transformation and innovation, from ancient wisdom, natural systems, and indigenous community practices to digital and emerging technologies. Her speaking topics include finding balance in the digital world and the impacts of the commoditization of technology.