Rachael Dietkus
Founder, Principal Design Strategist, and Social Worker, Social Workers Who Design

Rachael Dietkus is a pioneering social worker-designer dedicated to integrating care, ethics, and trauma awareness into design and civic technology. With 24 years of experience in social justice and public service, Rachael is currently a Digital Services Expert at the United States Digital Service under the White House, focusing on trauma-informed public service design. She runs Social Workers Who Design, a consultancy that nurtures trauma literacy among designers. Rachael contributed to “Feminist Designer” and is authoring a book on trauma and design with The MIT Press. As an RSA Fellow and a fellow with the Social Work Futures Lab, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, she advocates for ethical, trauma-responsive civic technology. Her work emphasizes ‘design care,’ an intentional framework rooted in ethics of care, possibility, and accountability. Rachael’s mission is to redefine success by the safety and well-being people feel in design.

Sessions by Speaker
The power to heal and harm
Thursday, March 13, 2025 | 12:05pm - 12:35pm PST