Karissa leads The Lab @ DC’s team of Civic Design Researchers in the DC Office of the City Administrator. Some highlights of her work include accessible form design, centralizing city resources for homeowners, and developing clear housing and unemployment supports in response to the COVID pandemic. She is committed to making the design process accessible to non-designers and facilitates journey mapping, prototyping, and user-testing to address their most pressing problems—alternatives to policing, income inequality, housing, and education disparities. She holds a B.A. in sociology and political science and a Masters of Public Administration. She lives in DC with her husband and 1 year old son.