Liz
Ogbu

Founder and Principal, Studio O, San Francisco, US

A designer, urbanist, and spatial justice advocate, Liz is an expert on social and spatial innovation in challenged urban environments globally. 

From designing shelters for immigrant day laborers in the U.S. to a water and health social enterprise for low-income Kenyans, Liz has a long track record of working with/in communities in need to leverage the power of design to catalyze sustained social impact. Her work blends a combination of community-centered research; dynamic forms of engagement and prototyping; spatially just architecture and planning; and tools to build participatory power and community-centered systems.. She is founder and principal of Studio O, a multidisciplinary design practice that works at the intersection of racial and spatial justice. 

Liz has been actively involved in shaping two of the world’s pioneering social impact design nonprofits. In 2011, she was part of the inaugural class of Innovators-in-Residence at IDEO.org, IDEO’s sister nonprofit dedicated to fostering global poverty reduction through design and innovation. Prior to that, she was Design Director at Public Architecture, a national nonprofit mobilizing designers to create social change. Whether interviewing day laborers on street corners in the US, analyzing health clinics in Bolivia, or developing innovative strategies for cookstove adoption in Tanzania, she has worked to advance the cause of innovative design and strategic thinking to meaningfully shift the needle on people’s access, opportunities, and outcomes.

In addition to her practice, Liz has had a long commitment to bringing social impact work into the classroom where her courses and research explore opportunities at intersection of design, justice, and engagement. She currently is on the faculty and advisory board of the Design Futures Student Leadership Forum, a university consortium that brings together student leaders, university faculty, and practitioners to learn and discuss best practices in social equity and community impact. She taught at the California College of the Arts for several years, most recently holding an appointment as the inaugural Scholar in Residence at the college’s Center for Art and Public Life. She has also been on faculty at UC Berkeley and Stanford’s d.school. In Spring 2017, she was the Harry W. Porter Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia. Liz has also been a visiting scholar, previously serving in that capacity at the Maryland Institute College of Art and as the inaugural Expert-in-Residence at the Taylor Center for Design Thinking and Social Design at Tulane University. She also was the 2016 Droga Architect-in-Residence in Australia, investigating urban marginalized populations and community development practices in the country.

Liz frequently lectures and leads workshops on spatial justice, social innovation, and human-centered design. Previous appearances include the Aspen Ideas Festival, Congress of the International Union of Architects, the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, and TEDWomen. Her TED and TEDx Talks have been viewed over a million times.

Liz has written for and been profiled in publications such as The New York Times, National Public Radio’s TED Radio Hour, The Atlantic’s City Lab, and the Journal of Urban Design. Her work has also been widely exhibited globally, including at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Benaki Museum (Athens), and the Venice Biennale. Among her many honors include the Holcim Global Innovation Prize, Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar, Public Interest Design’s Top 100, and the International Interior Design Association’s Titan Award.

Liz earned her Bachelor of Arts in architecture from Wellesley College and Master of Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.