Introducing New Board Member
CoDesign Collaborative is pleased to welcome Karen Robichaud to the Board!
Join us in welcoming Karen Robichaud to the CoDesign Collaborative Board!
Karen Robichaud is a Bay-area based experienced storyteller in the arts, architecture, and design. She cultivates a holistic approach to strategic communications and leadership development. Skilled at articulating design excellence, she has developed successful submissions for several AIA award programs such as Firm Award (Payette – 2019; Quinn Evans – 2024; LPA – 2025), COTE Top Ten, Young Architect, and Fellowship. Karen is a frequent speaker at conferences like SMPS Amplify and the AIA Women’s Leadership Summit; she also presents at architecture schools about strategic communications. She served as the guest editor of Design Museum Magazine’s Issue 025, Common Space and has written articles for the AIA YAF quarterly magazine, Connection, SMPS’s Marketer, and several AIA newsletters. Prior to joining the board, Karen was on CoDesign Collaborative’s Advisory Council
Read about her interest in the board and her insight into design and social change:
CoDesign Collaborative: What inspired you to join the board?
Karen: Having known the organization from its earliest days, I’ve gotten to see it evolve and am honored to have the opportunity to continue to engage and support CoDesign Collaborative into the future. As someone working alongside designers, CoDesign Collaborative has afforded me outlets to cultivate my design mindset and skills. I have such an appreciation for the community I’ve found through this organization and want to continue bringing designers and design-minded creatives together through discourse, problem-solving, and community building.
CoDesign Collaborative: How do you see design contributing to social change?
Karen: Engaging with designers has expanded my perspective on the world around me. Challenging myself and my collaborators to think differently, imagine differently, better, different is empowering. And has the potential to lead to social change. Design offers possibility and entices our imaginations, which helps us build a better world.
CoDesign Collaborative: What advice do you have for creative professionals who want to make a difference in their communities?
Karen: Be in community and build community. The way forward is together and through mutual aid and growth. We don’t do this alone so find your community, listen, learn, and create together.
Members of the Board of Directors are experts in CoDesign Collaborative’s impact areas and design fields. In alignment with Staff and Council, they govern the organization, set strategic priorities, and implement programs, while ensuring adequate resources and strong community are available to accomplish the organization’s mission.