Shree Lakshmi (SL) Rao🇺🇸
Research + Strategy Director at Substantial
About Shree Lakshmi (SL) Rao
Research + Strategy Director at Substantial
Equity-centered system change design lead with over 10 years of experience across sectors (tech, philanthropy, global health and government). Designing systems change with a strong racial equity, inclusion and social justice mindset. End-to-end innovation and design expertise; including user experience, design strategy and design research.
Currently co-designing policy, technology and services with lived experts, community based organizations and government stakeholders in foster care, homelessness, disability and juvenile justice. My practice grounded in the practice of trauma informed design research, targeted universalism, co-design and complex systems theory. Strong proponent of evolving the design practice to be anti-racist, decolonized and systems thinking oriented.
Expertise
Sessions with Shree Lakshmi (SL) Rao
- Mentorship Session (30 min): General mentorship
What mentees say
“Shree Lakshmi was super knowledgeable and eager to share her experience working in equity design and strategy spaces. She is so laid back and approachable and love the insights she shared that are actionable right away. Looking forward to chatting again.”
“She was very precise in terms of general feedback, screens to show, and what's worth talking about in presenting. It was valuable to see where to focus attention from here.”
“It was an amazing mentoring session with Shree. We started by discussing the goal of the session. She is extremely skilled and knowledgeable. I was impressed with her ability to cover everything in 30 minutes. I received detailed, insightful, and actionable feedback on my resume and portfolio. She also advised me on different strategies for looking for a job.”