Steffanie Espat is the Co-Design (Convergent Design) Lead for the Multiscale RECIPES for Sustainable Food Systems research network at MICA’s Center for Creative Impact.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Studio Art with a Concentration in Graphic Design from the University of Maryland, Steffanie worked as a graphic designer for the ONE Campaign and her alma mater, collaborating on projects such as Word AIDS Day and TERP Magazine.
Steffanie went on to earn her Master of Arts in Social Design (MASD) from MICA, using her graduate thesis to focus on transforming food waste from universities into local food equity, using MICA and other Baltimore universities as a case study. During her time at MICA, Steffanie also worked with local partners on issues such as patient safety and misidentification at Johns Hopkins hospital, school library use at the Baltimore Design School, and the impacts of smoking mandates on public housing residents with the Baltimore City Health Department. Steffanie also completed a graduate fellowship with Made in Baltimore and Sew Lab USA, where she helped develop an industrial sewing training curriculum.
Prior to joining the Center for Creative Impact, Steffanie worked as a Design Strategist at Booz Allen Hamilton, using her human-centered design and visual design skills to serve federal clients. During her time at Booz Allen, she initially worked with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), exploring their home health benefit. She later worked with the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Veterans Experience Office (VEO) as a project lead, using HCD to explore and improve VA healthcare-oriented services. During her three and a half years working with VEO, Steffanie led seven and supported eleven projects, including four projects that led to over one million dollars in continued work. Beyond her work with CMS and VEO, Steffanie also supported efforts to improve internal systems, communications, and training. She developed products to demonstrate the Design Strategy capability, co-wrote proposals for new work, and organized MASD studio visits for students to learn about working at Booz Allen as a Design Strategist.
Outside of her nine to five, Steffanie has been a guest speaker and critic at the University of Maryland and Drexel University. She was also a member of the 2025 Science and Faith Advisory Board for the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC).
Publications and Published Work
Steffanie’s work in both human-centered design and graphic design has been published online and in print:
Fresh Rescue Champions Project
- Fresh Rescue Champions Final Report
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Maryland Food Summit Presentation (Starting at 2:40)
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Frontiers in Public Health, “Methods for using worker-centered research to improve food donation and reduce wasted food in a grocery retail setting”
Multiscale RECIPES for Sustainable Food Systems
- RECIPES Guiding Principles and Community Norms
- Ecology and society, “Whither Convergence? Co-Designing Convergent Research and Wrestling with its Emergent Tensions”
- RECIPES Convergence Tenets and Tensions
- A Tale of Tenets and Tensions: Our journey to create a common language and collective understanding of “convergence” across the RECIPES Network
VA Veterans Experience Office (VEO)
- Journeys of VA Employees Map
- Women Veterans Benefits Experience Journey Map
- Understanding the Community Care Process
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS)
Education
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MA, Social Design, 2017, Maryland Institute College of Art
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BA, Studio Art with a Concentration in Graphic Design, 2015, University of Maryland