Lunch Sessions
Bring your lunch to these discussions and activities!
Synergies and Misalignments in Ethnography and Product Development
Monday, August 19, 12:45–1:45 pm, East Wing Music Hall
Facilitator: Sue Wairimu, Associate Project Manager at PATH Living Labs
For two decades, the EPIC community has been demonstrating the value of ethnography to engineering and product development – and confronting some foundational misalignments. In this session, we will reflect on our collective experiences and today’s new challenges to develop strategies and practices for our next decade.
SUE WAIRIMU (she/her) is Associate Product Manager at PATH Living Labs. She gained a strong foundational background in engineering from her studies in Civil Engineering at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). Sue applies engineering principles to problem-solving and decision-making, creating solutions that meet user needs.
EPIC Board Roundtables
Tuesday, August 20, 1:15–2:00 pm, East Wing Music Hall
Join the EPIC Board to find out what we’re up to, how you can get involved in EPIC programs, and chat about your hopes and dreams for the community, ethnography, and our field in the years to come.
Simon Roberts, Board President (Stripe Partners); Shakima Jackson-Martinez, AnswerLab (Board Member); Samantha Gottlieb (Board Treasurer); Alexandra Zafiroglu (Board Secretary), Australian National University; Shriram Venkatraman (Board Member), University of Southern Denmark; Jennifer Collier Jennings, EPIC Executive Director
SIMON ROBERTS began his career with a PhD on the satellite TV revolution in mid 1990s India. He started the UK’s first dedicated ethnographic research company, Ideas Bazaar, then led an R&D team at Intel’s Digital Health Group. In 2013, Simon co-founded Stripe Partners, a strategy and innovation consultancy. Simon has been an EPIC author/presenter, curator, peer reviewer, and co-chair of EPIC2012 and EPIC2013.
SHAKIMA JACKSON-MARTINEZ (she/her) is a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leader with 15+ years’ experience developing thriving workplaces. Her specialization lies in foundational DE&I practices, inclusive talent acquisition, and building organizational empathy through internal research. Shakima currently serves as the Senior Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at AnswerLab, where she leads the DE&I and talent acquisition functions. Prior to this, she held roles in Human Resources, Strategy, and Operations.
SAMANTHA GOTTLIEB (she/her) is a science and technology studies anthropologist, and a New Yorker living in California. She most recently led Fitbit’s mobile wellbeing UXR team at Google. Sam combines her education in philosophy, gender studies, public health, and anthropology to bring a multi-disciplinary lens to her work. With over 20+ years of health technology expertise, she has worked as a consultant in biotech, digital media, public health departments, and health care startups.
ALEXANDRA ZAFIROGLU is a Professor and Deputy Director of the School of Cybernetics at the Australian National University a Fellow of the ANU Futures scheme. A cultural anthropologist by training, she joined the ANU in 2019, after 15 years at Intel Corporation in the People and Practices, Digital Home, Client Computing, and Internet of Things divisions. She made significant contributions to the R&D and commercial development in a range of labs and divisions relating to smart systems including built environments and transportation.
SHRIRAM VENKATRAMAN is an Assistant Professor of Business and Management at the University of Southern Denmark and a Fellow of the Danish Institute of Advanced Studies. He is also an Adjunct Faculty at the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, India, and an Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, New Delhi, India. In addition to articles in peer-reviewed journal articles, he is the author of the book Social Media in South India (UCL Press) and co-author of the comparative book How the World Changed Social Media (UCL Press).
JENNIFER COLLIER JENNINGS is EPIC’s Executive Director, Jill of All Trades, and Air Traffic Controller. She has worked in social science publishing, consulting, and communities of practice for decades, and holds degrees in anthropology, geography and environmental studies.