Careers in Design: A Panel Discussion

​Join Women in Design NYC for a special panel event in collaboration with Alpha Omega Epsilon @ NYU, bringing together professionals from across the design industry to share their experiences, insights, and career journeys.

​Meet the Panelists:

​Isis Shiffer

​Isis is a Brooklyn based industrial designer. She founded Spitfire Industry in 2016. After earning a BFA from the University of Pennsylvania and working as a bicycle frame builder for a few years, Isis returned to school and completed her Master's of industrial design at Pratt Institute. While there she won the international James Dyson Award for her folding paper ecohelmet.

​At Spitfire, Isis and her team focus on function-forward products in the sustainability and urban-living spaces. Spitfire's clients include All-Clad, Blix Bicycles, Circadian Optics, Hunter Douglas, Gotrax, T-fal and many more. No matter the project, Isis tries to approach every design with technical rigor and humanism. She believes that it's a designer's responsibility to leave the planet better than they found it, and that designers have the best job in the world.

​Hannah Berkin-Harper

​Hannah Berkin-Harper is an Industrial Designer and educator.  She is the Design Lead at Street Lab (streetlab.org), a non-profit that creates pop up design and programming in New York City where she works with community groups and New York City agencies on new designs for open streets and public spaces. She worked as a Senior Designer in Karim Rashid’s studio working on furniture, tableware, products, and interiors. She founded HBH Design in 2016 and began working on projects involving public space, active design, and environmental sustainability with both private clients and non-profits. Hannah is an Associate Professor at NJIT’s Hiller College of Architecture and Design. Her courses focus on design process, research and prototyping. She also conducts research on public space, community participatory design processes and co-design. She has an AB in Studio Art from Vassar College and an MID from Pratt Institute.

​Binna Lee

​Binna Lee is a designer, researcher, and educator whose work bridges interaction design, psychology, philosophy, and immersive media. Her creative practice investigates how human perception, cognition, and emotion are shaped within digital and spatial environments. As Creative Director of Team Echo, she led immersive installations on power and media ecologies, exhibited at NYC Resistor and Sojourn Gallery, and was recognized by Women United ART Magazine, the Red Dot Design Award shortlist, and NYC Media Lab.

​Her design manifesto, Positive Design, embodies a commitment to creating responsible and meaningful interactions. Binna scrutinizes belief systems, societal contexts, cognitive processes, and cultural influences, recognizing their subtle yet profound impact on human thoughts and actions. She aims to empower individuals and nurture community growth through thoughtful XR and experiential designs, interactive projection mapping, and artistic product design.

​Felicia Renelus

​As a designer and futurist, Felicia is always imagining how to create new and improved realities. Whether it is a tangible object, digital product, immersive experience, or simply self-expression through collage art, Felicia’s work focuses on connection and emotion. Currently, Felicia works as product designer at Goldman Sachs, and has previously worked in creative and design roles at toy company Rigamajig and IBM. 

​She holds a BS in Cognitive Science from Brown University, where she focused on 3D perception, and a Master of Design in Human-Computer Interaction from the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on emerging technologies and speculative art. At her core, Felicia is community-focused, looking to bring others together to think critically about ourselves and our world.