👋🏼 I’m Charlie (he/him).
Illustration: Sam Bertin
I’m an educator, designer, and artist based in Michigan.
Currently, I’m the Managing Director of the Center for Socially Engaged Engineering & Design (C-SED) at the University of Michigan, where I lead educational programs that help engineers and designers connect technical work with the people and communities it affects. I design and teach courses (including one on Coursera), collaborate with faculty to bring socially engaged practices into engineering education, and oversee an interdisciplinary makerspace. I also teach in the University of Michigan’s Design Science program.
My work spans engineering education, community-based design, and the arts. Over the years, I’ve developed courses and design fieldwork experiences with communities around the world, created collaborative public art installations, and worked with young people to design spaces that bring people together. For a decade, I was a curator with the Prison Creative Arts Project, which supports and showcases the creative work of incarcerated artists across the state of Michigan.
I hold an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art & Design from the University of Michigan and a BFA from Bradley University. Over the last 5 years, I’ve also been training as a furniture maker.
Check out my courses and projects.
Experience:
Center for Socially Engaged Engineering & Design, University of Michigan
Managing Director • 2023 - present
Director of Experiential Learning
2021-2023
Associate Director of Experiential Learning
2018 - 2021
Assistant Director, Student & Faculty Engagement
2016 - 2018
Socially Engaged Design is human(ity) centered – not just user centered. We consider broad contexts through an equity-centered lens that impact the practice of engineering, including social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental factors that can completely change the design of solutions. Further, we push designers to analyze how their own identities and cultural context shape their approach.
The Center for Socially Engaged Design uses evidence-based pedagogical methods in an adaptable, curated, customizable curriculum that integrates learning and practice experiences to meet each designer where they are on their design journey.
Prison Creative Arts Project
Curator • 2012 - 2022
The Prison Creative Arts Project brings those impacted by the justice system together with the University of Michigan community for artistic collaboration, mutual learning, and growth. The Prison Creative Arts Project’s Annual Exhibition of Art by Michigan Prisoners is one of the largest exhibitions of artwork by incarcerated artists in the country.
Stamps School of Art & Design, University of Michigan
Engagement Coordinator
2014 - 2016
Detroit Connections Coordinator
2011 - 2014
Through courses like Detroit Connections and Change by Design as well as initiatives like the Brightmoor Maker Space, Stamps students learn how to build meaningful engaged creative practice with external communities into their creative practice.