Akshata is a human centered designer and researcher with an experience of over 13 years spanning across US and India. She is currently heading the Design function at Samagra: an organization with the mission to improve the quality of life for citizens through better governance. Akshata is passionate about pushing the envelope on using design to solve complex, social problems and create impact at scale. This challenge resonates with her values around inclusion, creativity and humility. She believes hard problems can’t be solved by analytical thinking alone, and need a creative and empathetic lens. Akshata is a mom of two little girls, a foodie and a published children’s book author/illustrator. And she loves board games— her favorite is the Settlers of Catan (for which she got a chance to work too!). Specialties: Design Leadership, Design Strategy, Human centered design, Design Research, Facilitation, Management, User Experience Design