Research students

Cheryl May's work is focused on systemic leadership in complex organisations. She is a doctoral researcher at London South Bank University, UK, and received her MDes in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCAD University, Canada. She organises and publishes the proceedings for the annual systemic design symposium and is the executive editor of Contexts—The Systemic Design Journal. She is a five-time executive director and was the Social Innovation Generation practice lead at MaRS. She led the development of the 211 information system in Canada, which received the Head of the Public Service Award for Excellence in Service Delivery.

Cheryl is involved in developing the academic corpus and community of practice for systemic design, an interdiscipline that joins systems thinking to design methodology. Her project experience involves hundreds of initiatives spanning research, design, and implementation, emphasising action and community to open up ways to approach unpredictability and dynamic interactions. Primary work areas are upcycling, social theatre, eco parenting, information access and personal privacy, diversity, equity and inclusion, and systemic design. She is a professional fundraiser with strengths in grant writing, development, and project management, with credits exceeding 100M CDN.