Our Founders

Niki Dun: Co-Founder & Executive Director

Niki Dun, dfdRecipient of a 2006 British Columbia Creative Achievement Award, Niki's work in international development began with the bicycle ambulance designed for developing communities during her Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design at the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver, Canada. With a strong belief that as a problem-solving profession designers have the potential to be an invaluable resource to the developing world, Niki co-founded Design For Development as a means of harnessing the valuable skills and energy of Canadian designers to create meaningful solutions to real world problems.

In addition to holding a degree in Industrial Design, Niki is a graduate of the University of British Columbia with a BA in Asian Studies. She has experience in marketing and communication, training, project management and believes that thorough research is paramount to the problem-solving process.

Sue Fairburn: Co-Founder

Sue Fairburn, dfdSue's project-based management experience bridges research and application in the fields of health sciences and design. Her approach to projects is grounded in the belief that learning is most valuable when applied and when supported by hands-on experience. Sue works as a research manager for a large-scale international project, run out of Northeast Scotland, which involves the evaluation of maternal health strategies in developing countries. This move offers the ideal complement to her work with DFD.

Sue foresees that Canadian designers can be great ambassadors of design humanity. Finding out how things work is what led Sue to graduate degrees in human sciences ('93) and industrial design ('03). To date, her research pursuits have included environmental physiology, industrial rehabilitation, and space architecture, and her design projects have included medical devices, personal shelter, curriculum, and most recently, sustainable rural transportation.

 

"As a problem-solving profession we have the potential to be an invaluable resource to the world - and especially to those parts of the world that don't have the privilege of education and access to information that we do. For too long the design profession as a whole has been encouraged to believe that good design means the ability to create a smaller cell phone, a sleek auto exterior, or a product that will show well at Milan.

While I certainly value well-designed and beautiful products, I think that we need to move beyond those definitions and really start to look at what we can contribute on a world scale as part of the global community."

- Niki Dun