Kari is a Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) major and Global Health minor. She was drawn to human centered design because of the prospect of leveraging technology to positively impact people. After her first year at UW, she developed a further understanding of social justice issues and began looking for broader ways to create impact. This led her to a one-credit Global Health seminar and an introduction to mobile health and the ways in which technological interventions can be used to improve health outcomes. Kari described a connection between design and health, as both fields place an emphasis on creative problem-solving, understanding the people and context you are working with, and iterating on potential solutions to achieve the most effective results. 

In Fall 2019, Kari studied abroad with the InterAction Nepal program, which is affiliated with the Global Health and Landscape Architecture programs at UW. The program combined participatory design and community development by working with members of an informal settlement to determine what kind of small-scale infrastructural project would be the most helpful, then working with the community to co-design and build a road connecting their homes. She is currently participating in an HCDE research group focusing on co-designing with older adults on health-related issues. Kari hopes to continue leveraging her HCDE and Global Health experiences to find opportunities for designing approaches to health-related issues through a human-centered lens.