Policy Lab appoints design-focused deputy director
Associate Professor Leigh-Anne Hepburn
“Leigh-Anne has been involved with the Lab from its inception,” says Lab Director Dr Kate Harrison Brennan. “We’re delighted to have her joining the team in a leadership role.”
Associate Professor Hepburn, the Head of Design at the Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, will contribute her expertise to a range of research and policy projects including leading new multidisciplinary research on housing, health and inequality.
An emphasis on co-creation through creative and participatory methods is woven through Associate Professor Hepburn’s career in design research and practice, which has intersected with health and care, resilience, and social impact.
An international leader in policy and design, she has published extensively and worked with community members and governments on impact-focused projects. Associate Professor Hepburn’s experience includes time spent in local government, health innovation and consulting. She is a member of The Design Journal editorial board.
“This appointment is part of the commitment in our 2024–27 Strategy to broaden and deepen academic leadership from across the University,” says Dr Harrison Brennan.
We are excited to be working with Leigh-Anne and have her human-centred design expertise to support the development of design-led questions that catalyse policy influence.
The Policy Lab sat down with Associate Professor Hepburn to discuss her work and starting at the Lab.
What are you looking forward to about working with the Lab?
As a naturally curious person, I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to connect and collaborate with a diverse group of experts, industry partners and community members at the Lab.
I love listening to and capturing stories of how we live our daily lives, reflecting on challenges we face and exploring opportunities – we can learn so much through these rich lived experiences. The Lab’s approach to participatory engagement resonates strongly with me and I’m excited to bring a design perspective into the mix.
How do you see the importance of design to policymaking?
For too long, policymaking has felt abstract and distant from our everyday lives. Having worked for many years in public policy within local government, I’ve seen this disconnect firsthand. Yet, policymaking is central to the decisions we all face, whether in housing, health, education or travel.
The challenge lies in meaningfully engaging people in the policymaking process. Through design, we can better understand and visualise lived experiences, framing issues, surfacing challenges and highlighting what truly matters. Design is particularly effective in addressing ambiguity, complexity and adaptivity – qualities often inherent in policy challenges. In this context, design can be both a mindset and a methodology, offering valuable insights and approaches.
Are there particular kinds of policy problems crying out for design-led solutions?
Design allows us to prototype, test and iterate solutions collaboratively, empowering communities to co-create transformative future scenarios. Instead of waiting for the future to happen to us, we can actively design it.
Today’s global problems cannot be tackled by a single discipline or government alone – they demand collaborative efforts across sectors. This is where I believe design can make a significant impact.
I’m particularly excited about the potential to demonstrate the evidence-based rigor of design research and practice within the policymaking space.
There’s so much going on at the intersection of design and policy. Where has your focus been recently?
In recent projects, I’ve focused on extending the reach and impact of design research in several ways.
We have critical, cutting-edge research happening across the University of Sydney, spanning design and other disciplines. However, communicating research findings in formats that are useful and usable by policymakers often requires a different approach than traditional research publication.
One highlight is exploring visual storytelling to share lived experiences that can inform improved access to health services. Other projects have involved making recommendations for new models of public engagement to improve consent education in schools, and developing scenarios of alternative or transformative futures to explore new models of economic inclusivity.
In each of these initiatives, policymakers were engaged as part of the stakeholder group from the outset, fostering more sustainable and impactful outcomes.