We contribute to shaping a more accessible, equitable and, sustainable food system by supporting collective learning and experimentation across stakeholders.

Our approach combines sustainability science and human-centered design with a systems focus to develop tools and frameworks that can catalyze the transformative work of food-system practitioners and advocates. Our work is rooted in building authentic relations with our partners and leveraging the diversity of perspectives that they bring, to discover, imagine, and innovate together.

When we see the systems, we can re-design them.

The map illustrates the Chicago area food system from a loss and waste perspective.

(Created by Ran Konaka, 2022)

Map of stakeholders in Chicago food value chain showing food flows between different types of stakeholders

Lead Faculty

Photo of Weslynne Ashton, black woman with curly hair, wearing glasses and looking with a big smile

  • Associate Professor of Environmental Management and Sustainability

    Contact Lab Co-Director Weslynne Ashton for inquiries about and partnerships with the Food Systems Action Lab.

Photo of Maura Shea, White woman with blonde hair in colorful clothes, wearing glasses and carrying a big smile


  • Associate Professor of Practice

    Contact Lab Co-Director Maura Shea for inquiries about and partnerships with the Food Systems Action Lab.

Researchers

Photo of Azra Sungu, White woman wearing a red shirt wearing glasses with straight brown hair

Azra Sungu

Ph.D. Candidate
Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech

Symone Fogg

Ph.D. Student
Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech

Photo of Yashashri Kolalle, Brown woman with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing glasses and smiling

Yashashri Kolalle

Master's student
Environmental Management and Sustainability at Illinois Tech

Vishnu Raviprasad

Values-Based Food Procurement Learning Network Design Fellow

Gaudy Solorzano-Morera

Ph.D. Candidate in Analytics
Stuart Business School at Illinois Tech

Justin McElderry

Equitable Supply Chain Design Fellow
Architect & Strategist

Photo of students working in a classroom at the Institute of Design by using diagrams and sticky notes on the walls

Institute of Design

At the Institute of Design (ID) at Illinois Tech, we look at the world in new ways to create the change we hope to see in it.

We’re home to the only US design school devoted completely to graduate students—the first in the US to offer a PhD in design. By uniting science and rigor with creativity and rapid iteration, we’re recognized around the globe as pioneers in human-centered design, systems design, and other methods that apply design to the real world.

It’s through these unique approaches that students, communities, and corporations learn to observe the systems they’re surrounded by—and envision the new worlds they can build from them. Learn more about ID at id.iit.edu.