Dr. Andrea Wilkinson, Postdoctoral Researcher

Andrea is a post-doctoral researcher at the LUCA School of Arts and is a lecturer in the Masters of Design and Art Education programme and researcher in the Inter-Actions Research Group. She also lectures and researches at Thomas More University of Applied Sciences in the Postgraduate Space and Service Design programme. A designer, researcher and lecturer in design, her expertise domains are design education, interaction design, visual language communication and service design. In her research, she mainly focuses on the experience of the designer and how empathy emerges from interaction and participation with design-poor individuals (people with dementia, young people with autism, people with a disability, people on the fringes of society, etc). This relation-based design participation between designer and participant and necessary proxy participants informs design decisions (products, services, functionality) as well as the designer’s future creative practice.

In 2016, together with Niels, she co-founded the Dementia Lab Conference. A native of the US, but based in Belgium since 2010, Andrea is active mainly in Belgium, but has also worked in New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and Portugal in workshops and educational exchanges.

Lieke Lenaerts, PhD Candidate

Lieke is a Belgian designer. In 2018 she graduated as Master of Arts in Product Design. During her studies Lieke discovered the power of design to communicate to the public. Her work is characterized by this layer of communication. This informs a wide variety of topics from the complexity of the human mind, to the relationship between crafts and local heritage.

Lieke’s work has been exhibited internationally, with an ongoing focus on the communicative aspects of design. Thorough research is the heart of her work. In combination with her own personal view, Lieke dissects a theme and translates it into a visual design language. Objects are used as active agents to inform users about a certain topic. This research-based working method results in functional and experimental designs, balancing between the object and the experience.

In 2019 Lieke started a position as designer-researcher at the Inter-Actions Research Unit, DementiaLab, based at LUCA School of Arts Genk. As a designer-researcher she’s involved in projects focusing on design for people with dementia. In 2020, Lieke began a PhD at LUCA in which she’s researching ways to turn participative design experiences with people living with dementia into accessible design processes, tools and artefacts for other designers.

Amber De Coen, PhD Candidate

Amber is a graphic and service designer with a passion for participatory and social design. In 2020 she graduated as Master in Arts with a participatory design project aiming to understand, communicate and visualize loneliness in young adults. In 2021 she completed her Postgraduate degree in Space and Service design at Thomas More University. As a designer Amber aims to facilitate others in their understanding and interpreting of their social and personal world contexts by positioning herself on the crossroad between passive observation and active participation. Her practice focuses on vulnerable or marginalized groups in our society and aims to use visual language as a tool to facilitate understanding, connection, and translation between these groups and their (societal) contexts.

In 2021 Amber started a PhD project within the Inter-Actions Research Unit based at LUCA School of Arts Genk. During this project she’s researching how design can aid the understanding, accessing, recording, and integration of identity in care contexts for persons with high support needs who cannot speak for themselves (people with dementia or people with profound multiple intellectual disabilities).

Yoni Lefevre, PhD Candidate

Yoni Lefévre is a Design Researcher with a particular interest in participatory approaches. She is passionate about inclusive and holistic futures, especially when it involves our ageing society. Yoni graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven (2013) within Communication Design and she completed the Masters of Research at The Glasgow School of Art (2019). Her final thesis focussed on the stigma of ageing through creative intergenerational engagements. She worked as a Senior Design Researcher at STBY where she contributed to innovative and transformational processes for International clients. Within Academia, Yoni worked as a Research Associate at the Innovation School, The Glasgow School of Art in Forres and was involved in multiple research projects about the integration of Health and Social Care in Moray. In addition, she participated in several Artists in Residence programmes where she is able to adapt and emerge herself easily in the local research contexts.

In 2022, she joined the Inter-Actions Research Unit based at LUCA School of Arts in Genk, to start her PhD project. Her research is focussing on intimacy, and sexual expression among individuals of advanced age with high support needs. The research will provide insights and tools on how intimacy and sexual expression in person-centered care can be discussed and strategies for implementation.

Dolores Van den Eynde, Project Development Manager

Dolores is a social scientist intrigued by the international and international organisations. Throughout her entire academic career, she held the added value of collaborating with people from different backgrounds -be it national, cultural, or educational- in the highest regard. In 2021 she graduated as Master in Communication Studies: New Media and Society in Europe. Throughout her study, she discovered the importance of media literacy and digital inclusion and conducted a master thesis considering the youngest smartphone users and their needs in the digital world. In 2022 Dolores graduated again, this time as Master in International Relations and Diplomacy. Here, her focus was put on studying the Middle East as well as the Asia-Pacific. This was also translated in her master thesis about the prominence and politicisation of historical memory in the contemporary South Korean political landscape. 

In 2022 Dolores was welcomed into LUCA School of Arts Genk as a project development manager in the subject area Care. Here, she will be the team lead for the writing of European research funding and various Erasmus initiatives.

Rita Maldonado Branco, Associated Researcher

Rita Maldonado Branco is a communication designer, and a design researcher. She is an integrated member of the Research Institute for Design Media and Culture (ID+), on the research group Health+Design Lab.

Rita graduated with distinction in the MA Communication Design (2012) from Central Saint Martins University of the Arts London, with a project that explored communication design contributions to dementia, including the design of information, the creation of empathy objects, and the development of tools for interaction between people with dementia and others, based on her experience with two grandparents diagnosed with dementia. This research was taken forward through her PhD in Design (2018), at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto in partnership with the University of Aveiro and ID+.

Her practice-based doctoral research focused on designing ways to support the maintenance of social relationships and communication between people with dementia and their families, while involving them as participants in the design process. As a communication designer, her professional practice revolved primarily around editorial, information and science communication.