EP 17: Trauma Responsive Design | Rachael Dietkus

Meet Rachael Dietkus. She’s a clinical social worker who has
dedicated her career to trauma responsive practices in design.
After a 10-year career working with social justice and human rights
non-profits, she pursued a Master of Social Work and worked at
Veterans Affairs across the patient advocacy, planning and
construction, and housing and homelessness arenas. Since 2016, she
has been working in higher education at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign as an Assistant Dean at the School of Social
Work and the Associate Director of Programs at the new Siebel
Center for Design. Bon and Rachael talk about how design and social
work fit together, why designers should think more like social
workers and about the journey of developing the field of trauma
responsive design. You will also hear advice on how to respond to
trauma that you may be experiencing during this pandemic.