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Ellen McGirt

Ellen McGirt is an author, podcaster, speaker, community builder, and award-winning business journalist. She is the editor-in-chief of Design Observer, a media company that has maintained the same clear vision for more than two decades: to expand the definition of design in service of a better world. Ellen established the inclusive leadership beat at Fortune in 2016 with raceAhead, an award-winning newsletter on race, culture, and business. The Fortune, Time, Money, and Fast Company alumna has published over twenty magazine cover stories throughout her twenty-year career, exploring the people and ideas changing business for good. Ask her about fly fishing if you get the chance.

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Equity Observer

Ellen McGirt|Essays

The Design Observer annual gift guide!
An image of hurricane aftermath, including mud-laden streets, fallen trees, and a car nose-down, halfway submerged in muddy water

Equity Observer

Ellen McGirt|Design and Climate Change

What will we do when all the levees break?

Design of Business | Business of Design

Ellen McGirt|Audio

S11E8: Poetry is Anti Capitalist with Tracy K. Smith

Design of Business | Business of Design

Jessica Helfand|Audio

S11E7: Using Design to Show the World Your Truth with Dionna Dorsey and Production Designer Olivia Peebles

Design of Business | Business of Design

Ellen McGirt|Audio

S11E6: Why an Inclusive Global Economy is a Redesign Project with Mastercard’s Shamina Singh

Design of Business | Business of Design

Ellen McGirt|Audio

S11E5: WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert on Talent, Activism, and the Business of Basketball

Design of Business | Business of Design

Ellen McGirt|Audio

S11E4: Richard Buery and Robin Hood Are Building a Coalition to Tackle Poverty in NYC

Ellen McGirt|Essays

How to give peace a chance at the office

Design of Business | Business of Design

Jessica Helfand|Audio

S11E3: The Healthy Materials Lab says Everyone Deserves a Healthier Home

Equity Observer

Ellen McGirt|Essays

Wanna make a movie?

Equity Observer

Ellen McGirt|Essays

What does it mean to observe the observer?

Equity Observer

Ellen McGirt|Essays

College administrators have failed a basic leadership test