Mollie Ruskin is an independent designer, researcher and creative technologist with a focus on civic and social justice work.

A founding member of the United States Digital Service in the Obama White House and a former Presidential Innovation Fellow, Mollie has a rich background in work aimed at improving government’s ability to deliver human-centered services for the American people. During her time in government, she led a myriad human-centered design endeavors — including an an effort to redesign how low-income Americans apply and enroll in public assistance programs, investigation to understand Veterans’ experiences with the critical VA services, and the development of a first-ever U.S. Web Design System.

Mollie now works with organizations such as Color of Change, Democracy Works and The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights to apply design approaches to a thorny movement building, advocacy and civic challenges. In 2017, Mollie authored “Voicemails to Votes,” an effort to map the human and technological systems involved in Congressional constituent correspondence in partnership the OpenGov Foundation.

Mollie sits on the board of the Alliance for Youth Action, a national network of organizations building political power of young people in the U.S and is a co-founder of Design Gigs for Good, a job board for designers looking to put their skills to work for world betterment.