Carla Fernandez
Community Design Studio

 
 

When we’re overwhelmed by our personal and global hardship, we too often turn away from each other. We burrow deeper into our own siloes and contained worlds rather than reaching towards someone who can normalize our experience, deepen our perspective, and build with us towards the resolution we’re longing for.

Regardless of whether we’re focused on the loneliness epidemic, the impacts of climate change, or the urgency of democratic preservation - it’s not lone individuals, but circles of people that can unlock our strongest solutions, and along the way, generate our most meaningful relationships, vocations, and sources of joy. 

My studio explores how to create the conditions for circles to come together and create meaningful results; how networks form to amplify the work of individual circles and catalyze a field; and how to rewire cultural narratives that would have us think we’re at it on our own.

 
 

Past Projects

  • Part of a small stable of experience designers working closely with leaders across The Foundation’s network to set the strategy and design for high-impact gatherings at the Bellagio Center and offices worldwide.

  • Partnered closely with Program Officers of James Walton’s foundation Wend Collaborative to lead on grantee listening, learning, and facilitation. Portfolios include: Project X, an experimental fund to support BIPOC grassroots activists with a focus on environmental justice, and Quiet, a community of 150+ impact-driven artists. Designed and facilitated staff offsite, strategy sessions, and ongoing grantee listening circles

  • Designed and facilitated a gathering of global climate science leaders at the Bellagio Center to align on standardized indicators for measuring the health impacts of climate change.

  • Worked inside the federal government to design and launch a nation-wide Get out the Count program, bringing creators and trusted messengers together for in-person, interactive Create-a-Thons leading up to the 2020 count. Piloted the model, and trained thousands of Census employees to deploy in cities across America.

  • Co-designed a gathering of Jewish community leaders to align on the state of civic education, and develop a roadmap for leveling up civic engagement in faith based communities.

  • Designed and facilitated the inaugural summit of the Health and Political Economy Project at the Bellagio Center, bringing economists, public health officials, and a Pulitzer Prize winning poet together to design a roadmap for a must just, and health-centric economy.

Reflections from Partners

  • Carla brought so much to our convening as the facilitator - from wise advice on the flow and design of sessions, detailed preparation work with our team, to graceful front-of-room guidance. In short, she joyfully and expertly became part of our team to execute a successful event. We can't recommend her highly enough!

    Victor Roy, Director, Health and Political Economy Project
    Dave Chokshi, Co-Chair, Health and Political Economy Project, 43rd Health Commissioner, NYC 
    Darrick Hamilton, Co-Chair, Health and Political Economy Project, Founding Director, Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy

  • Carla is such a multi-hyphenate gift to any group looking for top-notch facilitation, creative experience design, and a deep bench of knowledge in how best to convene groups toward a goal. She knows how to walk the thin line of big picture inspirational and on the ground action plans and clear next steps. Beyond the breadth of her hard skills, Carla is also one of the most kind, insightful, whip smart, and full of joy individuals I've ever had the pleasure to work with. We've collaborated on a number of gatherings and convenings, and they are always better because of her involvement.

    Isis Krause
    Philanthropy Together, Chief Strategy Office

  • As a facilitator, Carla works like an orchestra conductor, creating a sense of welcome and drawing out ideas from individuals and the broader group. In all the workshops and convenings I've participated in, she is the only non-annoying moderator I’ve seen.

    Mariana Mazzucato
    Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London, Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose 
    Author of The Entrepreneurial State, Debunking public vs. private sector myths

  • Thank you once more for your magisterial direction of our event at Bellagio. I got more out of those few days together than I ever would have thought possible—in large part thanks to your blend of intelligence, patience, humor and firmness where required.

    Tom Mueller
    Nonfiction author, as read in New Yorker, National Geographic Magazine, New York Times Magazine and Atlantic Monthly

  • I've had the pleasure of working with Carla both as a teammate supporting for-profit clients, and as she was a consultant to a project I'd built in the philanthropic space. In all instances, Carla's ability to listen, hone in on the intentions of the speaker, and synthesize insights and patterns across groups never failed to amaze me. Her strategic approach to research, designing and facilitating workshops, creating clear pathways to action for teams needing to move more in sync, and doing it all with both the rigor and creativity of a seasoned professional has been invaluable and unmatched time and time again. I would hire and work with Carla on almost any future project!

    Seema Thakker 
    Sr. Director, Strategy and Brand, Tandem
    Former Chief of Staff, Wend Collective 
    Acumen Fellow

  • Carla is one of the most talented conveners I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. She is a brilliant strategic mind, and creates gatherings with deep intention: merging emotion with intellect, intuition with brass tack operations, humor with depth. When I worked with her on reaching the most vulnerable community members for the 2020 Census, we had layers upon layers of complexity to untangle in order to pilot and scale a meaningful program that would get millions of people to take the census. Carla brought an incisiveness that our team needed to cut through the messiness, and helped us to launch Creatives for the Count, a nationwide series of design sprints that mobilized thousands of partners, artists, and community members. The project was so successful that we secured a steady federal budget to continue the work. Carla brings vigor, joy, and, and creative fairy dust to every project she embarks on, and it would be an immense privilege to work with her again.

    Mara Abrams
    Former Co-Founder + Managing Director, Census Open Innovation Labs, U.S. Census Bureau  
    Nike Foundation
    Truman Security Fellow