David Colby Reed manages Foossa's business operations and strategy practice. In his project work, David combines insights from behavioral science, economics, futuring, and systems design. Much of his work concerns designing inclusive and democratic technologies in sectors ranging from international development, space exploration, artificial intelligence, and local government.

David has led projects ranging from one-day problem framing workshops to years-long service innovation projects. He has advised regulators in Africa and Asia on using mobile phone-based financial services to promote financial inclusion, and analyzed the impact of proposed regulations on business models and user experience. He has worked to design public services for the City of New York, storytelling experiences for the Kigali Genocide Memorial, and future scenario development for organizations ranging from national space agencies to investment banks to television broadcasters.

David a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and a former trustee of the NYC chapter of the Awesome Foundation. He has served on his local community board in Manhattan for several years, and been a lecturer in design and management at the Parsons School of Design at The New School. David is also a past Fellow of the Assembly program at Harvard’s Berkman-Klein Center and the MIT Media Lab, which explored the governance of artificially intelligent systems. He has also developed and taught courses in research design and performance management, and presented projects and provocations at numerous conferences in the design, financial services, and space exploration industries.

David studied cognitive science at Harvard University (BA), public policy and management at New York University (MPA), and the design of complex sociotechnical systems at MIT (MSc; PhD in progress).

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Extraterrestrial Democracy or Dictatorship? David Colby Reed on Property and Labor Rights in Space #BlackInDesign @ Harvard GSD