Maille Faughnan

Adjunct Lecturer - SISE, Research Fellow

Maille Faughnan is a SISE instructor and research fellow who teaches and researches human-centered design and social innovation with diverse audiences, including educators, non-profit professionals, and undergraduate and graduate students. Faughnan facilitates the application of these methodologies with campus and community partners through tailored workshop pedagogy, assessment, and outreach.

In her role, Faughnan serves as the curriculum lead for the biannual Fast 48, a weekend-long bootcamp where professionals and graduate students learn human-centered design while addressing a real challenge facing a community organization. She teaches core SISE courses which currently include Introduction to Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (SISE 2010), and the SISE Senior Seminar (SISE 4050) and previously included Design Thinking for Social Impact (SISE 3010). She oversees the Taylor Student Fellowships, supporting a cohort of 7 undergraduates and mentoring 4 design thinking fellows. She also supports the development of Taylor's scholarship arm through original research, writing, and applied evaluation.

Faughnan's scholarly work is interdisciplinary, integrating qualitative, ethnographic methods and case study approaches to understand the cultural dimensions of global development institutions and innovation processes.

Her field research in urban and rural areas of New Orleans, Central America, and East Africa spans topics such as gender and social entreprenuership, cultural development programs, design thinking for reproductive health, and the diffusion of design thinking through capacity-building.

Faughnan holds an MS in international development from Tulane University and doctorate from the Payson Graduate Program for Global Development, specializing in social innovation and human-centered design in international development practice.