Keynotes

A design executive who has led several multidisciplinary teams and organizations at global companies such as IDEO, Microsoft and Google, Ovetta’s sweet spot is taking the deep expertise of engineering, product management, research and design and creating transdisciplinary practices, policies and teams that produce better, more human-centered products, platforms and services. She has a background in journalism, psychology, history and anthropology and, of course, equity and social justice and uses this foundation in her design leadership practice. She’s currently the Director of UX Machine Learning at Google. Combining her M.S. in Computer Science (HCI) with her BA in Communications, Ovetta spends most of her time helping people visualize humanity’s future and how to ethically and with compassion serve people through digital and intelligent products, platforms and services. When she’s not working or teaching grad classes at DePaul University, she’s swimming, biking and running in exotic locales, and occasionally, doing these races called Ironmans. 

Tonika Johnson is a photographer, social justice artist and life-long resident of Chicago’s South Side Englewood neighborhood. Her work reveals injustices and
inequities in real estate and land use practices, including historic preservation, and encourages us to reevaluate and create positive change. Her ongoing project, Folded Map, visually investigates disparities among segregated Chicago residents while bringing them together to have a conversation. Her “Inequity For Sale” project highlights the living history of Greater Englewood homes sold on discriminatory Land Sale Contracts in the 50’s and 60’s. Tonika’s artistic contributions have gained international recognition, including being named a Chicagoan of the Year by Chicago Magazine, with previous exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Rootwork Gallery in Pilsen, the Chicago Cultural Center, the Harold Washington Library Center and at Loyola University’s Museum of Art. She is a 2019 Field Foundation “Leader for a New Chicago”, a 2022 Landmark Illinois’ Influencer, and recently concluded a 2023 Ateliers Médicis Artist in Residence in Paris, France. She serves as a Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Cultural Advisory Council member, a lead co-founder of the Englewood Arts Collective and the Resident Association of Greater Englewood (R.A.G.E.). She now serves as the Creative
Executive Officer of the Folded Map Project™ nonprofit organization.