About Me

André Nogueira, Ph.D. (he/him) is CEO of Leap and a Research Scientist in the Department for Behavioral and Social Sciences at the Brown University School of Public Health. He has been an entrepreneur, creating and leading a design studio in Brazil, and an intrapreneur in both the corporate and academic worlds. In the corporate, André has helped urban development organizations build their sustainability strategy and programs. In academia, he has helped institutions in the US and Brazil build design laboratories that expanded their capacity to bridge theory and practice through cross-sectorial partnerships that have influenced public policy change. Recent experiences involve the Design Laboratory at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Action Labs at the IIT Institute of Design, and the Public Policy Lab at the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie.

André investigates how design frameworks and methods can work with other disciplines to help improve the well-being of people, organizations, and the ecosystems within which they live. He currently leads solution-oriented research projects and publishes on two complementary paths: field-focused, advancing design knowledge, and project-focused, exploring complex application areas related to improving well-being. 

He was recently awarded the first 40 under 40 Public Health Catalyst Awards by the Boston Public Health Congress. His work has been funded by various organizations, such as USAID, Federal Government Agencies in the US and India, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, Chicago Food Policy Action Council, Feeding America, and the Kresge Foundation, and published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals. Projects he led and those of his students have been awarded by Fast Company and Core77, and featured in The Guardian, The Indian Times, Business World, the CSR Universe, The NYC Daily Post, Business World, Global Health Ventures, and Habitat for Humanity, among others.

André has taught at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Kennedy School, the IIT-Institute of Design, and the Lucerne University, and lectured at several universities across the globe. He mentors graduate students from multidisciplinary backgrounds, including public health, public policy, business, public administration, design, and education, and advises corporate senior executives and leaders in the social and public sectors across the globe interested in building design capabilities within their organizations. 

Before moving to the U.S., André worked for over a decade on organization design, sustainable development, business strategy, and urban and architectural design in Brazil and Mexico, using design knowledge to help organizations progress in their purpose. In the search for a rigorous approach to promote more just, sustainable, and equitable outcomes, André joined the Ph.D. program at the IIT Institute of Design (ID), where he developed design frameworks and methods for embedding principles of sustainability and equity into innovation processes. While at ID, led investigations on entrepreneurship ecosystems, brownfield redevelopment, and food systems that influenced policy change in Chicago. Prior to his Ph.D., André completed a Master’s in Geography, Cities, and Architecture from Escola da Cidade and an MSc. in Contemporary Urban Planning as well as a dual major bachelor’s in architecture and Urban Design from the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie.

In 2019, under the invitation of Professor Patrick Whitney, he joined the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In the same year, they co-founded the Design Laboratory, or D-Lab, with two overall goals: expand public health knowledge towards the complexity of human and organizational behavior and formalize core aspects of design knowledge, helping the field make progress in a more structured manner. Ever since, André has been working at the intersection of design and public health, conducting research, and developing educational and translational projects to promote the well-being of people, organizations, and the natural environment. Since August 2023, this work moved to Brown University under the invitation of Dr. Ashish Jha, current Dean of the School of Public Health and the former White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator.

Before moving to the U.S., he worked on organization design, sustainable development, entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and business strategy, and urban and architectural design in Brazil and Mexico. He holds a Ph.D. in Design from the IIT Institute of Design, where he helped conceptualize and prototype the Action Lab, creating and leading its pilot projects. He also holds a Master’s in Geography, Cities, and Architecture from Escola da Cidade, and an MSc. in Contemporary Urban Planning and a dual major bachelor’s in Architecture and Urban Design from the Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, where he helped conceptualize and manage a Design and Public Policy Lab.