Doreen Toutikian

Doreen Toutikian (doreentoutikian.com) is a Greek Armenian Lebanese interdisciplinary designer, researcher, educator, and a cultural entrepreneur. She is Founding Director of Beirut Design Week (beirutdesignweek.org), Co-founder & President of the Board of MENA Design Research Center (menadrc.org), and Co-founder of her latest initiative in Greece: loop (looporg.eu). She is also an educator on design research methodology and design theory to Master students in Lebanon (alba.edu.lb). She is a researcher and consultant on human-centered design to non-profit organizations such as UNRWA for Palestinian refugee camps development in Lebanon and IOM for creative economy development in Kurdistan.

Doreen is an advisor to various global networks including the ‘International Gender Design Network’, the 'Board of International Research in Design/BIRD', a fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar and Mophradat, and a member of the Young Cultural Innovators of the British Council. She is also an avid traveler, speaks six languages (English, Arabic, French, German, Greek and Armenian) and lives in between Beirut and Athens.

My main interest in relation to the reshape project is to use my experience of the past 10 years of raising funds in a country with no public funding or support, in order to develop new mechanisms and frameworks that respect the cultural diversity of Europe, and create awareness of its potential and impact on all its citizens in a strategic manner involving all influential stakeholders in the process.