Staff Spotlight: Riley McCullough
We profiled our Mobilisation Designer, Riley McCullough, to demystify the work that we do and uncover what inspires her to design for the future of participation.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I spent most of my life in sunny California and the past ten years bracing the Canadian winters in Toronto before embarking on what was supposed to be a short holiday to Australia in January 2020 — just before COVID-19 shut down global travel. I now consider Australia a third home and have had a number of transformational experiences here — from returning to the ocean that was such an important part of my upbringing to spending four months working shoulder to shoulder with bushfire-affected farmers.
I’ve always been fascinated with design and, specifically, how the design of our world can influence our actions and behaviours. I first pursued these interests in a B.A. in Architectural Design and Environmental Studies at the University of Toronto, followed by an M.Des. in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCAD University.
I now live in Gubbi Gubbi country on the beautiful Sunshine Coast and spend most of my free time in the surf or at Bunnings as I design and build my van.
What gets you up in the morning?
I live near a nature corridor, so I get to wake up every morning with the birds and the sun. Most mornings I’ll try to get in a dip in the ocean or walk to my local café. I live in a small town and really value the sense of community — people say “hi” to each other on the street and I’ll usually recognize at least one person at my café or in the surf. I initially only came to Australia for a holiday, so I’m also connected to a community of international travellers who continued to stay in the country through COVID-19. It’s a really beautiful and diverse community, and we all share the reality of being separated from our families right now. If I’m ever in need, I know I can rely on these communities to lend a hand.
The benefits and value that I gained from these groups of people are partly what attracted me to the work of the Mobilisation and Social Change (REDx) team. These communities have played such an important role in my experiences over the past year and, they have intrigued me to explore how we can use the connections and networks that already exist to further address humanitarian challenges.
For those who may not already know, how would you describe the work that the REDx team does at Australian Red Cross?
In short, our team thinks about how Australian Red Cross might engage members, volunteers, and communities in a changing world. We’ll usually start with a challenge statement — whether it be a social issue or something related to internal strategy — and conduct broad research to better understand the issue and what’s causing it. We’ll then design and build potential solutions to these challenges and run tests to see what works and what doesn’t. We don’t assume we know the answers to every challenge, so it’s really important to our team that we include the voices of those impacted by the issue to help us solve it.
What does a day in the life of a Mobilisation Designer look like?
No two days look the same. I work closely with a team of other designers and community builders on a variety of projects that differ greatly in scope. One day might be spent designing or running a workshop for external community groups, and another might be spent collecting research on volunteer or community engagement trends. A lot of our work is based on understanding our audiences or clients and building strong relationships across the organisation and the communities we work in. While I sit in the designer role, my work would be impossible without the support of the community builders on our team who help foster these relationships.
What projects are you currently working on?
There’s always quite a few projects on the go. Right now, most of my time is dedicated towards establishing a national, coordinated university engagement plan for Australian Red Cross. It’s a massive project that spans student internships, university clubs, and post-grad research projects with the goal of creating a stronger connection between the university community and Red Cross.
One of my first projects with Red Cross was assisting with a design jam to develop ways that Australians could engage each other on the issue of nuclear disarmament, in recognition of the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons becoming law in January 2021. Our team developed a design jam that crowdsourced ideas from Australians around the country on how to best spark action around nuclear weapons. The results of this design jam were used to create a mobilisation toolkit that highlighted these ideas and provided resources to help people take the first step.
This year’s theme for National Volunteering Week is “Recognise. Reconnect. Reimagine” the latter of which acknowledges the need to collaborate more and adapt our volunteering practices and programs so we can better support and engage volunteers to continue the work that they do.
How do you think about futures in the context of our work?
After the global shifts that happened last year with COVID-19, I don’t need to convince anyone that the world is changing at a rapid, and sometimes sudden pace. The types of humanitarian challenges that Red Cross responds to are also going to change. This will require us to rethink how we support our volunteers to respond to these challenges.
Volunteers are the backbone of the work that Red Cross does — without our volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to provide the humanitarian assistance that we’re known for. But just as the types of humanitarian challenges we’re responding to will change, so will the best ways for us to engage our volunteers.
Changing trends around social issues and technological changes are two of the biggest factors driving this transformation. Better understanding what the future might look like in these areas can help us design volunteer opportunities and experiences that are more engaging, accessible, and meaningful to our volunteers.
What is currently inspiring you?
- Mary Halton’s TED talk on thinking like a bee has been a staple in my work as a changemaker. Her presentation highlights the ways that bees work together, each focusing on a small task, in order to accomplish a goal as a community.
- In The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben writes about the intricate nature of trees. He explains the scientific research behind how trees communicate with each other and grow up near their parents. It’s been a really good read that has shifted my worldview of nature and has intrigued my interest in further exploring what we don’t know.
- The Secret History of the Future podcast by Slate and The Economist has been a really exciting listen for the futurist in my brain. It connects concepts that are typically thought of as being futuristic (autonomous vehicles, for example) to the historical events that have allowed them to emerge today.
- Collisions: Fictions of the Future is an anthology of short stories that take place in the future, all written by Australians of colour. It offers snapshots of the future, written from the perspectives of voices that are often omitted from futures work.
- 99% Invisible is my favourite podcast and one I keep going back to. Each episode focuses on the hidden design of an everyday object (for example, a traffic light) and explains the history behind the design of that object and how it has impacted the world. Incredibly well-produced, 99% Invisible has challenged me to understand the full story of any of my work — both the historical causes that led to it and the future impacts it may have.
