The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs

Fabiola Berdiel is the Assistant Director GPIA for International Field Programs and faculty at The Milano School of International Affairs, Management and Urban Policy. She is an educator, project manager, and sustainable development practitioner.  Her research focuses on how design thinking can be used as a tool for socioeconomic development, exploring the opportunities that this new appoach can offer.  Fabiola has a B.A. in Sociology and Pedagogy from Sarah Lawrence and a Masters in International Affairs from The New School. Fabiola has worked and conducted field research in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Namibia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Senegal, Israel, Nepal, India, Ireland, and Spain. She is co-founder of DEED: Development through Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, and Design at The New School. Currently, her practice has focused on collaborative interdisciplinary projects with Parsons School for Design, ranging from working with Fashion Studies to design a backpack for humanitarian relief workers, to partnering with Transdiciplinary Design and Design Strategies to develop a design thinking curriculum for partner organizations.

• Designing Collaborative Development