About

Emer is a social designer, educator, and social entrepreneur

who has spent over two decades championing the creative potential of children as changemakers. She is the founder of Design-a-thon Works, a global initiative empowering children to co-design a better world.

Previously, she co-founded Butterfly Works and NairoBits, a web design school for young people from Nairobi’s informal settlements,

now a thriving institution in Africa’s tech sector. Her award-winning e-

learning programs, such as The World Starts with Me and Learning

about Living, have been adapted across Africa and Asia and recognized

by the UN and the World Bank. An Ashoka Fellow since 2016 and

Global Innovator at Dubai Expo 2020, she is currently a fellow at the

Learning Sciences Exchange of the Jacobs Foundation. Originally from

Ireland, Emer lives in Amsterdam, where she is pursuing a Master’s in

Design Research at the Piet Zwart Institute. with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Wh