Victor Udoewa
Service Design Lead, CDC
Having started his career in the design and development of computational tools for scientific applications, Victor shifted his focus to the social impact space and Information and Communications Technologies for Development, both community and international development. He is a practitioner and advocate of participatory design, a meta-methodology he’s used in service and system design for governments, multilateral institutions, nonprofits, for-profits, and communities, to facilitate skill-building and improved employment opportunities for community members. Bitten by the “civic-innovation bug” he is now focused on creating or improving government products and services for citizens, immigrants, and refugees.
Victor has a particular love for design, learning, and design education. He advocates bringing practices such as positive deviance, pluriversal methods, and systems practice into civic design. He helps leads an equity-centered meetup group and Justice by Design as part of his work to decolonize design. Outside of work you can find Victor teaching salsa, singing with his a cappella group, volunteering as a health trauma and crisis counselor, or (mostly) hanging out with his family.
Rosenverse talks by Victor:
" Many organizations have output-based performance plans but are not incentivized to achieve outcomes. "
Making service tangible: the fastest path to higher performance
November 19, 2025
" Community-rooted wisdom like the Mexican 'guana' practice reduces postpartum depression without traditional research. "
Beyond Methods and Diversity: The Roots of Inclusion
March 26, 2024
" The greatest impact is when people call me directly or give a brief to me directly; it's about relationships. "
Panel: Excellence in Impact
March 25, 2024
" Culture always has inequities built into it, so researchers must be aware of their own positionality and blind spots. "
What emerging methods are advancing UX research [Advancing Research Community Workshop Series]
September 28, 2023
" Mainstream institutional knowledge is just a study of aesthetic, energetic, intuitive, embodied, relational, community and cultural knowledge. "
Research in the Pluriverse
March 29, 2023
" I hope that today you are transformed. "
Theme One Intro
March 27, 2023
" You are allowed to say white supremacy culture here, even if you can’t say that in your day-to-day work. "
Everything You Need to Know about the Civic Design 2022 Call for Presentations
May 17, 2022
" Cultural and experiential knowledge are greater than institutional knowledge. "
Radical Participatory Research: Decolonizing Participatory Processes
March 9, 2022
" Empowerment is problematic because when we empower others, we reinforce the hierarchy we seek to subvert. "
Radical Participatory Design: Decolonizing Participatory Design Processes
December 10, 2021
