Gigi Polo (Niberca Lluberes) is a designer, educator, filmmaker, and practice-based PhD candidate at RMIT University. She is a Part-Time Associate Teaching Professor at Parsons School of Design, where she has taught since 2006, and also teaches at Chavón School of Design. Her research, Osmotic Sensoria, explores how multisensory environments, embodied cognition, and emerging technologies can foster more neuroinclusive and equitable learning experiences.
Gigi is the founder of Gigi Polo Lab, a design futures and research practice that collaborates with organizations on sustainability, wellbeing, and innovation. Previously, she served as Design Director at Dauphin Americas, leading initiatives in sustainability, workplace wellbeing, and experiential design. She is the author of Second Language Through Design[ing] and creator of the Sprint-to-Pacing pedagogical model for intensive learning, and the producer of Madly Gifted, a documentary about Bipolar Disorder and the creative temperament, which has been widely screened and later integrated into the UTMB Psychiatry Clerkship Curriculum as an educational resource
Her work has been presented internationally through CGScholar, FATE, ICDPCA, MozFest, and the Design Principles and Practices Research Network. She currently serves on the CGScholar Editorial Board and serves as Vice President of Communications and Branding for Foundations in Art: Theory and Education (FATE). As a filmmaker, she directed Madly Gifted, a documentary on bipolar disorder and the artistic temperament that has been integrated into medical education at the University of Texas Medical Branch.