Lesley-Ann Noel is a designer, researcher, and educator, the author of Design Social Change, and a co-editor of The Black Experience in Design. She has created several design tools for critical reflection, such as The Designer’s Critical Alphabet, and the Positionality Wheel. She has a bachelor’s in Industrial Design from Universidade Federal do Paraná in Brazil, a  Master’s in Business Administration from the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago, and a PhD in Design from North Carolina State University. She was awarded honorary doctorates for service to the field of design by the University of the Arts London and the Pacific Northwest College of Art. She is the Dean of Design at OCAD University (Aug 2024). Before OCAD-U, she taught at North Carolina State University, Tulane University, Stanford University, and the University of the West Indies.

Lesley-Ann is co-chair of the Pluriversal Design Special Interest Group of the Design Research Society. She practices primarily in social innovation, education, futures workshops, and public health.