Denise Pinto

Background

About Denise Pinto

Hi, I'm Denise. I’m a designer, social innovator, and placemaker who is invested in creating systems change. I have convened conversations that drive high-impact, ethical, inclusive frameworks for government, non-profit, and corporate clients for over a decade. I blend my background in design, city-building, and architecture to tackle complex questions that require us to have empathy in order to be innovative and just. In my professional life, I am a Lead Design Facilitator at Accenture's Canada Innovation Hub helping clients across the country invent and deliver a more impactful future. I am also board member for MABELLEarts, an arts-based charity in Toronto that transforms parks in low-income neighbourhoods, and a design lead for OpenIDEO’s Toronto’s chapter, a community of researchers, designers, consultants, and humans who use design thinking to create social impact. I’ve been fortunate to keynote around the world, including in Vienna, Hong Kong, and at Brown University in Rhode Island. I like to keep the company of world-changers, and I’m drawn to doing work where there’s a possibility to tip scales, make movements, and make moments. I was formerly the Creative Director at Courage Co-Lab, a company I co-founded to help bring creative thinking to the social sector. I also held the role of Executive Director of the Jane's Walk project, which engaged residents in over 200 cities around the world to walk together and more deeply understand their own neighbourhoods through dialogue. I was a recipient of a Medal of Excellence at the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Urban Design Awards, and in 2016, was named a Vital Person by the Toronto Foundation, as a trusted voice around issues of inclusivity in cities. Check out my on-going project: Bus Rides with Urbanists, an audio storytelling project about cities as told from local bus routes across Canada.