Penina Laker
Assistant Professor of Communication Design
Penina Laker teaches in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts. As a graphic designer and educator, her professional work and research are centered around topics that utilize a human-centered approach to solving social problems. In 2013, she collaborated on an award-winning project that used simplified iconography to communicate ailments associated with the spread, prevention, and treatment of malaria in Kibera, Kenya. This work has received multiple awards, with Metropolis Magazine naming it runner-up in its Next Generation Design Competition; it also earned the Student Notable Honoree status after placing in the top six of all national entries in the Core77 2013 Design Awards.
Professor Laker earned an MFA in Visual Communication Design from Kent State University and a BA in Art from Goshen College. As a component of her MFA thesis, she developed a secondary-level design curriculum that was inspired by the paucity of design education in Uganda, despite the growth and increasing number of job opportunities within the country’s design sector. This subsequently inspired the creation of DesignEd Uganda workshops that Professor Laker organizes and facilitates over the summer to equip young people with skills in design and creative problem-solving.
John Inazu
Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion
Professor Inazu has a joint appointment at Washington University School of Law and the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. He teaches criminal law, law and religion, and various First Amendment seminars. His scholarship focuses on the First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion, and related questions of legal and political theory. He is the author of Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly (Yale University Press, 2012) and Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference (University of Chicago Press, 2016), and co-editor (with Tim Keller) of Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference (Thomas Nelson, 2020). He writes broadly for mainstream audiences in publications including The Atlantic, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today.
Inazu holds a B.S.E. and J.D. from Duke University and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He clerked for Judge Roger L. Wollman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and served for four years as an associate general counsel with the Department of the Air Force at the Pentagon.
Elizabette Privat
Teaching Assistant, JD Candidate 2020
Elizabette is a 2nd year law student at Wash U Law. Before law school she spent much of her time advocating for prisoner rights and volunteering as an educator in low income communities. Once she graduates, she plans to return home to New York City as a corporate attorney. In addition, she hopes to continue her work in prisoner rights and education.
Eve Wallack
Teaching Assistant, Communication Design BFA Candidate
Eve Wallack is a designer interested in the intersection of design, data, and social impact. She is currently a senior at Washington University in St. Louis pursuing a B.F.A in Communication Design. Her practice is rooted in typography, book design, and design thinking—with projects ranging from female empowerment to plastic pollution.