Dr. Renata M. Leitão is an assistant professor in the Department of Human Centered Design at Cornell University. She is a graphic designer and social justice-focused design researcher with extensive experience in intercultural and participatory projects with Indigenous, local, and marginalized communities. Her research interests intersect with design for social justice, environmental sustainability, and decoloniality. 

At the helm of the Pluriversal Futures Design Lab (PluriFutures), Dr. Leitão focuses on ontological and communication design. The lab's mission is to foster societal transformation towards new, flourishing futures. PluriFutures tackles the pressing environmental and social crises of our time, and the limitations of modern ways of responding to them. Dr. Leitão's work delves into the interplay between the ideas humans hold about how the world works (ontology) and the physical environments we build by design.

She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Design and a MASc in Design & Complexity (Université de Montréal, Canada) and a BA in Graphic Design (Mackenzie University, Brazil). She was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (under the supervision of Dr. Dori Tunstall – OCAD University). 

As a Latin-American woman raised in a multiracial family, Dr. Leitão is committed to decolonizing design research and education. She launched and co-led the DRS Pluriversal Design Special Interest Group (PluriSIG). This international research network aims to highlight multiple perspectives in design, especially from those oppressed by and excluded from mainstream design narratives. Dr. Leitão is also a founder of the virtual conferences PIVOT, which focuses on decoloniality and pluriversality in design. She chaired its second virtual conference, “Pivot 2021: Dismantling and Reassembling—Tools for Alternative Futures”, hosted by OCAD University.