Andrea Ngan (she/her/hers) is a designer, strategist, researcher, and media artist. As the daughter of Chinese immigrants from Guangzhou and Toishan, she was born and raised on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples, in what is now known as the San Francisco Bay Area. Growing up bridging languages and cultures for family members, she learned how systems are designed to exclude, and how intergenerational trauma compounds when people lack power to shape the institutions that affect their lives. These experiences became the foundation for her work in design justice, systems change, and building collective power for healing and racial and economic justice.
Since 2010, Andrea has co-founded and directed organizations rooted in culture change and social justice. With over a decade of experience designing and developing products, services, policies, programs, and multimedia experiences, she combines strategic vision with hands-on practice and deep expertise in building the operational infrastructure that enables teams to thrive. In 2020, she joined the City of Philadelphia's PHL Service Design Studio as a founding team member and now serves as the city's first Director of Community Co-Design, developing the systems, standards, and practices that center residents' in shaping public services.
Land acknowledgement: Andrea lives on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Lenape people. She honors and uplifts the histories of the Lenape, Susquehannock, Shawnee, and Iroquois nations—whose names and presence have been erased by colonialism, genocide, and displacement—in her everyday life and work.