Lorella Di Cintio has been educated in Canada, United States, and Europe in the fields of interior design, architecture, and media and communications. Her research focuses primarily on design activism and is the founder of The Design Activism = Change Initiative.
Her research concentration is on the social and political positions undertaken by designers. Di Cintio creates unique pedagogical links among design activism, service, and experiential learning and social innovation. She has forged working partnerships with First Nations communities in Canada and Mexico and her students’ designs have supported Toronto food-bank users and Haitian earthquake survivors. She has received a silver medal for the advancement of design education and service from the Universidad Iberoamericana. In 2014, she received the IDEC Community Service Award from the Interior Design Educators Council.
Di Cintio is an academic reviewer for the Journal of Interior Design with a focus on service-learning pedagogy, and she is editor-in-charge of service activities in academia with the Interior Design Educators Council. She has received grants from Canada Council for the Arts and has exhibited her creative work internationally.
