Mahima is a visual communicator and design researcher. Armed with a background in liberal studies, communication design, and social design, Mahima aims to amplify the voices of marginalized communities and address their needs through systemic and sustainable design interventions that drive collective action. Before joining Hester Street as a Designer, she worked with disability communities to co-create a heuristic curriculum that teaches filmmakers how to authentically represent disability on screen. She has also briefly worked with communities in food deserts across New York to build food equity through community design. In India, she worked with government school drop-out girls to design alternative pathways for them to continue their education.
A big part of her creative identity is music. For the last 15 years, she has been playing the Sitar and recently started learning the Sarod. For Mahima, music has been an education in the magical possibilities of improvisation and collaboration.
Mahima graduated with a Master’s in Design for Social Innovation from the School of Visual Arts (NYC) in May 2021. She was awarded the Paul Pollack Scholarship and SVA Alumni Scholarship for her work in social design.