Katie Mubita

Social Justice Committee of Saint Joseph, Saint Joseph, MI 2020 - Current Volunteer Recommend police and procedural updates that improve transparency, increase community trust, and seek to prevent racial and social injustice within the divided communities of Saint Joseph and Benton Harbor, MI. Racial Equity Chamber, Benton Harbor, MI 2020 - Current Member-Volunteer Amplify local Black leaders dedicated to unifying & enhancing the community experience for those living in Berrien County. supporting both the Black Wall Street BH & FreshStart initiatives design & develop strategies alongside community leaders via We The People, MI Downtown Development Authority, Benton Harbor, MI 2021 - Current Campaign Consultant/Volunteer Design a campaign that includes the Black business community to drive activity to Benton Harbor businesses. creating opportunities for Black entrepreneurs to tell their stories that increase empathy to build equitable relationships & lasting customers.

Lead KitchenAid’s small appliances yearly storytelling development, art direction and product development for all CMF and graphic executions affecting stand mixer bowl designs, color palettes, Limited Editions and Color of the Year. Spearhead storytelling and art direction of Color of the Year & Limited Edition, collaborating with Brand Marketing to create lovable products that generate impressions & increases brand health (increase from 9th to 3rd on the Prophet Brand Relevance Index). Strategize vision work with Limited Edition development, feeding advanced materials roadmap and stand mixer and trade customization bowl strategy. Support global CMF team in yearly socio-cultural, aesthetic, and home trends presentations and identification of new colors and materials for all Whirlpool brands, helping products stay competitive and relevant. Lead KitchenAid Color Strategy and Color development with cross-category teams and suppliers to increase color craftsmanship and leadership across the full product portfolio (baking, coffee, culinary, food prep, and licensed goods.).

Develop a multicultural global design community that fosters belonging and connection to increase engagement across the five in-house studios around the world. Define team organization structure and projects in 5 different squads: Recruit & Retain, Social Design, Sustainability, Designer Growth, and Communications, improving reach and focus of initiatives. Lead future vision of CULTURE through development of a 5 year strategic plan & measurable goals. Facilitate global workshops to insure open dialogue from all regions to drive meaningful change for each designer. The link is of a presentation I gave to the GCD team to reframe words and undo biases around racism. Most of my content was inspired by Ibrahm X. Kendi & Valarie Kaur.

Color, Material, and Finishes designer for Rayovac/Varta and Remington Products. Visual trend forecasting Competitive analysis Custom color, material, and finish development Color studies on variety of men's and women's products

Conduct in-depth user studies and product, competitor and trend research. Define project requirements and ensure product specifications align with project goal. Enhance client ideation with creative problem solving through cross-functional team brainstorming. Generate concepts with rapid ideation sketching. Develop form sketch models for ergonomic studies of products. Perform proof-of-concept and product validation testing and document findings in formal reports. Received three design patents (pending) on current client products. Maintain communications with clients with weekly touch-point meetings and presentations. Assist Product Development Engineering with dimensional drawings of parts.

Conduct in-depth user studies and product, competitor and trend research. Define project requirements and ensure product specifications align with project goal. Enhance client ideation with creative problem solving through cross-functional team brainstorming. Generate concepts with rapid ideation sketching. Develop form sketch models for ergonomic studies of products. Perform proof-of-concept and product validation testing and document findings in formal reports. Received three design patents on current client products. Maintain communications with clients with weekly touch-point meetings and presentations. Assist Product Development Engineering with dimensional drawings of parts.

Creative problem solving, in-depth market research methods, rapid prototyping, computer rendering of designs, and hand-built model making