Designing the relationship between the concept and the experience of emotions.

For nearly two decades, Micah J. Wonjoon Kessel has designed empathic experiences applying research on the science of emotions. Pioneering behavioral design in the Netherlands, he advised on experiential concepts with organizations such as Google, Disney, Microsoft, and projects for flourishing across social divides with the Finnish and Swedish governments, and the Diabetes Fund.  

Now, Micah is Emotions Centered Design Lead at one of the world’s top emotions research neuroscience labs, IASLab, at Northeastern University. He is also Executive Director of Playground of Empathy (Playground), which is developed in collaboration with lab director, Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, who has revolutionized the world’s understanding of how and why the brain creates emotions.   

Under Micah’s direction, Playground’s team is a winner of the Harvard Culture Lab Innovation Fund Award in 2020, granted by their joint council of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging, and has since shared the Walk in My Shoes Experience with over 50 organizations, including the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education Conference, the Black in Design Conference, and for 1000’s at The Boston Museum of Science. Micah has presented his work at the Society for Neuroscience and Creativity, the Spectrum conference for founders of color, was a SOCAP scholar, and a Byron Fellow.