Antionette Priscilla Carroll Named 2026 Social Innovator in Residence
Equity design leader to collaborate with students and community partners on trust-building and rural innovation.
Grinnell College will welcome Antionette Priscilla Carroll as the 2026 Social Innovator in Residence, bringing a nationally recognized leader in equity-centered design to campus for a fall 2026 residency focused on trust, community agency, and sustainable systems change.
Antionette Priscilla is the founder, president, and CEO of Creative Reaction Lab and co-founder of the Institute of Equitable Design and Justice. A pioneer of the Equity-Centered Community Design (ECCD™) framework, she leads work that challenges traditional design approaches by centering those most impacted as co-designers and decision-makers.
Her work focuses on identifying and challenging the root causes of community challenges, while helping communities build the trust needed to take shared responsibility and act together.
Antionette Priscilla, shared, “Community building, trust, equity and design are more explicitly linked than we name. Can we truly design more joyful or inclusive spaces, policies, even relationships without addressing generational and current mistrust and distrust? In the years I’ve spent building, educating, and mobilizing for more inclusive and equitable outcomes, I always ran into the same reality: without trust, nothing happens and nothing changes.”
Grinnell College President Anne F. Harris shared the significance of Antionette Priscilla’s selection and the broader vision of the program.
“The Social Innovator in Residence Program continues to be a wellspring of inspiration for our campus and community,” Harris said. “What began as an award has grown into a sustained relationship-building effort that connects us to the incredible work happening across the world. When I learned about Ms. Antionette Priscilla’s work, I was immediately inspired. There is a powerful alignment between her focus on trust and the conversations already taking place within our community, and I am honored and excited to welcome her to Grinnell.”
Building Trust as Essential Infrastructure
Antionette Priscilla’s residency will explore how trust functions as a critical infrastructure in communities navigating disinvestment, division, and institutional skepticism. Her current work in Trust Design focuses on identifying and challenging the root causes of community challenges, while helping communities build the trust needed to take shared responsibility and act together.
“Everything is by design, including systems of oppression, advantages, inequality, inequity, distrust and mistrust. Therefore, these systems can be redesigned. And I’m excited to include Grinnell in this redesign focused on trust, liberation, care, dignity and love.” she added, “Nature is 3.8 billion years old. If anyone is an expert of trust building and trust sustainability, it would be our fellow species,” said, Antionette Priscilla.
Rural communities and underinvested urban neighborhoods often face parallel challenges, including declining trust, economic disinvestment, and the erosion of local agency. During her time at Grinnell, Antionette Priscilla will collaborate with students and community partners to explore how these dynamics play out in Iowa’s rural context.
Through workshops, research, creative experiences, and community engagement, the residency will introduce students to Equity-Center Community Design (ECCD™) and Nature of Trust processes while co-creating and prototyping Trust Design models. Drawing from her work in St. Louis and beyond, Antionette Priscilla will guide participants in examining how design can strengthen civic trust, bridge divides, and reimagine local governance, storytelling, and resource-sharing.
She added, “Distrust and mistrust exists across geographies, families, positions, organizations, and most human-centered efforts. Not intentionally. We’ve inherited, absorbed, and expanded these relationship dynamics — even going so far to position these dynamics as “truths” through our biases (and yes, I said “our”).”
A Collaborative and Community-centered Residency
The Social Innovator in Residence Program is designed to foster sustained, meaningful collaboration between innovators, students, and community partners — creating space for shared learning and experimentation.
“This residency is about co-creating ideas and approaches that are grounded in real community needs and lived experiences,” said Susan Sanning, associate dean and executive director of Civic Education and Innovation. “By working alongside Antionette students and campus and community partners will be co-creating new models of trust and engagement that are both innovative and deeply rooted in community. This endeavor is designed to be mutually beneficial, fostering growth and ensuring that her time on campus is rejuvenating and conducive to creative energy.”
Students will play an active role in shaping and supporting the residency, including research, planning, and engagement with Antionette Priscilla’s work. She will be on campus next week April 20-22 to begin the co-creation of her residency.
“Learning about Antionette’s work during the research and selection process has already made me better appreciate truly co-creative design practices that center those most impacted as co-decision-makers,” said Nate Bloch ’29. “It’s incredible that we will be able to learn, apply, and build upon her ideas in collaboration with her here in Grinnell to redesign systems that will better serve everyone.”
Advancing Civic Engagement and Social Change
The Social Innovator in Residence Program enables students to engage directly with leaders who are making an enduring difference in the world. By fostering interdisciplinary creativity and hands-on collaboration, the program supports Grinnell’s commitment to civic engagement and social change.
During her residency, students and community partners will work alongside Antionette Priscilla to explore how Equity Design and sustainable rural community building intersect. During her time with us we will learn from one another as we examine how building trust and sharing decision-making can support stronger, more connected communities in Grinnell and in places like it.
Questions and correspondence about the Social Innovator in Residence Program can be directed to Vicki Nolton, assistant director for Social Innovation Partnerships and Education, at noltonvi@grinnell.edu.
Acknowledgments
Thanks and recognition are owed to the Social Innovator in Residence Selection Committee and our student researchers for their thoughtful, sustained, and dedicated work throughout this process. Their care and discernment continue to shape a program that reflects the very best of Grinnell’s commitment to learning, partnership, and social change. Many thanks to Vicki Nolton and Susan Sanning who co-facilitated the committee with tremendous care, leadership, and vision, further strengthening a process grounded in collaboration, learning, and social change.
Yesenia Ayala ’18, Nate Bloch ’29, Cassie Bingham, Bailey Dann ’17, Lexy Determan, Olivia Lee ’28, Siphosethu (Sethu) Mnguni ’26, Vicki Nolton, Keisya Park ’26, Orestis Papaioannou, Saunia Powell ’02, Vrinda Varia, Mattia Wells, and Autumn Wilke.