Toban is a strategic designer, researcher, and educator. Her work focuses on fostering transdisciplinary collaborations, driving systemic transitions, and enabling place-based transformation.

She currently serves as the Director of the Master of Strategic Design at ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering in Barcelona, where she leads academic and applied initiatives exploring the role of design in shaping societal change.

Most recently, Toban was a Partner at Field States, a strategic design firm dedicated to place-based transformation and civic value in the US and Canada.

Prior to that, Toban helped establish the Rhode Island School of Design’s Center for Complexity (CfC), a pioneering studio applying creative practices to complex and systemic challenges. There, she led large-scale collaborative efforts in healthcare, public policy, and education. Her leadership at CfC focused on building new capacities within organizations, stewarding implementation efforts, and developing new forms of partnership. 

Toban’s work often spans sectors and geographies. She co-founded mainstay, RI, to address the overdose crisis through the redesign of care environments. She has advised governments, NGOs, and philanthropic organizations on strategic initiatives. From developing cross-departmental innovation programs for state employees in Rhode Island, to reimagining libraries as civic infrastructure, to contributing to Vietnam’s circular economy strategy with the United Nations Development Programme.
 
As an educator, Toban has held teaching positions at the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Michigan. She is a guest critic and lecturer at academic institutions around the world including the Royal College of Art in London and the Istituto Europeo di Design in Barcelona.

Earlier in her career, Toban worked as an architectural designer specializing in adaptive reuse projects for residential, commercial and civic spaces. She holds a Master of Design in Interior Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a Bachelor of Science in Human Ecology from the University of Alberta.

Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Now based in Barcelona, Spain. 

︎ tobanshadlyn@gmail.com
︎ tobanshadlyn