Emma Dewberry trained as an industrial designer and for a short while practiced as a furniture designer. She joined the Design Group at the Open University as a Senior Lecturer in 2008. Prior to this she held academic positions at Loughborough University (2006-2008), Cranfield University (2001-2006), Goldsmiths College, University of London (1998-2001) and at The Judge Business School, Cambridge University (1996-1998). She is a member of two UK Research funding peer review colleges, an advisor to the design-subject panel of one of these, and a reviewer of papers for a number of leading academic journals. She has examined 17 doctoral candidates and leads the OU’s funded doctoral training programme in design.

Her research focuses on the capacity of design to create sustainable futures. She explores the scope and value of radical design and innovation in creating different journeys and destinations for sustainable living and questions the type of design, education and leadership required to create this sustainable transformation. She currently works in the area of Design Ecologies, probing synergies with transition theory, ecological thinking and perspectives on multi-level innovation to understand how design thinking and practice can creat