Cecilia Landa-Avila is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Systemic Design. Her research addresses global societal challenges through a systems thinking approach, with a particular focus on systemic inequities in health and care. Central to her work is the development of shared-power ecosystems that enable diverse actors to embrace plural worldviews, recognise tensions, and navigate value conflicts to drive systemic change.
Cecilia’s academic background includes a degree in Industrial Design and an MSc in Ergonomics in Design from the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, followed by a PhD from Loughborough University focused on Systemic Design in Healthcare. Her professional experience spans both industry and government, where she worked as a User Experience Researcher and Designer for public social services.
As a researcher, Cecilia has contributed to several high-impact projects, including DECODE (NIHR), IMMUNE (UKRI/AHRC), and Powering Productivity (UKRI/ESRC), where she applies systems-oriented design methods to understand and improve healthcare and wellbeing systems. She is currently contributing to a learning initiative aimed at integrating Human Factors and Ergonomics principles into healthcare practice in Latin America to enhance patient safety, performance, and wellbeing.
She also holds additional roles, notably as a member of the International Advisory Council of the Design Research Society (DRS), where she served as Chair for the 2024–2025 period. Within Loughborough University, she was EDI Co-Director for the School of Design and Creative Arts (2023–2025), leading the School’s Athena Swan (gender equality) application.
Cecilia’s research explores health, care, justice and wellbeing through a systems-oriented lens, focusing on how design can address structural inequities and enable transformative pathways for change.
Ongoing Research Agendas
Systemic Strategies for Integrated Care for Marginalised Older Adults with Long-Term Conditions: This research aims to develop an intersectional approach based on the concept of accumulated disadvantage across the life course of older adults. It seeks to inform service innovation and policy change towards a more integrated and anti-discriminatory healthcare system.
Inclusive Menopause: This project investigates experiences of menopause to uncover the underlying values, beliefs, and mental models that have shaped this care systems. Through storytelling, it explores how social and cultural narratives contribute to stigma and taboos, affecting women’s wellbeing and participation in the workplace.
Watch the digital stories of menopause: Inclusive Menopause in Charnwood
Past Research Projects:
- Negotiating Healthcare Outcomes: A Systemic Approach (Doctoral Research): Cecilia’s PhD examined how healthcare outcomes are negotiated among stakeholders, using dialogical and systemic mapping to address tensions across multiple perspectives within healthcare systems.
- DECODE (NIHR-funded): This project explored how AI-generated knowledge of multiple long-term conditions can improve care coordination and wellbeing for people with learning disabilities. As a postdoctoral researcher, Cecilia focused on understanding care coordination from the perspectives of multiple actors.
Other Research Involvements:
- IMMUNE – COVID Passport Service Design (UKRI/AHRC)
- Health Systems in Latin America, with Dr Carlos Aceves-González
- Paz Alto Cauca (ESRC/Colciencias)
- Powering Productivity (UKRI/ESRC)
Cecilia teaches across both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
She is the module leader for:
- Systems Thinking for Designers (part of the MA/MSc Experience Design programme)
- Generative Research and Prototyping for MA Design Major Project
She also contributes to postgraduate modules including Experience Design Major Project, Experience Design, Human Factors and Systems, and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Master’s Final Project, as well as undergraduate modules such as Sustainable Design.
Cecilia is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and holds Postgraduate Studies in Pedagogical Skills for Higher Education.
Cecilia collaborates with a range of international partners and initiatives.
- She is leveraging initiatives from the HFE Hub at Loughborough University to adapt the Healthcare Learning Pathway for healthcare providers in Latin America.
- As an elected member of the Design Research Society (DRS) International Advisory Council (2022–2028). She has chaired systemic design tracks at DRS conferences in Bilbao 2022, Boston 2024, and Edinburgh 2026, and a PhD colloquium.
- Co-chaired one of the hubs for the Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD12) conference, focusing on Synergies between Sciences.
- Co-edited The Little Book of Design for Health in Latin America in collaboration with Global Health/DILA.
- Cecilia serves on several scientific and editorial boards and acts as a reviewer for leading journals and conferences, including Ergonomics, Health Systems, Design Science, Applied Ergonomics, RSD, DRS, IEA, and HEPS.
Cecilia brings together expertise in systems thinking, participatory design, care systems, and human factors/ergonomics, enabling her to support and collaborate with Doctoral Researchers across a wide range of interdisciplinary areas.
Current Supervision
- Barbara Foiato Hein Machado (Primary Supervisor) – Advocacy for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Patients in Healthcare (Barbara's Profile)
- Yuhui Mowdy (Secondary Supervisor, with Business School) – Intersectionality in the Design and Delivery of Digital Mental Health Services for Disadvantaged Populations
Cecilia welcomes applications from prospective doctoral researchers interested in:
- Transforming health and care systems, with a particular focus on vulnerable or marginalised communities
- Participatory systems approaches, especially those addressing power asymmetries and creative civic engagement
- Pedagogies of systemic design
- Theories of change as a means to build and sustain systemic learning capabilities