RED are very proud of our Director, Hilary Cottam, who has been shortlisted for the Design Museum's Designer of the Year award.

Hilary's work is dedicated to using design thinking to renew public services - and the processes that develop and deliver them - by connecting the users of services to policy makers through project work.

Hilary is founding Director of School Works, an independent, not-for-profit Company testing in practice the belief that it is possible to use existing resources differently to create beautiful places, designed to raise educational achievement and support lifelong learning. Schoolworks was selected for the BT Vision 100 index 2002, which identifies 100 innovative UK organisations that have achieved strategic goals through visionary activities.

Hilary is also founding Director of the Do Tank Ltd and has put forward a radical case for prison reform developed through a collaborative enquiry involving prisoners and an interdisciplinary team. Learning Works sets out how new prison architecture supports and makes affordable a transformative learning regime to reduce rates of reoffending.

And finally Hilary is Director of our very own RED unit which is challenging accepted thinking on economic and social issues through design innovation. In 2004 RED completed its first project on citizenship, Touching the State. Following the release of the first RED paper Health: Co-creating Services (co-authored by Hilary and Charles Leadbeater), RED is now immersed in a new project looking at how providing users with the means for co-creating services - together and with professionals - might provide radical innovation, higher quality responses and reduced dependency on traditional services.

Hilary is currently away on maternity leave but will rejoin the RED team in the autumn.

CATEGORY: RED TEAM