Interview with
a Change-Maker
In 2024, I sat down with Kevin Drinkwater, President of J5 Design & Calgary's Social Impact Lab, to talk about an exciting new project: a women's clinic dedicated to menopause and aging. The conversation that followed went beyond the questions I initially prepared.
The Purpose
I went into this interview looking to understand how designers approach social change and what service design looks like in practice. Kevin Drinkwater had built a career at that intersection, where he explained an upcoming project and what is guiding their decision making.
The Conversation
We discussed a developing project: a purpose-built clinic dedicated entirely to menopause and women's aging: a gap that affects half the population, with limited healthcare infrastructure designed around it. We talked through who was involved, what it would take to build it, the partnership with the Calgary Health Foundation, and what it means to design this type of space. Kevin's thinking followed Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle model, moving from the inside out: purpose first, then process, then result.
Closing the gap in women's health so no one is underserved through a natural stage of life.
Human-centred design grounded in curiosity and empathy, built in partnership with specialized care teams, Calgary Health Foundation, and women.
A purpose-built centre of excellence dedicated to menopause and women's aging. Serving women in marginalized communities and families in Calgary.
My ‘Aha’ Moment
When it clicked
I can honestly say that before I started the interview and in my preparations, I didn't know this kind of work existed. Design is applied to our biggest social problems, with empathy not as a soft skill but as the entire foundation of the process. I have always had an instinct of wanting to solve problems with empathy and kindness at the core and take various considerations into account, but I never had a clear path to actually do it. I didn't know there were careers built around championing exactly that kind of thinking.
When I knew
That conversation answered a question I didn't know I'd brought into the room. I'd always led with empathy — in how I approach people, how I think through problems, how I show up in my work — but I'd never seen it reflected back at me as something professionally purposeful. Kevin's work made it visible. The skills I'd been quietly building — curiosity, empathy, a genuine instinct for human connection were pointing somewhere. Design, done with care, really can make communities kinder and more beautiful places to live. I left that room knowing I wanted to be part of that.