About me!

My name is Alice Qiu, and I’m currently pursuing an MA in Design Focused on Health @ UT Austin, where I approach healthcare problems with curiosity, empathy, and creativity. With a deep love of learning and desire to help people, I was originally drawn to medicine, starting my journey in pre-med. Over time, I found myself gravitating more and more towards creativity and collaboration. It felt like I was being pulled by 2 opposing forces and that my passions sat in tension, so it was nothing short of a miracle to find design — a way to practice all of it at once, a way to “yes, and” rather than “yes, but”. Today, I approach design challenges through an interdisciplinary lens shaped by backgrounds in Biological Sciences, Asian American Studies, and Global Health Studies. These perspectives continue to inform how I think about care, equity, and the broader systems that not only shape health experiences but also what it means to be human. Grounded in the belief that we are shaped by and responsible to one another, I’m a huge believer in collaboration and co-design — because the most meaningful solutions are made with people,
not just for them.