Jessica Ilunga is a doctoral fellow in urban planning and design at Keio University in Tokyo. Her research focuses on how public-participatory design processes produce more just and inclusive outcomes in the context of rapid urban redevelopment. Her work is informed by her academic background in civil engineering and her professional experience in process design. She completed her master’s degree in City and Regional Planning as a 2018 Mandela Rhodes Scholar at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and her thesis focused on the role of radical planning in achieving urban justice.

Jessica is currently a program consultant for The Mandela Rhodes Foundation (MRF), designing and facilitating virtual learning experiences for the Second Year Leadership Programme. She leverages her design thinking, action learning, and storytelling skills to create engaging and impactful online workshops and courses that foster social justice education, creative thinking and leadership development. Her work is informed by her experience as a facilitator for the Global Citizenship Program at UCT and her experience of human-centred innovation at UCT's Hasso Plattner Institute for Design Thinking (d-school Afrika).