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Marian BaldonadoÌýis a Social Impact graduate student in the Creative Technologies and Design program. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology, with a focusÌýin cognitive science, fromÌýthe University of Santa Cruz, California. Her concentration wasÌýon designing robots to be useful and accessible, and to enhance human-robot collaboration. After graduation, she attendedÌýa bootcamp for user-experience design and worked as a paraeducator, helpingÌýelementary through high school students with special needs transition to general education. There she built a makerspace and STEAM pathway program for the middle school department so that middle school special education students couldÌýexplore and take creative risks whenÌýlearning science and technology. Marian's experience with HRI, HCIÌýand user experience research, combined with working with specialized demographics, fuels her passion to make nascent technologies accessible to disenfranchised groups.