Timothy Prestero is a co-founder and co-director of Design that Matters, a Massachusetts nonprofit that helps underserved communities realize an improved quality of life by creating products and services that meet needs identified by the communities themselves.

Design that Matters (DtM) is building a system that enables the community groups, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), university students, and businesses to jointly innovate for social change.

For Prestero, DtM spans the gap between his experience in West Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer and at MIT as an engineering graduate student. He recently returned to West Africa with a team of MIT undergraduate students to field test the students' prototype literacy tool, research new design challenges and expand DtM's network of community and NGO contacts.

Prestero is co-inventor on three pending patents for cholera treatment devices. He is a graduate of the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering, holding M.S. degrees in Mechanical and Oceanographic Engineering, and a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the UC Davis. He is a Martin Fellow at the MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment, and was recently named an Ashoka Affiliate.

http://www.designthatmatters.org>