Felix Kabo

Research Fellow

Dr. Felichism “Felix” Kabo is the Research Director at CannonDesign, a global and leading design firm. He has established and led multidisciplinary teams and groups doing externally funded innovative, highly interdisciplinary research. Felix has a track record of publications and leadership in research on the built environment. He is translating his work on the effects of built space on outcomes related to health, communication, collaboration, innovation, and team science to advance a research agenda at CannonDesign that is informed by the firm’s Living-Centered Design (L-CD) ethos.

L-CD fuses the best attributes of human-centered and systems-based approaches to help organizations and communities achieve more impactful and systemic change. Dr. Kabo has expertise in data collection using different modalities, from primary data collection using complex surveys and location-tracking technology, to secondary data analysis using large-scale administrative datasets and system-generated logs. He has tackled important societal issues by integrating spatiosocial theories with methods such as network analysis, statistical modeling, and Big Data approaches. Felix is working collaboratively with CannonDesign’s internal and external stakeholders to both identify thorny problems and to develop research-based solutions. In addition to publishing papers in leading academic journals and policy outlets, Dr. Kabo has also shared his work with diverse stakeholders and communication channels, including local, state, and national media.

The ZLI Research Fellowship will leverage the resources at ZLI and the U-M Ross School of Business to engage with an exceptional research leader in industry to solve important strategic, organizational, and operational questions. The ZLI Research Fellow currently has a leadership role in a firm that integrates research and practice.

The Fellow will work with faculty and staff at the University of Michigan, including ZLI and Ross, to identify and exploit opportunities for collaborative research on issues that relate to the core mission of the Fellow’s home organization and the broader academic community.