February 18, 2021
Change Lab Podcast Tackles the Future of Education
Leaders take on rapidly shifting educational models, investigate radical possibilities and propose bold new ways to learn
ArtCenter College of Design presents season eight of Change Lab: Conversations on Transformation and Creativity, a bi-weekly podcast featuring a stellar line up of thought leaders representing a diverse range of educational models to explore how to reinvent learning and radically improve teaching for a better future. Kicking off on February 17, guests include the presidents of Occidental College and Pasadena City College, the Global Head of Strategic Content at LinkedIn Learning and the Chancellor of UC Berkeley.
“As we enter a new year and launch a new season of Change Lab, I think most of us are torn between looking forward with hope and anticipation and looking back with a kind of weary amazement,” said podcast host Lorne M. Buchman, president of ArtCenter College of Design. “We’ve endured and prevailed over enormous obstacles. But, as educators and designers, we know all too well that with every tall challenge we meet offers an opportunity for learning and progress.”
The migration to digital classrooms offered an opportunity for everyone in higher education to experiment and invent until faculty and students discovered what worked best for this unprecedented time. The experience provided important discoveries about the nature of education itself by boiling down the learning process to its fundamental elements: relationships between faculty and students and the tools to learn and create. These lessons learned became the inspiration to explore the future of education during season eight of Change Lab.
Change Lab is distributed across all major podcast platforms, including iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play and the Apple Podcasts app. To subscribe to the Change Lab podcast, visit www.artcenter.edu/changelab
The eighth season of Change Lab kicks off with the story of D’Wayne Edwards who turned his childhood passion for drawing sneakers into a high-flying design career, moving from L.A. Gear to Sketchers and then eventually landing his dream job at Nike’s Jordan Brand. As one of very few Black leaders in his business, he saw an opportunity to create a pipeline for diverse designers.
Edwards quit his job at Nike to launch Pensole Footwear Design Academy in order to build career pathways that didn’t exist when he was coming of age in Compton, California. Pensole is now an established force in footwear design education, providing a host of immersive programs in partnership with ArtCenter and other institutions. Pensole had a hand in training more than 500 footwear designers working today.
In the debut episode of this new season investigating the future of education, Edwards reflects on the importance of mentorship, hard work and hands-on learning in creating a more diverse and sustainable design education model.
In the episode set to air March 3, 2021, listeners meet Harry J. Elam Jr., president of Occidental College, one of the country’s top liberal arts colleges. Buchman and Elam share personal histories as theater directors who became college presidents and discuss how that collaborative spirit and intense listening informs their leadership in service style. In their conversation about social justice, Elam reveals how he became an agent of change drawing on Black revolutionary theater and Chicano protest theater earlier in his career.
On March 17th, 2021 Dan Brodnitz, global head of content strategy for LinkedIn Learning, joins Buchman for a conversation about the evolving world of online learning, poetry and the exploration of creativity patterns, themes and issues.
Future episodes feature Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Theological Seminary (March 31); Carol T. Christ, chancellor of University of California, Berkeley (April 14); and Erika Endrijonas, superintendent-president of Pasadena City College (April 28).
To subscribe to the Change Lab podcast, visit www.artcenter.edu/changelab
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About ArtCenter College of Design Founded in 1930 and located in Pasadena, California, ArtCenter College of Design is a global leader in art and design education. ArtCenter offers 11 undergraduate and seven graduate degrees in a wide variety of industrial design disciplines as well as visual and applied arts. In addition to its top-ranked academic programs, the College also serves members of the Greater Los Angeles region through a highly regarded series of year-round continuing education programs for all ages and levels of experience. Renowned for both its ties to industry and its social impact initiatives, ArtCenter is the first design school to receive the United Nations’ Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status. Throughout the College’s long and storied history, ArtCenter alumni have had a profound impact on popular culture, the way we live and important issues in our society.
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Contact:
Teri Bond
ArtCenter College of Design
teri.bond@artcenter.edu
626 396-2385
