We are non-profit innovators from different parts of the education ecosystem who delight in the possibilities of the future of learning. We are connected in our belief that designing models from the learner perspective can address equity gaps and skills gaps in the fast changing hiring marketplace.
Our team, Board and Advisors bring cutting edge expertise and diverse perspectives across the learner journey and across disciplines such as technology, learning science, entrepreneurship and design. The common thread is a belief that we are at a critical historical moment in redesigning the school to work pipeline. And that we can vastly improve access and outcomes.
Founder & President
Kathleen created Education Design Lab after 8 years on the Board of Visitors of George Mason University, where she saw the need for a separate organization to help universities and many other interested parties innovate to prepare the professional workforce. More
Partner
Larry is Chief Growth Officer at the Education Design Lab, developing and executing partnership strategies to maximize the Lab’s mission to support underserved student populations in the “Learner Revolution.” More
Director of Projects
Binh brings a unique set of design experiences, strategic planning and project management skills to the Education Design Lab. Her work engagements have spanned both K-12 and higher education. More
Education Designer,
Director of 21st Century Skills Badging
Don connects higher education institutions with entrepreneurial start-ups to design new education models for student success, lifelong learning and workforce readiness. More
Education Designer
Brian manages and executes new education model design challenges with education institutions and foundations, supporting the Lab’s knowledge management for innovations in higher education, and contributes to the design and ongoing development of the Lab’s design process, methods and experiences. More
Seamless Transfer Pathways Coach
As the Seamless Transfer Pathways Coach, Leslie provides support and guidance to the IHE Teams selected to participate in the Seamless Transfer Pathways Design Challenge throughout the challenge year (2017-18). More
Education Designer,
HBCU Lead
David acts as project lead on an engagement with UNCF and their Career Pathways Initiative to assist 14 private HBCUs to modify their general education requirements, improve workforce relationships and on-campus career services to assist their students in achieving purposeful employment after graduation. More
Associate Education Designer
Tara provides support for the 21st Century Skills Badging Challenge and is helping learning institutions implement badges to capture and assess smaller increments of learning than courses and degrees. More
Associate Education Designer
May designs visual explanations, information graphics, and print and digital materials while maintaining a productive office environment. She supports all aspects of the Lab’s operations, from design challenges to design facilitation. More
Design Fellow
Alexander reinvents higher education through project coordination and institutional collaboration, with a particular focus on engaging the Innovator Network and fueling the Lab’s impact engine. More
Design Fellow
Ricardo is a design strategist, knowledge broker and social entrepreneur working in the intersection of design, education and technology. He holds a MFA in Transdisciplinary Design at Parsons The New School for Design (New York). More
The Lab proactively identifies gaps in the education-to-work ecosystem that require next generation solutions. We put together partners, funders and institutions to tackle the path from problem definition through solution finding to adoption and evaluation. We also accept requests from individual institutions, funders, entrepreneurs or communities to facilitate related design processes.
athleen deLaskiKathleen founded the Education Design Lab after eight years on the Board of Virginia’s largest public university, George Mason. A social entrepreneur, she has launched or co-launched four non-profits in the past two decades, all related to improving the quality of education for non-elite students. With the Lab, she saw the need for a non-profit to help learning institutions and other players design education toward the future of a fast changing world. As the Lab has supported some 60 universities, as well as employers and high schools, in their innovation design work, Kathleen has been asked to share learnings and ideas about the broken pipeline, 21st century skills and the learner-driven revolution around the world.
In addition, Kathleen serves as the president of the deLaski Family Foundation, a leading grantmaker in education reform and new pathways to the middle class. She founded and serves as board chair for EdFuel, a national non-profit working to build a diverse talent leadership pipeline for K-12 education. Previously, Kathleen created Sallie Mae’s award-winning college access foundation, co-founded Building Hope, a charter school facilities financing non-profit and helped Michelle Rhee create StudentsFirst, a national advocacy movement to improve school options and quality.
Spending five years at America Online, she developed the first interactive tools to engage the public online in elections and the political process and helped the biggest news organizations create digital brands. She and her boss, Steve Case, were named by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics among “25 People Changing the World.” Kathleen was named by President Clinton as Chief Spokesman for the Pentagon, where she oversaw the military’s worldwide public information team. She also spent 13 years as a TV journalist, including 5 years as an ABC News Washington correspondent.
Michelle is a Design Challenge Lead for the Lab’s Badging Challenge. Michelle is also the President of Lead by Experience, offering strategic and tactical consulting to help leadership teams across: business, health care and education improve their customer experience.
Through her coaching, Michelle loves to “gently” break up typical functional silos to stimulate collaboration and steer change management across organizations. She integrates new, cost effective, ways to capture and understand customers’ expectations, wants and needs.
Prior to establishing her own business, Michelle held executive positions in telecommunications at MCI and NII Holdings where she held the position of Senior Director of Customer Experience. Michelle earned a Masters of Arts degree in Education: Curriculum & Instruction from Loyola College in Maryland and completed an Executive Certification in Global Leadership from Georgetown University – the McDonough School of Business.
Tyler Cowen is Holbert L. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University and also Director of the Mercatus Center. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1987. His book The Great Stagnation: How America Ate the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better was a New York Times best-seller.
He was recently named in an Economist poll as one of the most influential economists of the last decade and Bloomberg BusinessWeek dubbed him “America’s Hottest Economist.” Foreign Policy magazine named him as one of its “Top 100 Global Thinkers” of 2011.
His book, An Economist Gets Lunch considers the economics of global food, and his very latest, Average is Over, looks at the implications of increasing inequality. He also co-writes a blog with Alex Tabarrokat www.marginalrevolution.com and together they have initiated an on-line economics education project, MRUniversity.com.
Mike brings extensive experience in higher education policy, innovation and management to Education Design Lab’s work. Mike has a broad perspective on the challenges facing colleges and universities based on his past leadership positions in state government, nonprofit organizations and higher education systems. He has led transformation initiatives in all of these sectors.
Mike served as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Higher Education and Executive Vice President and chief operating officer of the Connecticut Board of Regents for Higher Education.
Mike was a member of the Executive Committee and Vice Chair of the Federal Relations Committee of the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO). He led the Connecticut delegation in the National Governors Association Best Practices Academy “Complete to Compete” and in Complete College America. Michael was also active in the state policy track of Achieving the Dream and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Coalition for the Common Core Standards. He earned his J.D. and B.S. degrees from Georgetown University.
Prior to his work in higher education, Mike led several nonprofit organizations that provided services addressing the needs of many “first generation” and returning adult students.
Alexander WilliamsAs Education Design Lab’s ReDesign Associate, Alexander reinvents higher education through project coordination and institutional collaboration, with a particular focus on engaging the Innovator Network and fueling the Lab’s impact engine. He envisions higher education as a mechanism for empowerment, developed from working with institutional consortia in Virginia, New Jersey, Kentucky, and now DC.
Alexander first became exposed to the intricacies of higher education while serving as a Student Representative on the Board of Visitors for George Mason University. Recognizing that the individuals involved in the education process produce the value associated with that education, Alexander took the leap to become one of those involved individuals and began a career in education. As a graduate student at Teachers College of Columbia University studying for a Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration, he published research with fellow students and faculty on education leadership models and coordinated special projects for the New Jersey Consortium of Community Colleges. After graduating, Alexander moved to Louisville, Kentucky to complete a year of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA. Serving under the leadership of 55,000 Degrees, he analyzed student success data for Jefferson Community & Technical College and organized community collaboration efforts around educational persistence for the Louisville metro area.
A proud native of DC, Alexander brings to the Lab his passion for a higher education experience that empowers individuals personally and socially. He is excited to be involved in the questions related to skills badging, traditional model redesign, and the overall work of the Lab.
Laurence RothLarry is Chief Growth Officer at the Education Design Lab, developing and executing partnership strategies to maximize the Lab’s mission to support underserved student populations in the “Learner Revolution.” At the Lab, he also advises both intrepreneurs and entrepreneurs designing new programs and services for the post-secondary market. Larry brings 25 years of experience leading and advising start-up/early stage companies in the digital media and education technology sectors. He was most recently at the national non-profit College Summit, where he launched and operated a national initiative designed to dramatically re-envision the organization’s program and business models.
Previously, Larry was a senior executive with Agile Mind, an early stage provider of digital mathematics programs for grades 8-12 in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to his work in education, he co-founded Cinea, Inc., a digital rights management company, which was recognized as one of the top Virginia start-ups in 2004. After selling the company to Dolby Laboratories (NYSE: DLB) he continued there as a vice president of marketing and business development. Previously, Larry worked as an executive with AOL, Viacom and MGM/UA and was one of the pioneers in the media industry’s transition to digital publishing and distribution.
Larry has been recognized for his work with young entrepreneurs in the Fairfax County Public Schools, and was a finalist for the FAST 50 award, honoring the leading entrepreneurs in the State of Virginia. He also sits on the Board of Innovate and Educate, a national organization dedicated to developing alternative employment pathways for underserved populations in the U.S and around the world. Larry holds an M.B.A. from the Andersen School at UCLA and a bachelor’s degree in Science, Technology and Society from Vassar College.
Binh brings a unique set of design experiences, strategic planning and project management skills to the Education Design Lab. Her work engagements have spanned both K-12 and higher education; in the latter, she has done extensive work leading strategic master planning efforts with a number of higher education institutions throughout California.
Binh uses a practical approach to everyday innovation and employs the Lab’s design process, methods and tools with an eye toward expanding the range of the possible while remaining grounded in the real world constraints. Solid innovation requires both generating new ways of responding to unmet human needs and operating model innovation based on understanding how higher education institutions work. Binh excels at weaving this balance into the Lab’s work.
Binh is deeply passionate about reimagining education to meet the needs of all stakeholders. Her interest in learning innovation extends to her own educational career: she received her MBA from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University; a leading program that emphasized extensive online team collaboration on case study work, mirroring the experience of those on campus.
Ricardo GoncalvesRicardo is a design strategist, knowledge broker and social entrepreneur working in the intersection of design, education and technology. He holds a MFA in Transdisciplinary Design at Parsons The New School for Design (New York). His graduation thesis project, entitled Flip it Forward, explored the future of learning in K-12 education through design in contexts as diverse as India, The U.S. and China. Flip it Forward has been awarded by The New School and selected by the Unreasonable Institute as an innovative approach to re-imagining education.
Ricardo’s work is an attempt to collaboratively respond to pressing social changes—moving from problem-solving into dreaming, imagining and co-creative spaces. He believes that in order to scale positive social change, organizations are required to shift their routines, cultures and ways of working.
Core topics of expertise: knowledge dissemination (capacity building, networks); design-thinking; design of learning environments; open innovation; systems thinking; social-emotional learning, and social innovation. For further information about his work: www.ricardo-dutra.com.
May PaqueteAs Education Design Lab’s Service Design Associate, Sarah provides support across several Lab projects. Trained as an industrial and interaction designer, she is assisting the development and execution of the Lab’s crowdsourcing initiative to future higher education ecosystems. She is also lending her design thinking, graphic design, and storytelling expertise to projects such as the 21st Century Skills Badging Challenge.
Sarah worked at Hallmark Cards Inc. in Kansas City, Missouri as an Industrial Design Intern. During that time, she used design thinking methods to develop new products areas for their Christmas Line and assisted in the re-design of a customization ordering software. While at Syracuse University, she led the school’s chapter of Industrial Designer Society of America for two years and held design challenges and design thinking workshops for students.
Sarah is a graduate of the Industrial and Interaction Design Program at Syracuse University. She is looking forward to using her skills in design thinking, user-centered design, and experience design to do work in the social realm.
Brian LeDucAs an Education Designer, Brian manages and executes new education model design challenges with education institutions and foundations, supporting the Lab’s knowledge management for innovations in higher education, and contributes to the design and ongoing development of the Lab’s design process, methods and experiences.
With students at the center, Brian utilizes his background in psychology, student development, and
experience across a variety of educational contexts to explore innovative education models alongside a wide range of stakeholders.
Prior to joining the lab, Brian led operations for a coding bootcamp, establishing the campus operations in its’ permanent location, expanding program offerings, and growing its’ enrollment pipeline while deepening its’ roots in the DC community. Previously, Brian supported institutions emergence into national leaders in the area of student success at EAB, guiding project management for advising technologies, implementation of student success best practices, and analysis of historic graduation trends to identify areas of opportunity in support of institutional goals. Working on campus at several universities in first year programs, orientation, residence life, and leadership education, Brian draws from a breadth of institutional contexts and perspectives on campus and beyond with volunteer experiences across NASPA, ACPA, and NACA.
To maintain his engagement with students, Brian serves as a Lead Facilitator for the Kiwanis International Key Leader program designed to enhance leadership skills and personal awareness through weekend retreats for high school students. Brian earned his Psychology degree from Roger Williams University, where he continues to serve on the Alumni Board, and his Masters from Texas A&M University in Educational Administration while serving as a member of the Board of Directors to the National Association for Campus Activities.
May Paquete As Education Design Lab’s Design Associate and Administrative Assistant, May designs visual explanations, information graphics, and print and digital materials while maintaining a productive office environment. She supports all aspects of the Lab’s operations, from design challenges to design facilitation.
May graduated from the University of Maryland School of Public Health in 2012 with a degree in Behavioral & Community Health. After working in public health policy for three years, May became a 2015-2016 Health for America Fellow at MedStar Health, where she was challenged to use design strategy to create an innovative solution for improving outcomes for people living with type 2 diabetes. The fellowship ignited her passion for training in human-centered design. May graduated from University of Maryland in Behavioral and Community Health, where she also worked on Sister to Sister: Life Choices, an intervention targeted to reduce obesity rates in African-American women.
athleen deLaskiKathleen founded the Education Design Lab after eight years on the Board of Virginia’s largest public university, George Mason. A social entrepreneur, she has launched or co-launched four non-profits in the past two decades, all related to improving the quality of education for non-elite students. With the Lab, she saw the need for a non-profit to help learning institutions and other players design education toward the future of a fast changing world. As the Lab has supported some 60 universities, as well as employers and high schools, in their innovation design work, Kathleen has been asked to share learnings and ideas about the broken pipeline, 21st century skills and the learner-driven revolution around the world.
In addition, Kathleen serves as the president of the deLaski Family Foundation, a leading grantmaker in education reform and new pathways to the middle class. She founded and serves as board chair for EdFuel, a national non-profit working to build a diverse talent leadership pipeline for K-12 education. Previously, Kathleen created Sallie Mae’s award-winning college access foundation, co-founded Building Hope, a charter school facilities financing non-profit and helped Michelle Rhee create StudentsFirst, a national advocacy movement to improve school options and quality.
Spending five years at America Online, she developed the first interactive tools to engage the public online in elections and the political process and helped the biggest news organizations create digital brands. She and her boss, Steve Case, were named by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics among “25 People Changing the World.” Kathleen was named by President Clinton as Chief Spokesman for the Pentagon, where she oversaw the military’s worldwide public information team. She also spent 13 years as a TV journalist, including 5 years as an ABC News Washington correspondent.
Tara Lifland As an Associate Education Designer, Tara provides support for the 21st Century Skills Badging Challenge and is helping learning institutions implement badges to capture and assess smaller increments of learning than courses and degrees. Tara brings to the lab an institutional perspective, after working as an Instructional Designer for the George Washington University’s eDesign Shop. In addition to developing stunning online courses, Tara worked with a team of librarians to found GW’s Open Textbook Initiative. She first became interested in the #GoOpen movement in her time working with the Saylor Foundation and the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education.
Her work with open education continues as an OER Research Fellow with the Open Education Group. Her research looks at the impact of connected learning, and measures undergraduate students perceptions and attitudes toward sharing and learning in the open.
Tara also serves as a vice-chair of UPCEA’s eDesign collaborative, a group of instructional designers and multimedia professionals who get together to share innovative practices in online learning.
Tara’s higher education experience began as an undergrad in Tel-Aviv, where she was thrust into the booming startup life. Her capstone research was about the future of work and how millennials learn which led her to pursue a master’s in Educational Leadership & Technology at GWU.
As HBCU Lead and Higher Education Designer, David acts as project lead on an engagement with UNCF and their Career Pathways Initiative to assist 14 private HBCUs to modify their general education requirements, improve workforce relationships and on-campus career services to assist their students in achieving purposeful employment after graduation. He also assists with project development and other projects to implement design thinking within the higher education context.
Prior to joining the Lab, David was a strategy officer in Lumina Foundation’s Washington, D.C. office where he focused on the Foundation’s work to advance federal policy and pursue issues pertaining to postsecondary finance, both toward the goal of increased attainment of high-quality credentials. His projects reflected his interest in racial equity, living costs and the needs of adult students, behavioral economics and student voice from institutional practice and federal policy perspectives.
Before Lumina, David was a policy analyst focused on federal postsecondary education in ACT’s office of strategic initiatives and prior to moving back to the District, spent a year working at nonprofit PolicyLink with their California Boys and Men of Color Initiative work as well as consulting the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and nonprofit California Competes during graduate school. He also was a congressional aide to Congresswoman Maxine Waters in her DC office, tasked with the member’s education portfolio with a specific emphasis on issues around for-profit higher education.
David holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy and a bachelor’s degree from MIT’s Sloan School of Management with a minor in political science.
Leslie began her higher education career working as an admission counselor at a small four-year private liberal arts University. In this role, she saw an immediate need to build better pathways for transfer students transitioning from the two-year to the four-year institution. Leslie transitioned to the world of academic advising at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, where she helped create academic maps and curricular plans for students, focusing on how to increase communication between faculty at the two and four-year institutions to ease the overall transfer experience. She expanded this work while serving as the Transfer Coordinator at SIUE. In this role, she worked with community colleges to create seamless 2+2 and dual admission programs, which included placing and integrating full-time SIUE advisors on the community college campus. She also worked directly on the Department ofLabor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant. Her work on this grant included bridging the gap between technical associate degrees and the paths to baccalaureate degree attainment.
Leslie has a Master’s degree in Educational Studies and is working on her doctorate in Higher Education Leadership focusing her research on student perception to reverse transfer initiatives, specifically transfer students who left the four-year institution before earning a degree.
As the Seamless Transfer Pathways Coach, Leslie provides support and guidance to the IHE Teams selected to participate in the Seamless Transfer Pathways Design Challenge throughout the challenge year (2017-18). Leslie will serve as a thought-partner, provocateur and motivator throughout the year. She is excited to work the partneringIHE Teamsin learning and implementing design thinking to help meet and exceed the goals of the project and the needs of the transfer student population.