Stanford Life Design Lab
The Life Design Lab at Stanford teaches courses, delivers programs and tools, and conducts research applying the innovation principles of Design Thinking to the problems of life, education, and vocation.

BILL BURNETT
Co-Founder
Bill is the Executive Director of the Design Program at Stanford. He holds a number of mechanical and design patents, and design awards for a variety of products including the first “slate” computer. In addition to his duties at Stanford, he is on the Board of VOZ (pronounced “VAWS – it means voice in Spanish) a social responsible high fashion startup and advises several Internet start-up companies.

KATHY DAVIES
Managing Director + Lecturer
Kathy has 15 years of experience developing electromechanical and software products, and proudly holds five patents. She consults with Silicon Valley companies, teaches design thinking, conducts ethnographic research, and develops product strategies and concepts. Kathy is also the co- creator of “Designing Your Life for Women” and a passionate advocate for design thinking as a methodology to empower social change.

GABRIELLE SANTA-DONATO
Lecturer + Fellow
Gabrielle has spent the last three years working in the ins and outs of design thinking application at Stanford. As a third year fellow, she catalyzed and leads the Life Design Studio -- a movement to bring life design to universities across the world. She is also a teaching lead with IDEO University.
Her workview is to help people discover their unique learning potential. Over the past decade, she has trained professionals to use the design process in K12, higher ed, and in corporations locally and internationally.
Gabrielle received her BA from Dartmouth College and her M.Ed. from Harvard.

EMILY TSIANG
Lecturer + Fellow
Emily is passionate about designing transformative learning experiences and has taught life design around the world. At Stanford, she leads the Life Design Accelerator, teaches in the Design Program and at the d.school.
She brings a wealth of experience, having co-founded CULTURE LABx, led talent initiatives at Cisco, served in NYC Mayor Bloomberg's administration and co-authored Sleep Wise.
She received her BA from UCLA and her MBA in Organizational Strategy & Design from the University of Michigan, where she co-founded Design + Business.
JOHN ARMSTRONG
Lecturer + Fellow
John has led the development of online content for the d.life Lab, consulted with companies as a Design Coach for Diversity and Inclusion initiatives, and led Life Design courses and workshops for faculty and students from universities in the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia.
His mission at work is to help students and educators design their way forward authentically, and he has previously served as a Dean of Students and taught meditation and wellness in Title 1 schools.
John received his BA from Colorado College and MA from Stanford.
Facilitators & Interns
Our classes are supported by an amazing crew of facilitators and interns.
Academic Year 2017 - 2018

ERIKA M WELCH DtP S18 Faciltator
Erika is a Sloan Fellow in the Stanford GSB MsX Program, and has a background in strategic consulting.

MANUEL RINCON CRUZ DtP S18 Facilitator
Manny is a research associate at the Hoover Institution, a director at a political and macro risk advisory firm, and a founding advisor at SesameOpen.

SHANNON BIRK JIBAJA DtP S18 Facilitator
Shannon is Associate Director of Educational Programs for VPGE, and passionate about helping grad students develop skills for academic and career success.

LAURA PICKEL DtP S18 Facilitator
Laura is a designer and educator developing and supporting curriculum at SAP, IDEO U and the d.school.

EM HAVENS DtP S18 Facilitator
Em is a Senior Systems Designer at IDEO and IDEO U with a background in venture philanthropy and leadership ed.

MARYANN TUNG
DYL W18 Facilitator
Maryann is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford.

CAYLA HATTON
DYL W18 Facilitator
Cayla is an alum of Designing Your Life majoring in Psychology with a specialization in Neuroscience.

FIONA LEE
SGSI F17 Facilitator
Fiona is a PhD Candidate in Social Psychology at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford

JEREMY HUNT
SGSI F17 Facilitator
Jeremy received his MA at Stanford and is a graduate of the Designing the Professional course. He currently works on Machine Learning at twoXAR.

LINGTONG SUN
SGSI F17 Facilitator
Lingtong is a graduate of the Designing Your Stanford and Designing Your Life courses and currently works as a software engineer at DoorDash
Academic Year 2016 - 2017
History
The core ideas for the Designing Your Life class and the other classes that have resulted at Stanford are almost eight years in the making. It all started when Dave Evans asked Bill Burnett to lunch to pitch him an idea about a class to help his product design students “find jobs.” Dave hypothesized that these students, being in a very multidisciplinary and unique major, might have more trouble than most finding their first job. Dave describes the meeting this way, “I thought this was going to be a multipart discussion and that I’d have to have a couple of meetings to sell Bill on this idea. Within 15 minutes, I had the deal done!” Bill’s version is simpler, “Dave hit on need that I’d been working on for 15 years in office hours, one student at a time. Given Dave’s experience teaching a class on vocation at Berkley and his success as a business guy and an executive coach, when he suggested teaching a class together I jumped at the chance to work with him.”
Practicing what they preach, Dave and Bill decided to run a quick, low resolution prototype of the design thinking material they were considering using. Bill invited eight current and former advisees to a 2 hour, two night session over the summer. The Wednesday session went great; the Thursday session just wouldn’t stop. After the two hours of planned exercises, the students took over the discussion. Around eleven, when Bill and Dave insisted that they were done, one of the students turned to them and said, “No, we are not done yet. This is important stuff and you don’t understand. We don’t have any place in our lives where we can talk about this stuff!”
Zoom forward to today where the Life Design Lab hosts three classed at Stanford, and are some of the most popular electives on campus. They’ve refined the design exercises again and again to make them more efficient and actionable. The method has been the subject of two PhD theses and had demonstrated significant results in helping people design the life they want. The method is centered on the principles taught in the Product Design Program and the d.school at Stanford. Called “design thinking”, it is a process and a way of thinking about tough-to-solve problems. Most importantly, these classes provides a “place to talk about this stuff.”
Hear more from Bill & Dave: