As an Apple Distinguished Educator, Google Certified Innovator, and Adobe Education Leader Tanya has many opportunities to share tools she believes in with other educators—I’m so grateful she’s shared the Compass as a tool to enable student voice

K-12 Education Technology, Boynton Beach, FL
Bio Website Compass-tweets

As director of Reflective and Integrative Practices and of the Narratives Project at Smith College, Jessica offers students Innovators’ Compass in her course Designing Your Path to discover their own story, what matters to them, and what they need to get going on their next steps. She’s also an accomplished author who’s written about the Compass and been an incredible help in my next book-writing steps!

Higher Education, Northampton, MA
Bio Website

Sue Borchardt is a "Research Artist" at Harvard Graduate School of Education who helps people see and use cool concepts through animated videos, and through her own active involvement in the nonprofit sector. She's used the Compass in her own life and work and to inspire others in places like the Baltimore Impact Hub, and is an inspiration in how to communicate this work. 

Community changemaking, Baltimore, MD

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Though these two principals are at different San Diego area schools (High Tech High and Vista Innovation and Design Academy), it seems like you always find them together, and always find them with their teachers.

Through their teaching at the High Tech High graduate school of education, Eric and Kaleb have introduced new generations of educators and administrators to the Compass—like Dawn McWilliams.  

K-12 administration, San Diego, CA
Eric Chagala Bio Compass-Tweets
Kaleb Rashad Website Compass-Tweets

James' first compass experience was when he came to my mentor session at SXSWedu in 2017 and asked me to tell him about the Compass. I suggested that instead we use the 10 minutes on a challenge in his life—and we got all the way to experiments! Now he's using at strikingly different levels at the Atlanta Girls School—helping staff at both thinking about their mission—"Inspiring Girls to Lead Lives of Purpose" at both an organizational and personal level.

High School Administration, Atlanta, Georgia
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As Executive Director of Career & Life Design at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, Joe encourages individuals to be innovative in their ability to problem-solve, especially as it relates to planning and executing personal and professional life goals.

Through his teaching and knowledge of the “design thinking” framework, Joe has been instrumental in transforming the way students think and problem-solve their career goals. The compass is a go-to tool for understanding the challenges in the student experience.

Higher education, Hartford, CT
Bio Website

Erwin and I met at Otto Scharmer's programs many years back—and I was thrilled when he reached back out about using the Compass in his work to galvanize young entrepreneurs in Singapore. Erwin’s explored the Compass with high schoolers developing their entrepreneurship & design skills (e.g. improving the visitor’s experience at a Science Center). Now at Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise, raiSE), he’s incorporating the compass for or use by local social entrepreneurs.

Social & Education Entrepreneurship, Singapore
Bio  Website

David was the Director of the Design Thinking Academy at Grand Valley State University and is currently faculty there. As he wrote here, his mission is fostering creativity and giving people a tool to find their own way in the world. The Compass has been an accessible tool for him, his preservice-teacher students, and the staff of GVSU. He’s been a fantastic thought partner in how to let people discover the Compass for themselves in simple ways. He wrote a book using Innovators' Compass for math lesson innovation.

University education, Grand Rapids, MI
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Dan has a warm and familiar way of saying anything (maybe since he was an English teacher years before his work in Design Thinking consulting).  That delights the people he facilitates, and has influenced my approach with the Compass since we co-led a workshop and coaching program for 10 New York area schools a number of years ago.  He has used the Compass extensively in business, ed-tech, and higher education settings. 

Design Thinking/Innovation Consultant, Cambridge, MA
Bio Website

Michael was one of the first K-12 educators "in the sandbox." In his multiple during- and after-school Innovators for Purpose programs, we tried the compass in all kind of ways. A simple compass conversation that turned around a student's homework challenges was so loved by everyone who reviewed my Chapter that it became the featured example. He's shown here with his version of an earlier compass.   

K-12 education, Cambridge, MA
Bio

Kevin might just be the soul of the Compass. A history and religion teacher, he was discovering Design Thinking just as I was really digging into developing the Compass, and we helped each other grow. He gave the Compass its current name and started the hashtag. 

Kevin always invites me to see how it can connect not just intellectually, but emotionally and even spiritually with people.  

K-12 education, Duluth, Georgia
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Holly is the Director of Technology for the Pelham School District, enabling students and educators to be their individual and collective bests. She’s brought the Compass to schools and major conferences like CoSN.

K-12 Education, Windham, NH

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Matt is another person Audrey O'Clair has inspired to use the Compass for teacher-driven PD—like designing their own solutions to Proficiency-based learning & reporting.

Curriculum-Instruction-Assessment Coordinator, Dexter, Maine
Bio Compass-Tweets

Dylan is a fellow 4.0 Schools entreprenur, and a passionate Chief Academic Officer in her charter school. She’s been exploring the compass as a way to work  with children with challenges. 

Elementary Administration, Birmingham, Alabama
Bio  Compass-Tweets

Meghan and her elementary class are a constant inspiration to me as they share how they navigate playground and cafeteria crises, work on their classroom culture, and tackle crises that come up—like preparing for state testing during COVID.

K-12 Education, Syracuse, NY
Bio Compass-Tweets

Melissa, Taryn and Mary of Nashoba Regional High School are constantly engaging students in new ways in every subject from English Language Arts to Entrepreneurship and life design. I’ve learned so much from them as they’ve pulled Innovators’ Compass in to this work!

K-12 education, Bolton, MA

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Meli has worked in both startup schools and startup companies in recent years, and has found the Compass helpful in navigating their growing pains. 

Entrepreneurship and Design, Boston, MA

Bio

Hillary helps educators use Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning to break barriers to learning. She’s helped educators explore their own understanding of this challenge using the Compass.

Ed. Consulting, Saco ME
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Jason leads a learning experience design firm, and has situated the Compass at a key moment in his work with clients—to make sense of their observations with learners and generate principles and ideas.

Educational design, Boston, MA
Bio Website

Emily and Kiesha of Florida International University’s “Startup FIU” have inspired me with their stories of enabling change-makers on their campus, at Florida State University, and in the community with Innovators’ Compass.

University [social] entrepreneurship, Miami, FL

Emily-bio Kiesha-bio Compass-tweets

Tim Hall's creativity knows no bounds—he's paired poets and entrepreneurs together to help one another.

He also invented the Pocket Compass folding card—which let people like Audrey O'Clair completely change the dynamic of the first workshop/meeting in which they used the Compass. And, let people like Kevin Day and Garrett Mason carry it to faraway places in Tahoe and Malawi, respectively.

College Residence, Boston, MA
Bio

Stacie and Patty developed “Get Unstuck!” life design workshops with an adapted Innovators' Compass for students at the Smith College Lazarus Center for Career Development—where Patty continues to lead these.

College guidance, Northampton, MA
Stacie-bioPatty-bio

Naomi inspires and coaches women and students in STEM and leadership, and I’m grateful to see how she uses the Compass to help them harness their capacity to change things in their world—from classrooms, to organizations and Native American reservations—and shares the Compass in many ways including her upcoming book.

K-12/other leadership, WI & AZ
Website Compass-Tweets

@HassanTwice has been a wonderful supporter and co-experimenter. He introduced a version of the Compass as a guide for 4.0 Schools' Essentials program, and to help hold together the wonderful tools it provides. 

But he also welcomed me into the 4.0 Schools fold of education innovators and entrepreneurs. I gained so much from opportunities to learn from, and share my work with, the 4.0 family!

Education Innovation, New Orleans, LA
Bio

Michael surely inspires me more than the other way around—his work with his high school cinema & journalism students, and how he brings them on his quest for social justice through digital storytelling.  He's offered the compass to them as they embark and reflect on that journey together, and as they design media for their audiences. 

K-12 education, Los Angeles
Bio Website

Kaylah is Director of Instructional Technology and Blended Learning at BreakFree Education, which offers educational programs and enrichment for incarcerated youth. She offers the Compass as a central tool in their Design Thinking challenge, Unconstruct—and I couldn’t be more thrilled and honored!

Juvenile Justice Education, Charlotte, NC
Bio 

At Darrow in Vermont and in his independent work, Simon has guided students in using the Compass for projects, active note-taking, and envisioning their own future.

High School, New Lebanon, NY
Bio  Compass-tweets