When Coeylen Barry first learned about Design Thinking as a graduate student at Stanford her first response was “Why didn’t I learn about this earlier?” After graduate school she made it her mission to bring design thinking to schools around the world.

Coeylen has spent the last 10 years working in innovative educational programming. After receiving her Masters Degree in Curriculum and Teacher Education from Stanford University, she joined the founding team of African Leadership Academy (www.africanleadershipacademy.org) as manager of curriculum development. In this position she oversaw the design of a cutting edge Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Design, and African Studies curriculum. Students who have completed this program are already changing the world with their innovative ideas.

After launching the ALA in South Africa, Coeylen joined the K-12 lab at the Stanford Institute of Design to help with teacher training and curriculum development. She successfully led workshops for schools and educators from around the world. In additions to working with a variety of world-class institutions Coeylen has done extensive educational consulting with schools both locally and internationally.