STEMist, Design Thinking Facilitator, Education Engineer, Your Design Partner
My favorite thing to do is to develop people. I did this at Battelle, in my k-12 education consulting work, at Denison University, and of course with my own kids. I love to work with any group solving their problems and leaving them empowered and equipped to implement their own solutions. I’m not coming to your group with the answers. I’m coming to your group with the tools that will help your group take on the challenge.
I’ve worked with countless teams … engineers, scientists, managers, C-level leadership, k-12 students, university students, teachers, professors, diverse community stakeholders, local non-profits, chambers of commerce, a national dessert chain, and even an Egyptian Ministry of Education. My diverse experience has taught me the value of identifying and amplifying the talent in the room. If your group isn’t feeling their time was well spent and they were valued, I’ve failed.
I grew up in Ohio. I went to THE Ohio State University for Engineering (I even marched in “The Best Damn Band in the Land”, as did my son … but he “dotted the i” in 2022). I worked for Battelle, the largest independent R&D firm in the world, for 25 years. But the education bug never left me. I volunteered in classrooms during my R&D career, and I managed a big Battelle/Ohio/Gates Foundation project called the Ohio STEM Learning Network. Then I left engineering to pursue education consulting which took me to China, Kazakhstan, Chile, a long project in Egypt, and to a dozen communities in the US. The common thread in all of these was using design to help my clients achieve their aspirations. I then helped to launch a new Design Thinking and Entrepreneurship lab at Denison University called the Red Frame Lab where I help students, student groups, faculty and staff groups apply Design Thinking to their challenges. I’m a husband and a dad to three grown kids, all pursuing the arts, and playing jazz sax is my main hobby.
— Steve
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
— Albert Einstein