Designing Possibilities with Stanford’s Laura McBain: How Innovation and Equity Shape the Future

In this episode of Elevating Futures, Dr. Tracee Perryman sits down with Laura McBain, Managing Director and Co-Director of the K-12 Lab at Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school). With over 25 years of experience in educational leadership and innovation, Laura shares her personal journey from overcoming early learning challenges to becoming a trailblazer in human-centered design and educational transformation. Together, they explore how design thinking can empower educators, students, and communities to unlock creativity, foster empathy, and shape meaningful futures. Discover inspiring projects like immersive escape rooms that reimagine assessment, toolkits for identifying “positive deviants” in education, and visionary methods for integrating parents and students into conversations about the future of learning. This episode is a deep dive into the intersection of education, innovation, and equity, offering actionable insights for educators, administrators, and changemakers. Tune in to be inspired and learn how to design the future of education!

To find out more about Tracee’s work at Center of Hope Family Services, go to cohfs.org.

Links from the discussion:
K12 Futures Library – https://dlibrary.stanford.edu/k12-futures
Positive Deviance Toolkit for Educators: https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/positive-deviance-toolkit-for-educators
Deeper Learning Puzzle Bus – https://dschool.stanford.edu/k12-lab-network/puzzles?
Emerging Tech x Design – https://dschool.stanford.edu/emerging-tech?