headshot of Doreen Lorenzo

DOREEN LORENZO, Assistant Dean, School of Design and Creative Technologies and Executive Director, Center for Integrated Design

https://designcreativetech.utexas.edu/doreen-lorenzo

What does inclusive teaching mean to you?

Inclusive teaching aligns nicely with the concept of human centered design or what is known as design thinking. Design Thinking is a methodology that designers use to understand what is the problem they are trying to solve and who are they solving that problem for. It requires insights and research with people from a diverse social, economic and cultural backgrounds. The goal is to understand people at a deep core. If you can understand people, then you can understand what is needed when designing a solution.

This methodology is in sync with inclusive teaching. We want to include all people, fact we want to understand everyone's opinion and experience . That ultimately will lead to a better solution. Diversity is key in a good design.

Please give an example of what thinking inclusively looks like to you in your teaching or your work around campus.

I started the Center for Integrated Design with the specific plan to integrate all undergraduate students and teach them design thinking methodology. We have partnered with Engineering, Business, ISchool, Architecture, Design and Computer Science to offer unique courses geared towards insights, problem solving and creativity.

We have created a Bridging Disciplines Program called Design Strategies, where students with get a transcript-able certificate for participating.

Design openly embraces a diverse group of people coming together to solve a problem. This program allows students from all programs, cultures and socio economic background to work together. We are in our 3rd semester and this has been very well received by our students and faculty.