We're excited to share a couple of great accomplishments that touch the MBA in Design Strategy program at CCA.

First, Program Director Nathan Shedroff and Board Member Sara Beckman have won the Academy of Management's MED Best Symposium in Management Education and Development Award for a symposium on teaching design thinking. Together with Jeanne Liedtka, a professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business; Heather Fraser, director of the Business Design Initiative at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, the group of educators proposed a symposium focused on how to integrate design thinking into business school curricula. Entitled "Finding the Right Side of the MBA Brain: Teaching Design Thinking," they received the award on Aug. 9 at the Academy of Management's annual conference in Montreal. The award is administered through the academy's Management Education and Development (MED) division.

The symposium looks at the practical and theoretical teaching of design thinking, the rationale for including it, the challenges involved, and the approaches used at the schools of the four presenters. The interactive session will also include specifics on course design and teaching materials.

For more details, click here for a press release by Haas School's Newsroom (Beckman is also a Senior Lecturer for the Haas School of Business).

Second, Nathan Shedroff has joined the Board of Directors of Teague, a Seattle-based, award-winning design consultancy internationally recognized as a discerning team with a talent for creating evocative designs. He joins the six-member board immediately. Click here for the full press release.

Congratulations to Nathan and Sara for their accomplishments in incorporating design thinking in business school curricula, and to Nathan for his new position at Teague!

The MBA in Design Strategy is set to start-up again next week with the first of our two new cohorts of students. To match the 100% increase in students, the program has hired two new associate chairs to help coordinate students, faculty, and services: Susan Worthman and Teddy Zmrhal

Susan is already the creator and lead faculty for the Leading by Design Fellows Program and will continue these responsibilities alongside her new ones to the DMBA program. She has a perfect background in organizational development and management, both in the for- and non-profit worlds and brings a wealth of experience to both the program itself and the students and faculty in it.

Teddy is a serial entrepreneur who has taught in several business programs in the past. He, too, brings a unique set of work and academic experience that will benefit the program and its community. his responsibilities include leading the Purple cohort as well as building new services for the program.