There are many apt metaphors for Carol Christ's achievements. Most of them have to do with breaking things like glass ceilings or barriers or new ground in Victorian literary scholarship. But none of those do justice to the sheer scope of the professional arc Carol has traversed en route to her current role as the first female Chancellor of UC Berkeley.

Carol has spent the better part of her five decades entering academic spaces and roles previously reserved for men. But she has less interest in reflecting on her own pioneering achievements than in her passion for participating in the collective march toward institutional progress. In fact, from the moment she began ascending through the leadership ranks at Berkeley, and then as President of Smith College, she's been a vector for positive change through her first-rate mind, her warmth, humanity and passion for the transformative power of education.

She certainly had an effect on Lorne. The two met at UC Berkeley when he was a newly-minted PhD teaching in the Dramatic Art department and she was Dean of the College of Letters and Science. Though Carol might not have known it at the time, Lorne was inspired by her and viewed her as a mentor. He greatly admired her forthright and compassionate approach to leadership and marveled at how she would give equal voice to the many varied factions comprising California's largest and most prestigious public research institution.

Carol is the rare university administrator who sees her work as an artform. Lorne relished the opportunity to reconnect with her about her trailblazing journey to the Chancellorship of UC Berkeley, her literary approach to leadership and her perspective on the road ahead for all of higher education.

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As President of Fuller Theological Seminary (with more than three decades of pastoral experience behind him), Mark Labberton is more than comfortable dwelling in uncertainty. For him, the space of the unknown is at least one way to access the kind of epiphany familiar to those of us on the creative path.

Mark is far more than just a big picture thinker and leader. He's a prolific writer and orator with a unique gift for mining the sublime out of a secular idea. He is also someone who embodies the immersive and expansive mindset he brings to his teaching, writing and his wonderful podcast, Conversing with Mark Labberton.

Mark and Lorne first connected years ago as leaders of two important institutions of higher education in Pasadena. From the start, they were both fascinated by the connection between spirituality and creative expression. Lorne was a teacher and theater director curious about the relationship between inspiration (divine or otherwise) and creative flow. Mark was a pastor who has come to see himself as a curator of faith and experience. From there a friendship grew.

Their affinity has continued to expand and deepen. And once we decided to dedicate this season of Change Lab to explore the future of higher education, we seized the opportunity to speak with Mark, knowing all that we can learn from him.

As you'll hear in this rich and full conversation, Mark understands something vitally important about leading with vulnerability. Perhaps even more resonant, however, is the power he's found in what he exquisitely describes as a 'theology of making.'

Please enjoy my conversation with Mark Labberton

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Dan Brodnitz didn't set out to join a revolution in online education. He saw himself changing hearts and minds through his novels and poetry. Fate, however, had a different plan for Dan's talents — but one no less transformative. It placed him at the helm of global content strategy at LinkedIn Learning at a time when the entire world migrated into digital classrooms. Never has his expertise in creating meaningful virtual learning experiences been more valuable than it is right now.

Dan found his way into this fertile field through his own natural inclination to understand how things work and, crucially, how to make them work better. He's applied this iterative mindset far and wide — from his desire to improve his own creative practice as a writer, as well as to the learning process itself.

He began his career in publishing before joining the pioneering online learning site, Lynda.com, which was founded by former ArtCenter faculty member Lynda Weinman and alum and now trustee Bruce Heavin. It was there that Dan honed his skills in this emerging arena and found his passion for democratizing education by making it accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.

His role today at LinkedIn has scaled considerably to keep pace with the growing market for knowledge in today's information economy. And his enthusiasm for the work is contagious. He sees LinkedIn's 16,000-plus course library as a resource for nothing short of personal transformation. And his work, as he eloquently puts it, is to "orchestrate the beautiful, thoughtful whole."

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Harry Elam and Lorne had only met casually before we sat down to record this episode of Change Lab. Interestingly, they had spent much of their early careers as two ships passing in the San Francisco Bay. Harry pursued his PhD in theater at U.C. Berkeley while Lorne earned the same degree at Stanford. They then traded places and Harry became a theater professor at Stanford and Lorne took a faculty position in Berkeley's Dramatic Art department.

Their mirrored movements continue to this day. With Harry's recent appointment as president of Occidental College, they now both serve as college presidents for venerable institutions located just a few miles apart in Northeast Los Angeles.

This past year, maybe more than any other, has called upon them to draw on skills they developed in the theater. They've had to improvise and lean into the unfolding drama, responding to challenges with 'yes and' rather than 'no but.'

Harry has written several books and scores of journal articles on how theater has become a vehicle for social change. He and Lorne discussed how those movements might even serve as a model for progress within the very institutions they both lead. Their conversation shed light on the importance of communal spirit—not unlike that of a theater company—in forging the path ahead.

But, in the end, they were just two theater guys connecting around their shared belief in the power of creativity and education as well as in our conviction that, above all else, the show must go on.

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D'Wayne has a lot in common with Michael Jordan, his former boss. His appetite for excellence has propelled him to superlative success. D'Wayne turned his childhood passion for drawing sneakers into a high-flying design career, moving from L.A. Gear to Sketchers and then eventually landing his dream job at Nike's Jordan Brand. D'Wayne's designs have, in total, earned over $1.5 billion.

But D'Wayne was determined to leave a mark on the footwear design world that couldn't be measured in dollars. As one of very few Black leaders in his business, he saw an opportunity to create a pipeline for diverse designers.

D'Wayne quit his job at Nike to launch Pensole Footwear Design Academy in order to build career pathways that didn't exist when he was coming of age. Pensole is now an established force in footwear design education, providing a host of immersive programs in partnership with ArtCenter and other institutions. The results speak for themselves: Pensole had a hand in training over 500 footwear designers working today.

In this debut episode of Change Lab's new season investigating the future of education, D'Wayne reflects on the importance of mentorship, hard work, and hands-on learning in creating a more diverse and sustainable design education model.

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As we begin a new year and a new season of change lab, I think most of us are torn between looking forward with hope and looking back with a kind of weary amazement we've prevailed over enormous obstacles in the last year. But as educators and designers, we know all too well that every challenge we meet offers an opportunity for learning and progress.

That was certainly the case here at ArtCenter, where we migrated along with the rest of our colleagues and higher ed to digital classrooms, we then did what we do best experimenting, prototyping, iterating, and inventing until we found what worked best for our faculty and students.

Not only has the experience taught us invaluable lessons about the grit and creative adaptability of our own community, but we've also made important discoveries about the nature of education itself.

That's why we're dedicating this season of change lab to exploring the future of education. Beginning on February 17th. We'll look at what we've learned, where we're headed and how to get there.

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Elle Hearns did not set out to lead movements for social justice. Nor was it her lifelong dream to make the world a better and safer place for Black transgender communities. Growing up in Ohio, she imagined herself as an iconic singer, a chart-topping diva with a voice powerful enough to crack your soul wide open.

In the end, she did end up using the power of her voice to inspire people -- just not in the way she originally planned. As one of the world's most effective leaders in the movement for social change, Elle has dedicated her life to organizing and advocating for marginalized communities. She began her career working on campaigns for marriage equality and don't-ask-don't-tell policy change. She then transitioned to groundbreaking work as a leading voice for the Black Lives Matter Global Network. In her current role as the founder and executive director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, she's dedicated herself to protecting and defending the human rights of Black transgender people.

Under Elle's leadership, the Marsha P. Johnson Institute has become a vital resource for Black trans women in particular, who have suffered an onslaught of violent attacks resulting in alarmingly low life expectancy rates. Elle has focused on raising awareness, advocating for policy change and marshalling resources to provide pathways to stability. Her work has generated widespread media attention toward the plight of Black trans women in the pages of Vogue and The LA Times. The Institute also recently received a $500,000 gift from Google earmarked for COVID relief.

Among Elle's many remarkable qualities is her ability to apply a strategic mindset toward affecting change within her own besieged community. But it's the strength of Elle's voice -- what she says and how she says it -- that remains her most powerful tool in her efforts to build a better world for all its inhabitants.

Links

The Marsha P. Johnson Institute

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Grace Lynne Haynes' creative calling didn't announce itself until she set foot in her first college painting class. But from that moment forward, Grace's artistic destiny came through loud and clear, as unmistakable as a spiritual epiphany.

Here's how she describes it: "It almost reactivated my physical senses. I felt as if colors were brighter, senses were stronger. I just felt like my passion for life began to come back again. I knew that I had to be doing this for a living."

She poured that passion into her painting practice as an Illustration student at ArtCenter, where she cultivated the signature style that quickly translated into a thriving career as a professional painter and illustrator.

Her works are striking and instantly recognizable, at least partially because you've probably seen them on the cover of The New Yorker, which has featured two of her illustrations in the past eight months. She's also recently graced the pages of Vogue, ELLE and The Washington Post.

The vibrancy of her bright color schemes and rich skin tones, which she describes as "pitch black," offer a counter-narrative to the negative connotations placed on the very idea of darkness. Grace's brush strokes depict a better world, one where light and dark coexist harmoniously in brightly hued images that celebrate contrast.

Grace's career launched like a rocket the moment she graduated from ArtCenter. She was selected to be an inaugural member of Kehinde Wiley's Black Rock Senegal residency and was included in Forbes "30 Under 30" list under Art and Style.

In many respects, Grace is now living her dream along with that of most every young artist. But perhaps most admirable is her commitment to pursuing a creative practice that reflects her deeply-held values.

https://www.bygracelynne.com/

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Throughout this season, on alternating weeks, we'll feature a handpicked episode from podcasts by, for or about the Black community.

This week we're excited to share an episode from the Micheaux Mission. Since 2016, Len Webb and Vincent Williams have been challenging themselves to watch and review every Black feature film ever made and released to theaters.

In Vincent's words, they hope to give 'Rolling Stone' style examination to these under appreciated works of art. Together they hope to find the perfect wine to drink with Pam Grier's Coffy, the five movies, since 1985, in which Samuel L. Jackson does not appear, and someone else who agrees with Len that The Last Dragon is a bad movie.

The Micheaux Mission is named for Oscar Micheaux, regarded as the first major African-American feature filmmaker and the most successful African-American filmmaker of the first half of the twentieth century.

Len and Vincent have spent the last few years bringing the good word of Black film to the masses in a fun and engaging way. Along the way, they have been featured in The Philadelphia Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Radio New Zealand and won the Expression in Radio Award at the 2019 PhillyCam Cammy Awards.

Today's episode features the 2012 film, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty. According to the Micheaux Mission, Writer/director Terence Nance has created a literal poem of a movie, a heartfelt exploration of one man's feeling for his homie-lover-friend, that has enthralled Vince and Len unlike any film before on the Mission.

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Last year, Cedric Johnson embedded himself at ArtCenter for a week-long residency. Included in that visit was a talk about the policing crisis as well as a workshop with students exploring what it means to "do good" in the world through art and design.

These issues have only become more timely in the intervening year. But as any good historian will tell you – and Cedric most definitely fits that description – history has a way of colliding with the present if you wait long enough.

As a professor of political science and African American studies at University of Illinois at Chicago, Cedric has dedicated his academic career to studying and writing about the relationship between class, race and social change. These ideas coalesce in rich narrative detail in his award-winning book, Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics.

Cedric has a gift for communicating complex and sometimes disruptive ideas with warmth, clarity and impressive skill. Throughout his extensive writings (and in his interview with Change Lab), he emphasizes the need for addressing the roots of racial injustice in class inequities, from persistent poverty and the "crimes of survival" committed as a result of "structural unemployment.

Our conversation was full of ideas, both grounded and groundbreaking, that are critical to creating sustainable social change. Particularly germane to the ArtCenter community, were his observations on the importance of decommodifying education (i.e., making it accessible to all students regardless of their ability to pay). This, he insists, is an essential stepping stone toward creating more diverse, equitable and inclusive college campuses.

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