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Idea to Impact

Human-Centered Design shapes our community — and prepares our students to shape the world.

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Human-Centered Design

  • Insights with Empathy
  • Interdisciplinary teamwork
  • Structured Innovation Process

THOUGHTFUL DESIGN is an integral part of preparing future leaders and making the world a better place. Human-centered design — emphasizing empathy, interdisciplinary teamwork, and a structured innovation process — is a cornerstone of the NEIA approach. It ensures that our students will be equipped to step into a complex, rapidly changing, globally connected world where the pressing issues of tomorrow will not be solved with the conventional thinking of today.

As the school the world needs next, NEIA escapes the stubborn inertia of old educational models. We integrate human-centered design into the way we teach reading, writing, and math so the approach becomes part of a student’s reflexive response to solving problems.

NEIA’s innovation advisors include Matthew S. Kressy, Founding Director of the MIT Integrated Design & Management (IDM) master’s degree program, and Joel A. Getz, Senior Associate Dean for Development and Alumni Relations at Yale University. “Students today will be stepping into a complex, globally connected world that will require innovative thinking and collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches to everything from social issues to technology to life sciences,” says Kressy.

Students today will be stepping into a complex, globally-connected world that will require innovative thinking and collaborative, interdisciplinary approaches.
MATTHEW S. KRESSY, FOUNDING DIRECTOR, MIT INTEGRATED DESIGN & MANAGEMENT (MITIDM)