Co-Interim Managing Director at Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford and Co-Director of K12 Lab

Laura McBain (she/her) (@laura_mcbain) is a designer, educator and serves as managing
director of the Stanford d.school and the co-director of the K12 Lab. Her work focuses on
how human-centered design can be used to provide equitable and innovative educational
experiences that will help all students thrive in a changing world. In this role she leads
design challenges in education, designs new learning experiences for educators and
serves as an adjunct professor at Stanford University.

She is the author of My Favorite Failure: How Setbacks Can Lead to Learning and Growth
which provides insights and narratives into how you can create the conditions to take risks
and experience failure together. Prior to the d.school, Laura worked for 15 years at High
Tech High serving as the Director of External Relations, principal of two school sites and a
founding teacher. She has taught middle and high school students in both charter
comprehensive schools.

Laura has a Bachelors from Miami University-Oxford, Ohio and a Masters from the
Harvard Graduate School of Education.