Bio

Linda Yaven - also known as Elle - is a Certified Vision and Licensed Purpose Coach. She facilitates Executive Vision Coach Circles and private coach sessions. As an Associate Professor in Design Strategy MBA Program, California College of the Arts, San Francisco her approach to her courses on Effective Communication and Experience Design is through the lens of the creative.

As a professional speaker on creativity, communication and collaboration she has guest lectured at Harvard, The Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, AIGA, Museum of Children’s Art, Mills College, The Home Schooling Network, Arizona State University, Innovation Immersion for Fortune 500 among others.

Based on Harvard Medical School’s successful adaptation of Visual Thinking Strategies from museums and education for surgeons, nurses and med students, in partnership with Oren Slozberg, Executive Director, Visual Thinking Strategie, Elle leads VTS programs for innovative business organizations.

In 1999, on a Hearst Foundation Grant, she first visited Reggio Children, a school system for infants and toddlers in Italy with visuality at its center. Inspired by this experience she returned to design and successfully implement visual story telling programs for those in professional practice.

As an example of her interdisciplinary thinking in 2003 – 2004 Elle consulted to the education branch of The Department of Defense on qualitative assessment and creativity. Elle served as Advisor/Documenter to the Making Learning Visible Institute at Harvard and is completing a media edit of her original collaborative program “Rapid Knowledge Exchange: Teach Us Something in 7 Minutes”.

As a contributor to the book Design Matters published by Cumulus, May 2010 her chapter is “1 Premise, 3 Paradoxes, 5 Practices: The Design Thinker as Protaganista”.