Katie Laird Kimbrell
Co-Founder
Katie is a visionary, strategic, and action-oriented leader and educator with fifteen years of experience learning that ultimately humans are at the center of all the work we do; yet even industries dedicated to human services often are far from reflecting the values and mindsets of human-centered design. While a high school classroom teacher, she witnessed the power of empowering young people with design thinking so that they could address problems in the community they were passionate about. After spending almost a decade in the classroom with young people, she left to build Startland Education so that more young people, especially those with least access to opportunities, could have access to design thinking. There she and her team garnered expertise, insights, and data in training both adults and youth in the application and adoption of human-centered design in school systems, as well as non-profit, civic, and philanthropic organizations. Katie is committed to catalyzing individuals committed to embracing design thinking at every level, for every purpose.
Veronica Alvidrez
Co-Founder
Veronica is passionate about equipping others to solve problems from a human-centered perspective. Being an empathetic leader and a relentless advocate for others makes Veronica a skilled coach in human-centered design practices who manages to equip those she coaches with the confidence, skillsets and knowledge necessary to launch their own ideas. Through her own personal experience, Veronica deeply understands the need and impact community programs and educational services have on communities and families lives, particularly those living in areas with limited access to both. This deep understanding of the effectiveness and high-level impact human-focused solutions can create is what fuels Veronica in the work that she does. Along with her partner, Katie Kimbrell, Veronica helped to establish numerous programs to equip teachers and young people with an entrepreneurial spirit and a human-centered problem-solving approach that effectively refreshes and re-invigorates the current learning environments. Veronica is committed to creating systemic change by equipping decision-makers, educators and organizations with more human-centric ways to approach the challenges they want to overcome.