• Embracing Uncertainty and Play in the Creative Process (16.1)

  Macy 106B

  • Riva Nayaju, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design, University of Northern Iowa

  When designers approach work with a mindful attitude, they can engage with their materials, tools, and ideas, fostering deeper connections with their concepts and outcomes. In our teaching practice, we embrace purposeful play as a means of unlearning and creating without succumbing to the demands for rational explanations while discovering.

• Teaching Design Students to Work with AI: A Framework for Critical Thinking and Ethical Use (16.2)

  Winningham 205

  • Tiziana d’Agostino, Adjunct Professor, NewSchool of Architecture and Design, Point Loma Nazarene University

  This presentation shows a framework for integrating AI tools in design education, focusing on critical thinking and ethical use. Rather than banning AI, the approach teaches students to understand and work with it mindfully. Students maintained essential human design skills while gaining confidence with AI as a complementary tool.

• Mindfulness as a Feminist Leadership Model (16.3)

  Winningham 214

  • Andrea Maria Guevara Araujo, Graduate Student in the School or Art, University of Arkansas

  This presentation proposes a mindfulness-based feminist framework that integrates leadership, pedagogy, and workplace sustainability. Through mindful design, we can prototype corporate systems prioritizing security over fear, unlocking creativity, innovation, and meaningful collaboration. Mindfulness, as a feminist leadership approach, redefines success—not through competition, but through care, inclusion, and collective well-being.