Charlotte Burgess-Auburn, MA

Charlotte Burgess-Auburn, MA is a designer, artist, and educator. With a background in production for fine arts and theater and experience at the MIT Media Laboratory, she has been the Director of Community at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the “d.school”) at Stanford University since 2005, where she also teaches classes on the role of self-awareness in creativity and design. Her new book, You Need a Manifesto: How to Craft Your Convictions and Put Them to Work, was published in October 2022.

Born in Rome, Italy to American and Dutch parents who are both teachers, Burgess-Auburn was raised in Massachusetts in a fully academic environment. She has a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from Oberlin College, and a Master’s Degree in Art History from Tufts University. She has made a long career of being the designer, stage manager, and producer in rooms full of lead actors and directors, always cultivating the skill of translating intentions into action. You’ll mostly find her where the rubber meets the road.