Why I Joined DFA

Guest Blog from Ward Bullard, DFA’s new Director of External Relations

In 2014, I took an unconventional career path and left Google to join SAP. 

I had read about the power of Design Thinking and the emergence of the d.school at Stanford University. SAP’s co-founder and Chairman, Hasso Plattner, was an early believer in human-centered innovation, and had not only contributed significantly toward the founding of the d.school, but also was championing its adoption at SAP.

While at SAP, I was able to immerse myself in Design Thinking and lean on the methodology to build products and experiences (examples include SAP Social Flex Seating and the Super Bowl City Fan Energy Zone experience), I also became a teacher for the first time, co-creating student-centered experiences through new classes at Stanford.

After leaving SAP, I remained committed to the application of design thinking. This eventually led me to join Mural. I had seen both Stanford and SAP as early adopters of Mural as a way to help distributed teams collaborate more effectively through the design thinking process. My team and I scaled adoption of the Mural platform from <100 educational and nonprofit customers to 6,000+ academic institutions and 3,000+ nonprofits worldwide.

At Mural, I had the chance to reconnect with Design for America (DFA), an organization I first met through a student-led studio at Stanford. Founded at Northwestern University in 2009 by Faculty Founder (and fellow Stanford alum!) Liz Gerber and a small cohort of student founders, DFA is a national nonprofit organization that equips emerging leaders with human-centered design and innovation skills to build careers of purpose and impact. DFA students tackle complex challenges in healthcare, the environment, education and other fields. DFA was a natural first partner for us as we launched our Mural for Good program.

I see the work done by the DFA studios and the skills developed by DFAers as critical to our future communities.

After many conversations over the past few months, I’m thrilled to share that I’ve joined forces with Sharon Klotz and Joy Mutimura and reunited with my friend and former fellow Muralista Amy Stefanski in a brand new role - Director of External Relations at DFA. I’ll be leading fundraising, sponsored projects and marketing / communications. There is a lot to do – but I couldn’t be more excited. And I’ll need everyone’s help over the coming weeks and months.

I am excited to connect with the DFA community as I launch. Please connect directly with me at ward@designforamerica.com or via LinkedIn.