RE:DESIGN // RE:IMAGINE SUMMIT

Thursday, April 9, 2026, 9:30am – 3:30pm

9:30am-10:15am: Coffee & Connection

10:15am-10:45am: Welcome & Introduction 

10:45am-11:45am: Opening Keynote: Re: Designing Learning - Art, Education & the Future of Creative Practice

11:15am-12:45pm: Future-Forward Practices Panel: Teaching, Making & Leading Across Disciplines

12:45pm-1:30pm: Lunch/Network/Visit Learning Lounge

1:30pm-2:30pm: AI & Emerging Technologies in Creative Learning Panel

2:30pm-3:30pm: BREAKOUT SESSIONS (Select One)

-          Designing Learning Experiences: Tools, Prototypes & Inclusive Practice

-          Place, Identity & Community-Engaged Creative Practice

-          Beyond Grades: Rethinking Assessment in Arts & Education

    Becoming Nonlinear

    From the acclaimed designer and bestselling author of Reimagining Design, a nonlinear approach to navigating design's nuances in pursuit of meaningful innovation. Join Kevin Bethune as he shows us that we can reject trodden paths of digital or physical product creation by taking advantage of a nonlinear approach. To unlock meaningful innovation that breeds new and novel outcomes, teams need to embark on a journey into the proverbial forest of ambiguity, the result of a rapidly converging, dynamic, and exponentially changing landscape. The journey is less about getting it right or wrong, and more about using the information we have at our disposal to understand our choices and take steps to unlock new learning in design. This keynote sets the tone for the summit by examining how creative education can remain human-centered, inclusive, and relevant while embracing innovation.

    Audience: All attendees

Kevin Bethune is the Founder & Chief Creative Officer of dreams • design + life, a "think tank" that delivers design & innovation services using a human-centered approach. Kevin's background spans engineering, business and design in equal proportion over his 20+ year career, positioning him to help brands deliver meaningful innovations to enrich people's lives. Kevin's work represents creative problem-solving that brings multidisciplinary teams together to see the future through an open aperture, and a deep industrial design approach to inform and influence desirable, feasible and business-viable design outcomes. In 2023, he joined Season 10 of The Design of Business podcast as co-host.

AI & Emerging Technologies in Creative Learning

From AI-assisted ideation to immersive learning environments, this session panel explores how emerging technologies are reshaping creative education and how educators can integrate them ethically and thoughtfully.

Audience: All attendees

Siddhi Sundar is a product innovation and entertainment leader working at the intersection of technology, storytelling, and the future of creativity. She is passionate about human + AI collaboration and how technology can amplify imagination without replacing it. She is currently the Chief Technology Officer of a production startup pioneering hybrid filmmaking, combining GenAI with traditional on-set craft to expand the limits of what artists can dream. Before this, she headed up Product Innovation Research for the Netflix Studio, where she helped build the operating system that powers the world’s largest studio. Before Netflix, Siddhi led insights and strategy in industries ready for transformation, including edtech (AltSchool), healthcare (Johns Hopkins Medicine), and nonprofit and social enterprise organizations. Her mission is to help both professional and everyday creatives navigate disruptive shifts in technology, protecting their unique voice while embracing new possibilities. 

Tina R. Austin is an international consultant, author, and speaker with over 15 years of experience in higher education and industry. She helps educators and institutions make sense of the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence. She is the creator of the UnBlooms framework, featured in conversations connected to Oxford
University, and is the founder of GAInable.AI, where she works as an AI advisor at the intersection of responsible and ethical AI adoption. Trained as a stem cell biologist and bioethics lecturer, Tina now focuses on how artificial intelligence is reshaping judgment, assessment, and decision-making in scientific and educational settings. She has taught at UCLA, USC, CSU, and Caltech and advises universities and organizations on responsible AI implementation. She was recognized as an ASU+GSV Top Woman in AI (2025) and a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (2026), and was recently interviewed by CNN International on why teachers cannot be replaced by AI.

Lauren Cullen is a designer specializing in illustration, product design, interactive prototypes, branding, animation, advertising and marketing. She is the UCLA Mobile Web Strategy group's design lead. The designs she creates for innovative mobile and web applications, platforms, and advanced data visualization tools are utilized by prominent organizations in the academic and research communities. In addition, she has written on design and technology for several publications and also contributed the introduction to legendary artist John Van Hamersveld's Drawing Attention book.

Future-Forward Practices: Teaching, Making & Leading Across Disciplines

Designers, artists, and educators from diverse fields discuss how hybrid learning, new tools, and social responsibility are transforming creative practice and pedagogy. Expect practical insights and bold provocations.

Audience: All attendees

Kevin M. Kane (he/him/his) holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies with an emphasis in Arts Education from Claremont Graduate University and an MFA in Dance Choreography from UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance. Since 2016, he has served as Director and Academic Chair of the UCLA Visual and Performing Arts Education Program, where he oversees arts education curricula and the interdisciplinary arts education minor in the School of the Arts and Architecture. Throughout his career, Kevin has focused his research, practice, and activism
on designing inclusive performing arts programs for youth and multigenerational communities. He designed and directed the award-winning High School Dance Theatre Intensive at UCLA (2006-2013) and taught theatre arts and dance for eight years at John Marshall High School in LAUSD, as well as serving on the theatre faculty at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. Kevin co-founded the non-profit arts organization The Flourish Foundation and is
committed to using performing arts education as a tool for individual and social transformation.

Andre Spicer serves as the Region South Superintendent for the Los Angeles Unified School District, where he leads 210 schools and supports over 100,000 students across diverse communities—from Mid-City to South Los Angeles to San Pedro. With over 30 years of experience in public education, Superintendent Spicer is recognized as a transformative leader
deeply committed to equity, cultural responsiveness, and student achievement. Mr. Spicer began his teaching career in 1996 at Loren Miller Elementary School in Los Angeles. Over the years, he has served in a wide range of roles including dean, coordinator, principal, instructional director, and administrator of instruction. As principal of Helen Bernstein High School, he led a remarkable turnaround in student outcomes—boosting achievement, attendance, and school culture while narrowing opportunity gaps for historically underserved students. A respected voice in the field, Superintendent Spicer is a past president of LAUSD’s Council of Black Administrators (COBA), where he advocated for policies to advance Black student achievement and equity systemwide. He also spearheaded initiatives such as the Cultural Arts Passport, expanding students' access to arts education and global cultural experiences. Mr. Spicer holds a B.A. in History and a teaching credential from California State University, Long Beach, and a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Cal State Dominguez Hills. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Urban Educational Leadership at Claremont Graduate University, with research focused on improving college access for Black and Latino students. He resides in South Los Angeles with his wife, Koko, and their four daughters. Grounded in a deep belief in the brilliance of every student, Superintendent Spicer remains steadfast in his mission to ensure excellence, access, and equity for all.

Alvin Oei designs experiences where storytelling and space come together. As a Senior Design Manager at Disney Consumer Products, he leads an internal team shaping global retail environments, with a focus on imagining the future of Disney Stores. His background includes hospitality design in Los Angeles, advanced study in Spatial Experience Design at ArtCenter College of Design, and time spent studying abroad in Berlin and Chile, all of which inform his
global and narrative driven approach to design. His work includes award winning visitor attractions created during his time at BRC Imagination Arts, as well as experiential retail and sports projects for Shanghai based brands including HEYTEA and Sporspot. Beyond the built environment, Alvin has written an internationally awarded children’s book centered on pediatric burn patients. Outside of his professional work, he leads CMD+Y, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to educational design projects rooted in community and storytelling.

In this interactive and hands-on workshop, participants collaborate to design and prototype creative learning experiences including inclusive curriculum design using emerging tools and inclusive design principles. Attendees will leave with tangible lesson plans or project frameworks ready to implement. Bring your laptop!

Audience: Select One Breakout

Joshua Halstead is an Assistant Professor and Faculty Director in the Designmatters department at ArtCenter College of Design. Trafficking the intersection of critical disability studies, philosophy of technology, and design ethics, Halstead has been an invited lecturer at a variety of venues, including the Society for Disability Studies, Harvard Graduate School of Design, and the Adobe Global Design Summit. Advancing the discourse on design theory and praxis across canonical lines, he has authored essays in publications as diverse as After Universal Design: The
Disability Design Revolution (Bloomsbury, 2023), the Journal of Digital Media Management, and Eye on Design. As an educator and researcher, Halstead has also co-developed various projects oriented toward disability design justice in physical, digital, and cultural publics funded by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and National Endowment for the Arts. Co-author of Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-racist, Nonbinary Field Guide for Graphic Designers (Princeton Architectural Press, 2021), Halstead continues to be a critical interlocutor between design institutions, communities, and those adjacently affected.

This session explores how artists, designers and educators work with communities to create socially engaged, place-based projects. Learn how creative practice can foster belonging, agency, and civic engagement.

Audience: Select One Breakout

Joel Garcia (Huichol) is an Indigenous artist, cultural organizer, educator, co-founder, and Director of Meztli Projects, an Indigenous-based arts & culture collaborative centering Indigeneity into the creative practice of Los Angeles. In various artistic roles, he’s worked with Indigenous communities across borders to support land, access, and self-determination issues. His art (printmaking, dye making, public programming) explores healing and reconciliation, as well as memory and place, garnering national press in publications such as the LA Times, New Yorker, and Artforum, among others, for his use of art in changing policies in support of Indigenous Peoples and issues.
He’s a former Stanton Fellow and artist-in-residence and fellow at Monument Lab ('19, '22), as well as a co-facilitator of the Intercultural Leadership Institute ('21-'23), which aims to create space for cultural production outside of white supremacist frameworks, alongside OXY ARTS and other acclaimed projects.