Lenore Richards

Director, Design in Strategic Foresight & Innovation

Panelist - 1:00pm, Thursday, April 7th – Catalysts for the Creative Economy: Universities, Colleges and the Post-Industrial City

Lenore is an academic leader, educator and designer.  Through the positions of Co-Chair of the Environmental Design program, as Dean of the Faculty of Design, and more recently as Director of the Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation and as Director of the Strategic Innovation Lab, Lenore has provided academic leadership at OCAD University for more than 20 years.  Her belief in the critical importance of integrating innovative thinking with responsive and responsible design led to the development of a philosophical base in the design programs of ‘Design and Humanity’, which subsequently was embedded in the curriculum through a complete redevelopment of Design’s six programs.

Lenore’s recognition of the need to create new knowledge and methodologies in design, and in defining a more significant role for designers in society led to the establishment of the Strategic Innovation Lab and subsequently to the development of a new graduate program. The Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation was launched in September 2009 and promises to forge new paths for design, developing new skills and methods for approaching complex problems in very diverse sectors.

Lenore received her Bachelor of Interior Design from the University of Manitoba and her Master of Industrial Design from the Rhode Island School of Design.  Her experience in industry includes two of Canada’s most creative and influential design firms, Yabu Pushelberg, and Kuypers Adamson Norton, where she was an associate. Lenore worked on projects in the areas of exhibit, product and retail design, where emphasis was consistently placed on conceptual strength and innovation in the creation of compelling human experiences.

Lenore is a professor at OCADU, teaching thesis students in the Environmental Design program.  She is a member of the Association of Interior Designers of Ontario and of the Association of Chartered Industrial Designers of Ontario, and serves as a Director on the Board of the Laidlaw Foundation.