ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ

Angela: Welcome to Meadows on the Mic, the official podcast of the ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ Meadows School of the Arts. I'm your guest host, Angela Molinero, a student worker with the Meadows Marketing team and a graduate student in the MADI program. On today's episode, I sat down with Jessica Burnham, the director of the graduate program I'm part of, MADI, which stands for Master of Arts in Design and Innovation. MADI is an interdisciplinary Human-Centered Design program that equips students with creative problem-solving skills to tackle complex challenges through research, prototyping, and innovation. On this episode, we talked about Jessica's background and expertise in reshaping the Design and Innovation program at ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ, along with her contributions to its unique curriculum, students' real-life experiences, and future initiatives for the Master's program. Let's get to know, Jessica Burnham!

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Angela: Hello there! I'm Angela Molinero, and this is my very first episode as guest host of Meadows on the Mic. Joining me today is Jessica Burnham, director of MADI. So happy to have you here today, Jessica. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience at ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ and MADI.

Jessica: It's great to be here. Thanks for having me, Angela.

Angela: So, to kick things off, can you share a bit about your background and what led you to ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ and the MADI program? Of course.

Jessica: So, I'm originally from Colorado and I moved to Texas in 2008 as a design intern at the Fossil Group. And so it was a great kind of new entry into the state and I'd never been here before really.  But I ended up getting my MFA in Design and Innovation, Design Research and Innovation from UNT up in Denton. So, I had my BFA in Communication Design and Graphic Design and then ended up thinking maybe I could teach one day but also what does grad school look like and how do I learn more about design than just building a portfolio but more about like the philosophy of design and why we design and what does this look like. And so, that opened up my world to a whole space of how we're applying design principles in spaces that are not typically found in like design isn't typically found. So how do you take the way you design a logo or brand manual or something like an asset that same problem solving and creative problem solving approach. How do we do that for a city or a neighborhood or a totally different kind of space. So that led to my whole thesis and research work on building community by design and kind of going from this shift from communication design to design to communication. So, all of that then led to being able to work and help building a whole nonprofit that managed the neighborhood of Greenville Avenue in Dallas, Texas and then that ended up leading to a job at Indebellum which is like the premier entertainment district of Dallas as well. So all of the through line through that was well what does design what role does design play what role does design play and how do we kind of keep bringing these methods and approaches in these unexpected ways.  And so into the city into neighborhood planning and business development and things like that. So, in 2015 the MADI program the master of arts and design and innovation was launched officially and I got to know the original founders of it, Kate Canales and Greg Garman through a project in Deep Ellum.  And so, Greg Garman was working on kind of a separate project around understanding how to imagine a street. And I came in very quickly to say who are you and how do you know what this is and what's going on here. And so we kind of had a moment of I didn't know you existed. I didn't know MAI existed. And he's like well I didn't know you existed. And so then we bumped into each other literally and became very fast friends and supporters of each other's work. And so that led to being introduced into MADI as the second designer in resident. Our joke is that Justin Childress our other full time faculty member he was the first designer in resident so he's been around longer than almost anyone else has in the program. And then I was the second one.

So that got me into teaching and kind of co-designing and co-creating a lot of curriculum from the beginning of the program. And then when the original founders they ended up getting great opportunities at UT in Austin. Then I was hoping I would just get asked to teach full time and kind of transition from I was at the time the executive director of the Deep Ellum Foundation a nonprofit that manages the whole neighborhood of Deep Ellum. And I was I was thinking maybe I get asked to consider a faculty position as just a full time faculty. And they instead said you should be the director of this program. And so I said well we I will try and apply and see if it's a good fit kind of thing. So that was seven and a half years ago. So excited for this fall in 2025 will be our 10-year anniversary. And so so much has happened in the last 10 years and in the last seven and a half years that I've been here. And so so yeah it's been this kind of through line of what is design. How are we kind of pushing the limits of design and how are we applying it in all these unexpected spaces from Denton to Dallas to Deep Ellum to ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ and kind of finding all the opportunities along the way.

Angela: Okay, well congrats for the 10 years anniversary and that's a really, really interesting path. So can you explain to us what the MADI program actually is and what does someone study and learn while attending?

Jessica: Absolutely. So the MADI program is the Master of Arts in Design and Innovation and we really teach the human-centered design process and so this is a process that a lot of different groups kind of have different iterations or versions of but it's really understanding the why behind we design anything and so design to us is anything that is created. So that could be a policy, a procedure, an experience, a app, a new technology. It could be anything but our goal is to understand the human behavior that would engage with that thing that we're designing and trying to improve before we decide this is what the thing is. So, our goal is to really put the humans at the center of what we're designing which means we have to engage with them and get to know them and learn about them and be experts on the people that we're working with and for before we just decide here's what I think you deserve or what you should get for this new opportunity or this new project here's what I think it is as the designer we're not just experts on what the design is we should be experts on who the people are that we're engaging with. So, all that to say is we bring this real qualitative approach to design and saying how do we have evidence to support our design decisions and really this innovation through important need definition of a project and what that looks like. So to answer in a maybe more specific way students come into our program they do not have to have a design background to be admitted but you do have to have this desire to learn the design process and see that design should be in more spaces than just one outlet or just one vertical and so then we level everyone up together to say here's the human centered design steps here's how we're understanding and building context here's how we're squashing our assumptions of this space here's how we're building evidence to to guide us through the process and then a huge component and requirement of our process is prototyping and testing so we do not feel comfortable making any recommendation for a new solution or a new idea unless it's been tested so we can have great ideas and great concepts but to us it's not true innovation unless it exists unless it's real unless we've like learned from it. So, it's a whole process in really pausing and slowing down and learning and engaging more up the front end so we know how to act and design something that actually will stick and not just we hope it sticks.

So, students it's a very experiential learning environment and very applied and hands-on so we love group work there's lots of group work and project work but there is client work from the beginning first class in the semester all the way through to the end and so students come it's a 31 credit hour credit hours for the whole degree so it's designed to be full full time and you can finish in two years and you know we love that students are not always graduating and then pivoting but we would say a lot of students come from all these different backgrounds like K-12 Education, Industrial Design, Philanthropy, Business, Community Engagement, Architecture, Graphic…like it's a very big mix our student age range is 21 to 64 and we have a very big growing international student population as well but what happens is we get the students in and then the students are really pivoting in their mindset towards design and innovation the whole time so that by the end when they're applying for new jobs they never thought that they could get they're very equipped because they have a huge portfolio of actual project work with clients and engagements that they had to do the whole process on it's not just conceptual work. So, all of that to say it's a graduate-only program right now but we're always looking at getting as many undergraduates in our classes and expanding out and making sure we're just siloed into one space as well too.

Angela: That sounds really innovative and disruptive for ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ and for Texas. So MADI is a Master of Arts program, right?  But it's uniquely positioned within the School of the Arts and the School of Engineering. How does this influence the way MADI operates?

Jessica: Yeah, we say there's nothing that bridges art and engineering like design. And so if we get to live in this space that truly is multidisciplinary, that's where we want to be, because there's nothing one thing that really defines the need for this work. We also think that design that we're doing in human-centered design approach, design research, design thinking, all of this should be in every field a little bit. So everyone can benefit from it in some capacity. So, when I tell people, oh, I report to the Dean of engineering and the Dean of the Meadow School of the Arts, some people will say, wow, that's a lot. And I say, well, yeah, it's a lot of support. It's a lot of great opportunities for our students. And it's a great way to show our breadth across campus. And so we also actually are launching a MADI MBA that will launch in the fall, which is an official partnership actually with the business school as well. So it's the only program coming right now that is an official partnership with the Meadow School of the Arts, the Weill School of Engineering, and the Cox School of Business, which is right where we want to be.  Collaboration can be messy, but we're well-suited for that. And we love that, because we're better for it when we're actually learning from each other and being in this space.  So it can take a few different things. Logistically, it means I go to a lot of meetings in both schools. But fundamentally, it means that our students are supported from both schools in ways that not a lot of students are. So, I think it's a great fit.

Angela: So, what are some of the most exciting projects MADI students have worked on recently?

Jessica: Yeah, so our project again, we can talk about design all day, but you're not learning it unless you're doing it. So we learn by doing it is one of our key kind of pillars of our program.  And so that means we have to work with outside industry partners to have opportunities for students to do the work. And that works in a couple of different ways with us. So one, we have classes that the curriculum is directly set up and relies on a partner of some kind, whether it's a nonprofit company or a for-profit company. And that is called our design studio classes. So we have a design studio for business and a design studio for social impact. That also pushes me and Justin, our faculty team to be in the community and in industry spaces so that we're always building those relationships to invite our students into. So currently like this semester, the spring semester, we're working with 7-Eleven. And how do we really understand user research of their customer base, specifically college students to impact the development and improvement of the 7-Now app. And so really it's actually more about how do we get research about college students as customers to really be seen and activated and used as the designers and developers are using the research. And so our audience actually becomes how do we design for the designers? And so it's a really interesting space that will end up improving the app overall, but it's more, it's very integrated into the processes and workflows that are internal to 7-Eleven. So that's a really exciting one right now.  We have had, so this semester will be I think our 20th client that we've worked with since we started around there within the classes. But some of our favorites, we got to do a really important project around improving procedural justice with the Dallas Police Department, all in the middle of COVID. And that was intense and really interesting and very powerful. And that led to our designer in residence at the time. So we have partners that come in every semester to support us. She ended up getting to do a one-on-one interview with the chief of police, the previous Chief of Police now, Eddie Garcia. So we got to have a one-on-one deep dive interview with her and him and just learn more about what's going on in the police department in light of what our students got to work on. So very applied, very active.  And then on the whole other side of the spectrum, we also got to work with the Dallas Mavericks on how to improve the customer experience from when you get dropped off to a game to when you actually enter the arena of the game, of the, like to walk into the arena. And so how do we kind of, how do we bring the hype that happens inside out and treat that as its own experience and got to work with a great event expert and good friend, Damani Daniel in that project too. So we're just trying as much as we can to get our students out of the class and get our industry partners in the class. So, as much as we can kind of marry these things together is where we want to be.

And yeah, and then we've also had some really fun internal ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ projects. So we got to work on making more people aware of ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ aware, which is like the safety risk management platform for ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ. So when you get an inclement weather notice and all that kind of stuff, how do we just make sure more people are aware of that platform and how to use it correctly?  And then most recently last fall, we got to help the math department with their PhD Math students on improving a dedicated space for them that's in a basement of one of the oldest buildings on campus, but how do we design that and improve it truly for the needs of these math students? And how do we take the time to learn what they need and then design something to meet that need?  So it's always fun, it's always different. Our process is always the same. It's always the same human centered design methodology that we employ, but the student groups always shift and the client is always different. So it's never, ever boring. It's always very interesting and perfectly complex is what it is.

Angela: Sounds like you work and collaborate with big clients. It's really interesting that students get to have this experience before graduating. How do you think this makes a difference for them?

Jessica: Well, that's a great question! The biggest difference it makes is in their job placement. So, you do not have to have a design background to get into our program and you do not have to have a design portfolio, which is a little odd to have to say, oh I'm getting a Master's in Design but I've never done design before. But what we're after are these students that have a mindset that design really is everywhere and they need the structure, the language, the methods, the theory and the application to actually do it. So when they graduate after two years or maybe three if they go part-time, they are walking out with a robust app portfolio. One student was able to include 17 actual projects in his portfolio that all helped him get promoted at his current job. Or we're getting direct access to User Research, User Design Strategy, UX/UI positions, all of that throughout this whole process. So, in two years they are doing a personal mental model mind shift of what design really is and opening their eyes to that design could be all these different things. And they're getting this practical application that they could put in their portfolio that directly leads to jobs. So, right now again we've only been around for 10 years so we have 67 graduates, we'll have 78 in May. But of the 67 alumni 62 have been placed in jobs in the industry and have either been promoted up and kind of in and around or have like gotten new jobs and keep building in their space in the industry. So that's one of our favorite things to say is we're at a really high percentage like 95-ish percentage of placement for our students when they're graduating, which is a very important part.  We're a professional degree in the engineering school and in the art school and our students are getting great jobs. We joke that we need to get some kind of benefit for how much more money they get paid than we do when they graduate because they're getting anywhere from like 90,000 up to 200,000 dollars in salary in salaries once they leave. So yeah and really great placement. So again they have very hands-on experience and then they're able to take the way that they've learned all of it in class. They learned how to engage with clients and corporate professionals. So, in our application process we also talk about the ability to talk to people that they've never met in places they've never been. Really it's like our nicer way of asking how do you feel about talking to strangers. But the goal then is that if you can talk to executives in a CEO suite as they're working on projects like we had to do with the Mavericks or with Southwest Airlines or DFW airport and things like that these really high profile companies and you're also to talk with these non-profit mission focused groups that are doing like deep dive into like arts education for students with Big Thought or volunteerism efforts within the Discount Depot for donated goods with VolunteerNow. All of these other groups they're getting this huge spectrum of experiences from these non-profit very emotional meaningful spaces and then these corporate spaces that are still emotional and meaningful just in a different way.

So, again, our goal is that students are getting as much of this experience in a cared for setting throughout the program so that when they graduate, I hope that they're saying MADI was harder than my job so I feel over prepared and over qualified for this next step.

Angela: Sounds like MADI is the new hot graduate program today. So, how does MADI integrate with the broader ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ community and what opportunities exist for students to collaborate across disciplines inside the ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ community?

Jessica: Yeah, that's a great again, we want to be everywhere as much as we can. We're a small team, but I want people to think we're like this big machine of care and and support.  But one way we have been doing that, we have a great partner. We have a lot of partnerships and I'm trying to meet as many people across. So, within our degree plan and the way we set up the whole curriculum, we have a few open electives. And so we are constantly pushing students out of our classes, which kind of sounds counterintuitive, but we really want them to go take classes like with Mark Allen and advertising on creativity and problem solving and get his experiences and perspectives. We want students to take as many classes as they can in the MBA school or in the in the business school to learn about statistics and change management and things from a different again, another a different perspective and also in like anthropology or in deeper research in engineering. So one, we have it as a part of our curriculum that we want students to get out of our spaces and in other student and other department spaces. So that means we have to then get to know those departments and programs and say, hey, we have this really great student who wants to take a class. Can we talk about it and bridge those make build those bridges across campus? The other part that we've done, too, is just try to we have a design and innovation research cluster through the Deadman Interdisciplinary Program or department. And so that whole effort for that cluster is really to have really intentional and engaging programming that takes design and innovation and kind of plugs it into every area and find like minded groups that say, well, if you're in the law school and think that design is interesting or innovation in law, how do we show that we're bringing all of that together? So, we tried it. We did the most recent event we did for that. We had a panel discussion and we basically did an audit of ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ's programs and found as many that included design or innovation and said, can you come talk to our students? And so we were able to partner with Marcus Butz, who's the chair of management in the business school, Eric Godat, who is in I.T., but does research support for like I.T. and AI support for faculty. And then with Nicole Haddad, who's been in advertising and graphic design and a lot of different spaces across campus. So, again, we're trying to be as ingrained as we can throughout and that also our students are benefiting from all of that as well.  We also have a lot of student workers that are in different areas across campus that we want, again, as much MADI expertise to kind of infiltrate as we can.

Angela: I have a bit more personal, let's say, question for you. That would be, how has the program evolved since you took on that leadership role?

Jessica: Yeah! So, it's been, I'm very fortunate that I got to land in a good, a great foundation. So that's like, we got, I got to jump into something that was like really good already. So I, my job was to make a good thing better. You know, like how do we make something good, even greater? So, going from good to great, essentially.  One big thing that we shifted when I came on was that we adjusted some of the curriculum to account for a more independent Capstone project that didn't happen before. So we, the reality of our students, they're getting these really great jobs, but sometimes the, the, the majority of the teams they're on are pretty small, or they're even like in a startup within a large company kind of thing. And so we wanted to make sure students had enough of their own independent work experience with that throughout the program. So, so students will get two major studio projects within our studio classes with a client. So one nonprofit, one for profit. And then they also do a year long capstone. So every project that they've worked on with a client, it's because the faculty and leadership, we've curated those experiences. So, we have found the clients, we have found the partners, we have found everything. And then when it gets to Capstone, that's when it does a big shift and it says, okay, well, Angela, what do you care about? What are you going to do? So you've learned and you've, you've worked and done design in these different spaces, but now what change do you want to affect? And what's your point of view around design as you've been learning it for the last year or so. And so it also provides kind of different scales and different experiences of the process. So, everything from the intro class, so you run through a whole project really fast, like a design sprint in a few weeks.

And then in the studio class, you get a whole semester along and you do that twice. And then Capstone, you have a whole year to really spend the first semester digging deep into the content and understanding what is the problem I'm trying to work on? What do I care about? What's the lit review behind it? All the, all the research to support your general idea. And then the second semester you're putting all that work into action and saying, all right, well, here's what I'm going to do. So very applied. It is applied research, I think at its finest with design all supporting it. So that's a big one that we changed and that we added in just so we're supporting the students. So, they're really well equipped to have their own example of like how my capstone could turn into a job, which is actually really similar.

We have one student, Martha Fernández. She works at Dallas College. She worked at Dallas College the whole time she was in the program. But her whole capstone was really looking at how do we support Latinx and Latin youth so that they learn what they care about. So, how do we do that? And so, she created a whole thing through her capstone around programming to get, to get these kids to learn what they actually value and how do you translate those personal values to jobs and what that looks like. And she then got promoted at her job at Dallas College and is doing a very similar programming at the school now. So, all of that translated to her like direct job that she's working on.

And we have lots of examples like that.  The other one, like I, I mentioned and teased that a little earlier is getting this MADI MBA as a partnership with the Cox Business School and with our two schools as well that launches next fall. So that's a big one that we've done. But really the beauty of that is that we didn't, it's really a partnership because it's the, it's the entirety of the MADI degree plus the entirety of the MBA, the fast-track professional MBA, and that we are partnering together to build that. And so that not no new curriculum, just a way to package it in a way that's really beneficial to the students. And then we've also launched a design and innovation graduate certificate. So students can apply to this, but it's really great for, maybe it's a undergrad that is like, I don't want to do the full grad program after I've graduated, but maybe I could do this graduate certificate. It all is credit bearing. So if they wanted to continue on, they could stay on. But it's really packaging up our intro classes. And you can kind of pick a, have a couple options to pick, but it's four graduate level classes that are all credit bearing that give you a good breadth and depth of the process. And then that counts as a design and innovation graduate certificate. So those are some of the big things that we've changed and kind of worked on and just to move around.  But there's a lot of stuff that stayed the same too. So the designer and resident program that Justin and I got in on that still is going very strong. We still have a really big emphasis on collaboration with industry partners. And then we have this really robust student experience that we build and design directly for all of our grads and everyone that we're working with. So there's a lot, there's a lot that we have added and improved on and kind of built out to grow. But it's all in the same main core values of where it started.

Angela: What role would you say does the City of Dallas play in the success of the MADI program?

Jessica: I love this question. Okay. So my heart has a deep dive into what and care for what the city is. So as a municipality, there's the city of Dallas itself. And, and then there's like the industry insight and access of Dallas. So we are so fortunate that we get to be in Dallas in this space that has corporations from all over, um, headquarter offices here. We got to directly do a project with AT&T Discovery District, which is the global headquarters for AT&T and they just opened their doors up to us and let us have full access to improving the community and neighborhood participation with the district. So that is something we do not take lightly because that not everybody's lucky enough to have just this like neighborhood, this, um, these massive corporate industry partners in our backyard. So, we feel like it's our, our, kind of our responsibility to honor everyone that and all the things that are in Dallas by learning who they are, making sure they know who we are. And again, building those bridges and partnerships with part with, uh, these companies to have projects with the class or have internships with students and that and the like. So, um, one, we just have, we, we'd be doing a disservice as a part of where we're physically located if we were not activating that this potential with these partners. So that's a huge asset and a big part of our successes cause we're able to go knock on doors and being engaged. The other part though is really understanding that everything around us is designed. And so all of the city governance and municipality around the city has opportunity for improvement and engagement and everything like that. So again, in my space and my kind of heart and my research is around community, community by design and what does that look like community engagement efforts. And so we've actually been able to partner directly with the city of Dallas in training. We did a whole project with them on training their assistant directors across all verticals, uh, last year in our human centered design process. And then we're able to provide one-on-one design coaching with a few of the directors that wanted to see their projects through to the end. So now they got experience, direct experience of walking through our human centered design process and, and, uh, methods to say, Oh wait, there is another way we could do this. So, um, we, being a part of Dallas is like a huge asset to us. It's also such a great, um, convener of just a huge mix of people that we just would not have otherwise. So we are a truly multidisciplinary program where it comes to where we live, like physically on campus, our partnering with all these different industry professionals and how we're bringing in all these students from all over the world in a space that can land and stay in Dallas. The other part, and it's true that we have a lot of students who stay, we would love for them to come from all over the world and then stay in Dallas or stay and get jobs here. Um, and that's happening a lot.

We have some that are moving out. We have some that are doing great remote work, but it's been a really great hub of connectivity and support that we're very grateful that we get to be in Dallas for. So love that you included that.

Angela: No, thanks to you for your awesome answer. That was a question that couldn't be missed. So, to wrap things up, what's your global vision for the future of MADI?

Jessica: Yeah. Just more MADI is what we wanted. So more design and innovation. I think our biggest vision right now that we're actively working on is expanded physical space. So, we, you know, we're in the Engineering School, we're in the art school. My office is in the art school, but we teach in the Engineering School buildings, but then we also have a studio space in Expressway Tower on the other side of the highway on East Campus. And so we've been fortunate enough to work with the engineering school and some of their lab space on East Campus to really say, we could build classrooms here. We can build a collaborative design space here that's bringing in community members to engage and doing more of what we're doing within kind of our own house. So where the big vision right now is building out this physical space to help support our growth of students.  And then we're always looking at these kind of bigger projects outside of campus and outside of the classes. So, how are we doing more grant projects and more? I would love for us to have the capability and ability to do a lot of design research for companies and nonprofits in Dallas that they don't have to pay for. But that would mean we have a big grant that supports that and kind of a center for design and innovation. So I would love to see us look at how we operate like a real design studio doing this work in and around for Dallas and the DFW area in a way that really helps serve the city that's not happening right now. But we're doing it, we're doing it in small chunks, but I'd love for us to grow and be able to do it more as we keep growing.

Angela: MADI is really all over ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ and the Dallas! I mean this in a good way. Jessica, thanks so much for joining me today. It's been amazing to hear about your journey, your leadership in MADI, and how you are shaping the future of design and innovation at ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ. I know our listeners will appreciate your insights, and I can't wait to see what's next for MADI.

Jessica: Thank you so much, Angela! It was so great to talk with you.  And if anyone's interested, you can find more with us on our, we have Instagram and LinkedIn. It's all just smumadi, M-A-D-I. So thanks for the great conversation and can't wait to talk more.

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Angela: Thank you for tuning into Meadows on the Mic, and a big thank you to Jessica Burnham, Director of the MADI Program at ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ. If you're interested in learning more about the program, you can follow the MADI Instagram @smumadi or look for it on Graduate Programs at smu.edu/meadows. This podcast is brought to you by the ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ Meadows Marketing Department, and it's available on all major podcast platforms. For questions and comments, email us at meadowsonthemic@smu.edu, and follow us on all major social media channels at ÌÇÐÄvlogÊÓƵ Meadows.