Mike is a co-founder and learning designer at Blue Dot Education, a community-based organization committed to working for hope, wonder, and joy in student and adult learning. He was a middle and high school humanities teacher in the High Tech High community from 2004-2021 and the Director of Professional Learning and Curriculum for Escondido Union High School District from 2021-2023. Throughout his classroom teaching and administrative career, he had the privilege of co-designing projects and learning experiences with incredible colleagues and students who continue to help him uncover the power of simple design, seeking the elders, and being excellent to each other.
Mike has worked as a designer for both the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school) at Stanford University and IDEO in San Francisco, where he helped develop, facilitate, and coach projects, including School Retool, Hacktivation Nation, the Co-Designing Schools Toolkit, Futures Thinking work, and other projects focused on designing for justice, equity, and belonging.
Mike holds a B.A. in Literature from Point Loma Nazarene University, an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from the HTHGSE, and is a third-year doctoral candidate at California Baptist University studying the intersections of Deeper Learning and outdoor place-based education.