Nan Renner (UC San Diego Birch Aquarium at Scripps)

Values-driven Design Connecting a University Community

On the campus of UC San Diego, Birch Aquarium at Scripps has taken on a new mission: We connect understanding to protecting our ocean planet. Each word in this mission expresses what we value. Together, the words make a commitment to knowledge, and action informed by knowledge. A participatory process also produced an overt statement of values: Engage, inspire, empower. Community and collaboration. Sustainability. Innovation and play. Unabashedly aspirational, these values infuse several current university collaborations. A snapshot of this moment-in-time projects a future with the Aquarium as a learning laboratory, a center for collaboration and innovation, and a place where science, art, technology, and design move people in multiple ways.

About the Speaker

Nan Renner wants to stoke curiosity, creativity, love for nature and compassion for humankind. She wants to learn with others how to achieve these goals. At UC San Diego, she serves as Senior Director of Learning Design and Innovation for Birch Aquarium at Scripps, leading a climate science / climate action initiative, education programs and partnerships, exhibit development, and university and community collaborations with the CREATE STEM Success Initiative. Renner earned her PhD and taught in Cognitive Science at UC San Diego, focused on distributed and embodied cognition, socio-cultural theory, cognitive ethnography, and human-centered design. Over her career, good fortune brought a series of other fun and challenging jobs, including Art of Science Learning, San Diego “Innovation Incubator” director, TheNAT (San Diego Natural History Museum) exhibit developer, San Diego Museum of Art graphic designer, and SeaWorld scenic painter and assistant set designer. On a personal note, Nan loves to swim in the ocean, camp in the wilds, and share good food with family and friends.