The Thing About BHAGs

Happy new year!

After 7.5 years, I am passing the Sustainable Design program directorship at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) baton to my successor, Denise DeLuca. I couldn’t be more delighted with my replacement who is a longtime colleague, friend and instructor in the SD program. She has the experience, know how and passion to take the program to the next level.

I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my tenure and to say a proper farewell. I’ve been so well-supported and taken care of MCAD, it is tough to leave. Thank you, all of my supporters, for everything.

But there’s this thing about BHAGs (big hairy audacious goals (Collins and Porras, 1994)), they guide and they inspire, but they won’t set your mind free until they are accomplished.

When I joined MCAD in 2010, I set to work to understand the value and potential of the program by interviewing faculty, students and alumni. Within a matter of months I knew that we needed to take our certificate program to the next level: to a full-on graduate degree. It became my new BHAG. Two years and a lot of paperwork, red tape and hoops, and countless meetings later, we launched the MA in Sustainable Design program at MCAD. It was MCAD’s first new degree in a decade, MCAD’s first MA degree, and MCAD’s first online degree. It was also -and remains so today- the only multidisciplinary, fully online sustainability-focused degree offered at an art and design institution. We couldn’t have been more proud. Now, 5 years later, we have dozens of successful graduates who are sustainability-focused change agents, leading the charge and conquering their own BHAGs in their own way.

I’m off to achieve my next BHAG; one that’s been growing yet waiting patiently in the wings of my mind and heart for twenty years (yes, 20!). I’m still waiting for deployment but the wheels are in motion for me to realize my dream of working as a field logistician for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).

All the best in 2018 and beyond,

Cindy

Image courtesy of Threshold Podcast