Bio

Leticia Britos Cavagnaro is a scientist-turned-designer working to shape the future of teaching and learning at the Stanford Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school). She holds a PhD from Stanford, at the intersection of Developmental Biology and Computer Science.

Leticia has started and leads several d.school initiatives that support pedagogical innovation globally, such as the Teaching and Learning Studio –an open-enrollment professional development program that has trained over 1000 higher education professors and leaders since 2016– and the Innovative Teaching Scholars program –a collaboration with the Stanford Engineering Center for Global & Online Education to train university educators in Thailand.

She was the founding Deputy Director of the National Center for Engineering Pathways to Innovation (Epicenter), an NSF-funded initiative to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in engineering education across the US that was spearheaded by Stanford's Management Science & Engineering department from 2011 to 2016. With Epicenter as its launchpad, Leticia co-founded, scaled, and spun-off the University Innovation Fellows program, which empowers students globally to be co-designers of their education in collaboration with faculty and leaders at their schools. The program has trained over 3200 Fellows from over 326 universities in 24 countries.

Leticia teaches Capstone Project and Advanced Reflective Practice to graduate students in Stanford’s MS Design program. She also develops tools that leverage emerging technologies like AI to empower learners to be self-directed, action-oriented, and reflective. Riff –the generative AI reflection assistant Leticia developed– is being used by hundreds of educators globally and has supported over 25,000 student reflections in the past year.

Leticia is a thought leader in pedagogical innovation. Her recent book Experiments In Reflection invites us to expand how we see the past and present and to become bold shapers of the future.

She was born in Uruguay and lives in San Francisco with her husband.

Connect with Leticia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leticiabc/

Academic Appointments

  • Adjunct Professor, Hasso Plattner Institute of Design

Contact

  • Academic
    britos@stanford.edu
    University - Other Teaching/Research Department: d.school Position: Adjunct Professor

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 3086
  • Other Names:
    Leticia Britos

Research Interests

  • Assessment, Testing and Measurement
  • Brain and Learning Sciences
  • Collaborative Learning
  • Curriculum and Instruction
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Professional Development
  • Teachers and Teaching
  • Technology and Education

2024-25 Courses

All Publications

  • Experiments in Reflection: How to See the Present, Reconsider the Past, and Shape the Future (Stanford d.school Library) Britos Cavagnaro, L. Ten Speed Press (Penguin Random House). 2023
  • An Innovators' Movement Does America Need More Innovators? Britos Cavagnaro, L. C., Fasihuddin, H. 2019: 25–50
  • A Moonshot Approach to Change in Higher Education: Creativity, Innovation, and the Redesign of Academia Britos Cavagnaro, L., Fasihuddin, H. Association of American Colleges & Universities. 2016 ; Liberal Education