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Dear Friends,

As the inaugural executive director of the Design Innovation (DI) Initiative at ������, I look forward to growing and building connections with you to engage our students in "challenge-based innovation" experiences on their paths to becoming fearless and powerful collaborators! 

DI brings together students, faculty, community and leading experts from ANY discipline who are thoughtfully addressing technology and society through design. Students then become creative, intersectional problem-solvers and fearless collaborators in the face of complex, messy problems. We strive to be innovators, activators and cultivators who evolve strong, collaborative design innovation mindsets in students, researchers and communities across the world.

I am humbled and honored to be helping to lead this foundational, timely and culture-changing initiative at Kent State. The new Design Innovation Hub is located in the center of campus in the former Art Building and helps us both ground and leverage the offerings of our entire Design Innovation Ecosystem. The building functions as an open and collaborative makerspace for the Kent State community that links our great network of existing shared-resource labs and makerspaces across the university, which we call the "DI Nodes." Like this collaborative initiative, this building too is “Shared by All. Owned by All.”

Please know that philanthropic support will be the cornerstone for which we can train more students, solve more problems and put our unique Kent State stamp into our communities. Please contact me with any ideas or questions.

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J.R. Campbell
Executive Director
Design Innovation Initiative