Faculty

Sue Tan Toyofuku is a part-time adjunct lecturer in the Academy's Masters of Integrated Design, Business and Technology program. 

Tan's area of expertise sits at the overlap of design, people and business, having worked at the design and innovation firm IDEO for seven years as a human factors researcher and lead design strategist, first in the Bay Area then across Asia. She has also had adventures in the world of mobile app start-ups, end-of-life palliative care and innovation. Tan co-authored a book about innovation called The Tao of Innovation: Nine Questions Every Innovator Must Answer and recently founded an interdisciplinary design and innovation consultancy along with three other partners called MO Studio. 

Tan gained her foundation in creative problem solving while earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Industrial Design at the University of Washington. She then earned her Masters in "Technopreneurship" and Innovation at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, which is a program that was similarly founded to disrupt the world of higher education. She is passionately curious about human-centered design, cross-cultural and global-ness, creative learning, innovation and how to get her toddler to sleep in her own bed.