Elysa Fenenbock is an educator, designer, and experience architect who has spent her career building learning experiences that help people navigate uncertainty, unlock creativity, and shape what comes next. Her work lives at the intersection of design thinking, play, and emerging futures, and she brings all three into every program, workshop, and collaboration she leads.

For over fifteen years, Elysa has taught at Stanford University's d.school, where she developed and has taught Design for Play since 2008, an exploration of how play drives innovation, connection, and new ways of thinking. Her courses consistently rank among the most sought-after at the d.school, drawing students and professionals eager to move beyond conventional problem-solving. She co-developed Forbidden Design and led Stanford's first course on Psychedelic Medicine x Design, now in its fourth year, which weaves together design, medicine, policy, and Indigenous wisdom. Across all of her work at the d.school, she helps people build the creative capacity to navigate emerging futures and bring bold new ideas to life, in any industry, at any scale.

Elysa served as Google's first Designer-in-Residence, scaling innovation and design thinking programs across seven countries and reaching over 2,000 employees. She co-created IDEO's Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators, downloaded more than 100,000 times and translated into eight languages. She is also an Edmund Hillary Fellow, part of a global network of innovators and change-makers using Aotearoa New Zealand as a basecamp for planetary impact. She has partnered with the Greater Good Science Center to produce a global event with Dr. Jane Goodall and a companion course on purpose and life transitions, reaching more than 20,000 learners worldwide.

Elysa brings warmth, creative momentum, and deep facilitation expertise to every room she enters. She has a particular gift for helping teams move through ambiguity, turning complexity into clarity and abstract futures into concrete, actionable possibilities.

Why do you like working with our clients?

I love the moment people remember they are creative. It is always in there. When it comes alive, something shifts, and suddenly problems feel solvable, collaboration feels good, and the work actually means something. I deeply believe that when people create together with real intention, there is no limit to what they can solve.  

What are some fun facts about you?

• I used to spend summers teaching scuba diving on live-aboard sailboats.
• I've turned a lot of cardboard into life-size play vehicles for my kid. He pretty much thinks I'm superwoman when the cardboard magic happens.
• I'm happiest in the art studio making something or on the dance floor.

View Our Team