Ela Ben-Ur

Ela supports educators and organizations making positive change with Design Thinking. Over 13 prior years at innovation firm IDEO, Ela was a design practitioner, project leader, team coach, facilitator for clients, and co-founder of IDEO’s Leadership Studio. Ela teaches courses from product design to life design at pioneering Olin College. She has led featured workshops at venues from MIT (her alma mater) to the National Science Teachers’ Association, AIGA, International Development Design Summit, and US Conference on AIDS. With many co-experimenters, she developed Innovators’ Compass (#innovatorscompass, innovatorscompass.org), a visual tool used from preschools to companies and communities to creatively and collaboratively navigate challenges. Ela’s daughters are her inspiration.