John Nash, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Walk into many schools today and you'll find a system as outdated as a sundial at NASA. John Nash is changing that, one school at a time.
Over three decades, John has developed a counterintuitive approach to school transformation. While others push for more technology or stricter standards, he shows leaders how to reshape their schools from the inside out, starting with the actual needs of students and teachers. John doesn’t treat school transformation like making microwave popcorn - push a button and pray. His approach is more like brewing the perfect cup of coffee: methodical, intentional, and guaranteed to wake people up.
At the University of Kentucky's Laboratory on Design Thinking, John helps schools move from "we've always done it this way" to "what if we tried something new?" The result is learning environments that actually work for today's students.
When AI threw education into chaos, John’s human-centered approach proved more valuable than ever. Now he advises everyone from the U.S. State Department to local superintendents to international schools on making AI work effectively. His work on the generative AI advisory boards at the University of Kentucky and MidPacific Institute in Honolulu helps transform panic about AI into practical strategies for using it effectively.
John has worked both sides of transformation. After faculty work at the University of Texas at El Paso and research leadership at Stanford University, he co-founded a strategy consultancy for the social sector with offices in Stockholm, Sweden and Menlo Park, California. He later joined the faculty at Iowa State University and then the University of Kentucky. This blend of practical and academic experience shapes how he approaches change in education, which he captured in "Design Thinking in Schools" published by Harvard Education Press.
Research categories: Educational Leadership, Human Centered Design, Design Thinking, Leading Learner-Centered Schools, Integration of Generative AI in Education