Vida Mia Garcia

About Vida Mia Garcia

I help organizations and institutions turn complex challenges into thriving programs, labs, and initiatives. For more than a decade, I’ve built new ventures from the ground up across higher education, corporate, and nonprofit contexts - expanding creative capacity, shaping strategy, and delivering lasting impact.My work sits at the intersection of research, learning, and innovation. Trained as an ethnographer, I use human-centered research to uncover insights that shift direction and spark new possibilities. As a builder and strategist, I translate those insights into programs and partnerships that scale. And as an educator and coach, I develop the creative confidence of teams and individuals so they can carry the work forward.Signature strengths include:• 0→1 program building & scaling : from concept to sustainable, high-impact initiatives• Human-centered research & insight generation : identifying unmet needs that inform strategy• Stakeholder engagement & culture change : aligning diverse groups around shared goals• Teaching, coaching, & facilitation : equipping people with the mindsets and tools for innovationWhether leading design research for Fortune 500 clients, building innovation labs and curricula at universities, or coaching executives and students alike, I bring a consistent focus: helping people and organizations navigate complexity, unlock creativity, and design futures they believe in.

Experience

1. Coach, Executive Education Programs

   Stanford d.school

   Jul 2016 — Present · Palo Alto, CA, US

   Lead small teams of participants from organizations around the world, in a diverse array of industries, through design thinking workshops grounded in experiential learning and geared towards breakthrough innovation. I facilitate various formats, from multi-day Design Thinking Boot Camps teaching the full design process to three-hour specialized workshops aimed at senior leadership and focused on user empathy, needfinding, ideation, and inspirational storytelling.

Education

• Stanford University

  MA, PhD, Modern Thought and Literature

• Brown University

  BA, Women's Studies, English