antonio@leadershipanddesign.org

Antonio Viva (he/him) is a Partner at L+D. He is a seasoned educator, experience designer, strategic advisor and non-profit leader. Previously, he served as the Executive Director of Artisans Asylum, one of the oldest and largest makerspaces in the United States. Prior to his role at Artisans, Antonio spent 12 years as the Head of School at Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, MA. During his tenure, he designed and led transformative programs such as The Boston Ballet School Professional Division at Walnut Hill. He also served as Senior Research and Design Associate for Education Development Center, Inc. where he worked on a national school design project for the US Department of Education.

A child of immigrants and a first-generation college student, Antonio has dedicated his life to promoting diversity and inclusion. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Union College in English and Teaching respectively.

He is a sought-after speaker and facilitator. His areas of interest include creativity, design, futurist thinking and leadership as a personal practice. Antonio has been featured by numerous national and regional independent school associations across the United States. He resides in the Boston suburbs with his family and two cats and maintains his personal studio on Cape Cod.

carla@leadershipanddesign.org

Carla Silver (she/her) is the Executive Director and Co-Founder. She is an experienced independent school educator, school administrator, and experience designer. She holds a B.A. in English from Emory University and a M.A. in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from The University of San Diego.

Carla partners with schools on strategic design and enhancing the work of leadership teams and boards, and she designs experiential learning experiences for leaders in schools at all points in their careers. She also leads workshops for faculty, administrative teams and boards on Design Thinking, Futurist Thinking, Collaboration and Group Life, and Leadership Development. She has presented regularly at the NAIS annual conference as well as other regional and local seminars, workshops and conferences. She currently serves on the board of the Urban School of San Francisco. As a lifelong learner, Carla has recently pursued her interests in design thinking, creativity, improvisation and education innovation. She lives in Los Gatos, California with her husband, three children, and two King Charles Cavaliers.

crystal@leadershipanddesign.org

Crystal Land (she/her) is a Partner at L+D. Crystal has spent her career as a leader in independent schools and as a facilitator with schools and teams. Prior to joining L+D, Crystal served as Head of School at The Head-Royce School in Oakland, where she also served in a variety of roles from Assistant Head of School and Admissions Director to English teacher over her 30+ year career. Over the past two decades, Crystal has designed and facilitated workshops for school leaders in the Bay Area and nationwide on topics including strategic planning, developing capacity in leadership teams, school governance, writing and meditation and women in leadership. She writes articles and thought pieces for various publications and has presented locally and nationally on effective school leadership.

Crystal has served on the Boards of the Global OnLine Academy, the Seven Hills School, the CAIS Secondary School Accreditation panel, Vincent Academy, and the California Teacher Development Collaborative (CATDC); she is currently a trustee at Marin Primary and Middle School. She holds a M.A. in English from Middlebury College, a M.A. in Education from Stanford University and a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley in English and Political Science. She appreciates big messy problems and truly enjoys helping leaders and schools find ways to successfully navigate them. She and her husband live in Oakland CA and are the parents of two adult children and one beloved dog.

Diego Durán-Medina (he/him/his) joins Leadership and Design as a Leader in Residency after completing the L and D fellowship in the seventh cohort. Diego completed an undergraduate degree from Colgate University, an M.A. from New York University and an M.Ed. from Teachers College in Independent School leadership.

Diego is focused on how schools envision civic engagement and finding creative ways to develop citizenship in schools. He is also focused on helping schools craft successful strategic plans and developing a culture of risk taking in educators. He has worked at multiple schools across the nation, helping develop and sustain successful experiential education programming. He has authored a book on teaching citizenship (Uncommon Civics, 2018) and served as a fellow with the Council for Spiritual and Ethical Education (CSEE) and Citizen University. He also helps schools as a consultant through LeadServe Consulting, a consultancy dedicated to helping develop citizens through thought and action. Diego is thrilled to be learning and leading with Leadership and Design in 2024-2025.

greg@leadershipanddesign.org

Greg Bamford (he/him) is a Co-Founder and Partner at L+D. Prior to this, Greg was Associate Head of School for Strategy and Innovation at Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma, Washington, and Head of School at the innovative Watershed School in Boulder, Colorado. During his time at Watershed, the young school grew to full enrollment and achieved ACIS accreditation for the first time. He is currently on the Board of Trustees for his alma mater, The Overlake School in Redmond, Washington, and the Advisory Board for The Hatch School, a new, independent girls' high school that opened in Seattle, Washington in 2022.

With his experience in school leadership, Greg brings a strategic lens to leadership development, innovation, and change management for Leadership+Design clients. He is particularly passionate about building leadership capacity and the cultural muscle to enact needed change. Greg has been a featured speaker at education conferences nationally and his writing has appeared in publications like Independent School, Net Assets, and The Yield. Greg lives in Tacoma, Washington with his wife and two children.

Isaiah Noreiga (he/him) is an L+D Leader in Residence. He is an experienced educator, counselor, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practitioner with a passion for student well-being and community building. Currently serving as the Dean of Community and Well-being, Chief Diversity Officer, and Founding Director of the Evergreen Institute at Indian Creek School in Crownsville, MD, Isaiah Noreiga is dedicated to fostering impactful student centered spaces and implementing innovative programs that support student and faculty holistic growth. With a background in clinical and community psychology, Isaiah has led various initiatives, including creating leadership and well-being programs, leading thoughtful DEI initiatives, and brings a deep understanding of mental health and trauma-informed care to his work. Isaiah’s diverse background and expertise demonstrates his dedication to empowering individuals and communities to thrive.

joe@leadershipanddesign.org

Joe Romano (he/him) is a Partner at L+D. He is also an educator, experience designer, and facilitator from Tacoma, WA, where he currently serves as the Director of Innovation at Charles Wright Academy. With more than 20 years in schools, Joe has taught in community colleges, artist residencies, and independent schools. He's transformed empty parking lots into classrooms for designing and building tinyhomes, and he has facilitated the redesign of libraries, community spaces, and fabrication labs. As a school administrator and consultant, Joe has helped launch new school campuses and signature programs, and he has facilitated groups to develop new school values and strategic initiatives. In addition to his work with Charles Wright, Joe collaborates with Leadership+Design on the UnMastered online unlearning experience, the L+D United membership program, as well as facilitated sessions on Futurist Thinking, Design Thinking, and Portrait of a Graduate. Outside of his work in schools, Joe enjoys trail running, gardening, and spending time with his wife and two daughters in the Pacific Northwest.

Dr. Lorna Torrado (she/ella) is a Futurist Leader in Residence for the 2024-2025 school year. She currently directs the DEIB (Div, Equ, Inc, and Bel) and SEL (Soc Emo Lear) programming at The Girls’ School of Austin, an independent K-8 school in Austin, Texas. Lorna is also national staff member for SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) a non-profit organization that trains practitioners to drive change through community storytelling and systemic analysis.

As an equity educator and futurist thinker, Lorna’s mission is to create spaces for personal sharing and storytelling, where learners of all ages are supported to think critically and engage more genuinely with themselves and the people around them. Grounded in a framework of equity and systemic analysis, Lorna guides individuals and groups to practice self awareness, social awareness, and responsible decision-making in order to imagine multiple futures. She crafts intentional spaces with empathy and joy so that brave conversations can flourish and turn into action.

Lorna holds a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature, with a particular focus on gender and race in popular music, from the University of Texas as well as an M.A. in Hispanic Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.A. in Hispanic Studies from the University of Puerto Rico. She lives in Austin Texas, where she spends most of her time reading, dancing, embroidering, and basking in the sun.

ryan@leadershipanddesign.org

Ryan is a Co-Founder and Partner at L+D. After 20 years working as a Teacher, Learning Specialist, Dean of Students, Principal/Division Head, in public and independent schools, Ryan joined L+D full-time as a senior partner. With a Master’s Degree in Applied Behavioral Science and experience in family and individual therapy and systems thinking, Ryan’s approach to working with school leaders and teams is unique and brings both a clinical lens as well as practical school leadership experience. Ryan is currently working with schools and organizational leaders as a coach as well as leading strategic planning, schedule re-design, evaluation and feedback systems, critical conversations and board training and other messy and ambiguous school challenges.

Ryan has presented at NAIS, the Association of Middle Level Education (AMLE), as well as delivered keynote presentations on the topics: Critical Conversations, Communication, Productive Conflict Resolution and the Intersection of Strategy and Execution in School Leadership Teams. Ryan lives in Carmel, IN with his wife and he has three children, two grown and one attending school and living at home.

shushu@leadershpanddesign.org

Shu Shu Costa (she/her) is a Partner at L+D. She has been a teacher, a mentor, a division director, an assistant head of school, an enrollment director, a strategist, and a board member. Shu Shu has also been a city newspaper beat reporter, the managing editor at a glossy magazine, and her two books have been published by Simon & Schuster and Putnam. What joins all those experiences together is her love of and fascination for people and organizations and their remarkable stories, both the ones we tell to ourselves and the ones we use to create journeys and relationships with others.

In addition to partnering with schools on strategic planning and presenting at conferences, Shu Shu facilitates a number of national leadership cohorts with a focus on reflective practice and the conversations between our inner selves and our professional lives. She is the former treasurer of the Friends Council on Education and is currently a board member at Brooklyn Friends School. A graduate of Cornell University, Shu Shu is a master’s student at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She is the proud mother of three young adult children and lives in New Jersey with her husband, a dog, and two grand-cats. 

tara@leadershipanddesign.org

Tara Curry-Jahn (she/her) is a Partner at L+D. She is an experienced human-centered design facilitator and coach, strategic partner, and experience designer. She holds a Master's degree in Public Administration (MPA) from the University of Colorado and a bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Vermont. She has been formally trained in design thinking at the Stanford's d.school (School Retool), The Design Gym, and the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME- creator of Action Collab).

Tara partners with schools, districts, and organizations to think creatively and systematically to become more user-centered and strategic in teacher and leadership development, resource allocation (time, money, people), and the student experience. She also serves on the board of the Jeffco Schools Foundation. Tara lives in Arvada, Colorado with her wife and two children.