Our Faculty & Leadership

The Ithaca College Design Thinking Program faculty includes noted authors and C-Level executives in the Design Thinking space. Since these thought leaders work in the industry, you'll receive first-hand skills and practical knowledge. You’ll learn new strategies and innovative methodologies to measure, evaluate, and improve the customer experience throughout your organization.

To learn more about the Ithaca College Design Thinking Program, and how it helps companies and executives drive customer engagement, loyalty, and retention, schedule a call with one of our career counselors.

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​JC Quintana​
Design Thinking Program Chair / Instructor

​A globally respected business relationship advocate and author. JC has led design thinking and innovation workshops for the past 20 years in support of strategic and software product development efforts. He has facilitated hundreds of design thinking workshops in support of business relationship improvement, strategic alignment, ideation, prototyping and product implementation endeavors for companies in the US, Latin America, Asia, and Europe. He currently lectures on business relationship psychology and customer experience at various universities and is a managing partner for DXC ENVISION, a globally-recognized Design Thinking practice and collaboration thinktank. He holds undergraduate degrees in Human Resource Management and Theology, a graduate degree in Industrial & Organizational Psychology, and is an Organizational Psychology PhD candidate.

Carol Buehrens

​Carol Buehrens is the author of the best-selling customer experience book Happy RAVING Customers! Carol is a leading customer experience expert and speaker, and has been constructing extraordinary customer experiences for over 30 years for major companies such as Liberty Mutual, Northrop, McDonnell-Douglas, Bechtel, GE, Mercury Marine, and ICW Group Insurance Companies. She has successfully leveraged Design Thinking tools and methodologies to improve user and customer experience for over three decades.

Carol’s passion for improving customer experience has resulted in numerous awards, including the prestigious “CX Innovation Award” from the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), ICW Group CEO Award, the Liberty Mutual Star Award, and is listed in the World's Top 30 Customer Service Professionals.

A Founding Member and Expert Panel Member of the international Customer Experience Professional Association (CXPA), Carol is also an active member of the San Diego Customer Experience Special Interest Group (CX SIG), and Professor at California State University Fullerton and University of California San Diego

Lisa Perrine, Ed.D.

CEO of Cibola Systems
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As an experience designer and communication strategist, Liza professional career spans over 30 years and includes more than 1,000 consulting engagements. Her firm designs and builds places that inspire people to collaborate productively, learn quickly, and make sound decisions. Unique in their commitment to co-creation, they use Design Thinking methods to engage end-users in crafting compelling experiences. Their diverse client list includes the Annenberg Foundation, Microsoft, Pacific Life and Sony Music.

After earning an undergraduate design degree, she began her career building prototypes for a small product design studio. In 1991 she became the CEO of Cibola Systems, and completed her MBA studies at Pepperdine University shortly thereafter. More recently Liza earned a doctorate degree in Organizational Leadership at Pepperdine where her research focused on multidisciplinary teams. 

Coaching Design Thinking workshops and courses is a special joy for Liza. Many of these assist nonprofit and civic organizations with specific design challenges. Her courses have been approved for certification renewal units by several trade organizations, including the American Institute of Architects, International Interior Design Association, and AVIXA.

Cibola’s team is committed to supporting the underserved and vulnerable. Liza has served on the governing boards of the Orange County United Way, the Girl Scouts of Orange County, St. Joseph Hoag Health and Mission Hospital. Her colleagues and she also volunteer our professional services for many Southern California charities.

Michael Truett​

Michael is known for creating, improving and executing Collaborative Design Thinking sessions and Customer Experience frameworks across diverse industries (Media, Streaming Services, Ed Tech, Health & Wellness, SaaS, PaaS) at different stages of growth - early-stage start-ups, seasoned companies looking to transform, high growth and declining businesses.

His experience ranges from Professor, Board Member, Keynote Speaker to leading Global Business Transformation (B2B, B2C, B2B2C), Business Development/Launch Strategy, Customer Experience, Customer Success, Customer Engagement, Customer Retention, Customer Service, Lifecycle Management and AI Transformation at companies like Spotify, The New York Times, Dow Jones, Tech start-ups and Telecom providers globally.

Michael’s passion for DT & CX is based upon his adventurous lifestyle where he is always seeing a new experience.  He has a love for traveling, experiencing new cultures, surfing, golfing, running ultra marathons, participating in triathlons, and spending time with his friends and family.