New Certificate of Design Thinking for Social Change

Pacific School of Religion

Group-Based Medium Level Intentional Creation

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About This Course

Design Thinking for Social Change is a graduate-level learning path developed for PSR Collective, the continuing education platform of Pacific School of Religion. The course was originally taught at PSR as part of its graduate curriculum before being adapted into Kwaray's accessible online modality — making it available to working professionals without requiring enrollment in a degree program.

The video curriculum is led by Neil Goldberg, an Adjunct Professor at Pacific School of Religion. Neil is a designer, entrepreneur, educator, and author whose career began at furniture maker Herman Miller and continued at his Silicon Valley design agency, Praxis, where he led multidisciplinary teams to award-winning products. He is passionate about human-centered design applied with artisanal care to every kind of artifact — and about design as a framework for enlivened leadership.

The live cohort sessions are facilitated by Jonathon Murillo, who holds the community and formation space across all four sessions. Neil Goldberg may be invited to join the Content Breakout session as a guest contributor, offering learners direct access to the course creator alongside their peer community.

What makes this program distinct is its integration of three things rarely found together: the rigor of a human-centered design methodology, a theological and spiritual formation lens on creativity, and social change as the animating purpose of every design. Learners leave equipped not just to design better — but to design differently.

What You'll Learn

• The concept, origin, and theological underpinnings of design thinking — including what it means to see the world through a design lens
• Key principles of human-centered design and how to apply them to organizational, community, and social challenges
• The full design thinking framework — mindsets, steps, skills, and methods — for self-directed, real-world design work
• How to develop a personal self-reflective practice for ongoing growth as a creative leader
• Field perspectives from working design professionals and former DTSC students, expanding the design lens beyond the classroom
• How to design specifically toward social marginalization and inequity — using the framework as a tool for justice
• How to complete a guided Solo Practicum — a learner-directed design project carried from thought to finish
• The integration of spiritual formation and creative practice as inseparable dimensions of effective, human-centered design

Course Components

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📋 20 Lessons

📚 0 Resources

✍️ 0 Quizzes

📖 5 Assignments

How to Engage with this course

This learning path is structured as a semisynchronous cohort experience. Here is how it works: learners move through three video-based courses on their own schedule within the Kwaray platform — there is no fixed weekly schedule and no requirement to complete everything before moving to the next session. Alongside the async course content, each learner participates in four live, facilitated cohort sessions over a twelve-week arc, held via Zoom. These sessions are not additional lectures — they are structured spaces for community, peer application, coaching, and commissioning.

Cohort sessions are led by Jonathon Murillo, a strategist, facilitator, and formation leader with a Master of Divinity from Azusa Pacific Seminary. Jonathon is not the instructor of the video courses — each track has its own subject matter expert leading the curriculum. Jonathon's role is to hold the live session space: facilitating connection among learners, guiding peer application of the course content, and leading the formation coaching process. Subject matter experts from each track may be invited to join the Content Breakout session as guest contributors.

Learners in the cohort will be joined by peers from all three PSR Collective learning tracks — Wisdom-Based Leadership, Design Thinking for Social Change, and Contemplative Activism. While the video course content is track-specific, the four live sessions are shared across tracks. This creates an intentionally diverse learning community of spiritually rooted change leaders pursuing different but complementary work.

Between sessions, the Kwaray platform hosts cohort forums where prompts are posted after each live session. Learners are invited — not required — to engage these forums as a way of processing and staying connected between sessions.

Upon completing the assigned coursework and participating in the cohort arc, learners are automatically issued a PSR Collective Professional Certificate for their learning track. The certificate is awarded through the platform upon completion — no separate application required.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the Design Thinking for Social Change learning path, learners will be able to:

• Understand and articulate the concept, origin, and theological underpinnings of design thinking as a framework for leadership and social change
• Apply key human-centered design principles to real-world organizational and community challenges
• Navigate the full design thinking framework — including its mindsets, steps, skills, and methods — for independent, self-directed design work
• Develop and maintain a personal self-reflective practice for ongoing growth as a creative leader
• Apply the design lens specifically to questions of social marginalization, inequity, and justice
• Complete a Solo Practicum — a learner-directed design project developed and executed using the full design thinking process from thought to finish
• Access and integrate resources from the broader human-centered design field for continued learning beyond the program
• Articulate the relationship between spiritual formation, creative practice, and equitable design as a coherent framework for leadership

Your Instructor

Mo King

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