SPEAKER BIO
Jim Brazell is a public speaker and consultant focused on innovation. For the past decade he has been a featured speaker at national education, workforce, and economic development conferences. Past audiences include the National School Boards Association, League for Innovation in the Community College, National Association of Workforce Development Professionals, the Gallop Organization, and the Chautauqua Institution--among many others.
For the past decade, Jim's work for the Innovation, Creativity, and Capital Institute, UT Austin includes study and formation of regional high technology initiatives. At the think tank's Digital Media Collaboratory Jim was responsible for project management and new education strategies in defense, workforce, and education using video games and robotics. In service to the Texas State Technical College System, Program for Emerging Technologies, Jim and other IC2 Institute analysts led the way for Arts- and STEM-based workforce education programs across the nation's 2 year colleges.
Jim is a member of the STEM Committee for the Society for Design and Process Science. SDPS’ goal is to be a catalyst for change, enabling the discovery of new approaches that lead to alternative solutions for the increasingly complex problems that face civilization. In 2012, he was recognized by the Society for his contributions to STEM as a voice for transdisciplinary theory and practice. In 2011, Jim was recognized as a STEM Champion for advocacy of STEM+ARTS by Time Warner in Austin, TX.
Jim is a 1994 George Gilder Fellow in High Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Public Policy. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Sociology from Bradley University. He resides in San Antonio, Texas. His loves are his wife, Lisa Cervantes, and daughter, Ava Brazell.