Daiga is recognized as one of the most highly regarded female creatives in the communications and design industry. She was named an Advertising Age Woman to Watch, an OMMA Creative All-Star, and one of Business Insider’s Most Creative Women in Advertising. Her work has won awards at shows including Cannes, Communication Arts, W3 Awards, Webby Awards, and the OMMA Awards to name a few.
Her creative entrepreneur career started in 1998 when in Southern California she co-founded Digitaria, the agency that years later joined WPP network and J. Walter Thompson Company to form its digital counterpart Mirum – a global agency with over 40 offices in 24 countries.
Daiga Atvara was the Chief Design Officer at Mirum. She led the agency’s Creative, Design and UX teams to shape the way brands communicate and how businesses run. She has touched almost every account and worked on brands including Rolex, Unilever, Mazda, Royal Caribbean, PBS, Kellogg, Qualcomm, Epson to name some.
Prior to launching Digitaria, she worked as a creative director in the U.S. and abroad helping develop traditional and digital marketing campaigns.
Throughout her career, Daiga’s vision has always been to make design thinking and process to be the central point of brand and business challenges. Under her leadership, disciplines of creative and design brought together the worlds of ideas and technology to create things and experiences that people would find useful, brands meaningful and businesses profitable.
Daiga teaches visual and brand design at NewSchool of Architecture & Design in San Diego and at Latvian Art Academy in Riga.
Kameron Beeks has spent over a decade working with Glumac, after graduating from Oregon State University Honors College with an Honors Bachelor of Sciences in Mechanical Engineering. Kameron leads Glumac’s Higher Education group as a Vice President, a licensed Mechanical Engineer, a LEED Accredited Professional, a WELL Accredited Professional and a Living Building Challenge Ambassador.
Kameron has designed unique sustainable systems such as vacuum plumbing technologies, active chilled beams, radiant systems, measurement and verification reporting strategies, dashboarding, and also writes the software for several of Glumac’s internal design calculation programs.
Born and raised in Switzerland. The experience of working and studying architecture through a practical internship program in Switzerland, and the exposure to the production of architecture, has provided Mr. Bosshart with an opportunity to venture into the roam of Interior Design and Furniture Design at San Diego State University in southern California. While firmly settled in California he continued to expand his experience as a designer beyond the local traditions and environment. Continued collaborations with Los Angeles and Zurich based design firms, Mr. Bosshart has also studied under Ted Smiths Real Estate and Development program in order to pursue potentials in the entrepreneurial approach to architecture.
Gary Brahm gained the honorary title of chancellor emeritus after having served as chancellor of Brandman University, now UMass Global, since 2007. As chancellor, he oversaw the overall operations of the institution, including an annual budget of $100+ million. In 2009, the university transformed from Chapman University College to Brandman University, a separately accredited institution. In 2021, Brandman left the Chapman University System to affiliate the University of Massachusetts and change its name to UMass Global. UMass Global is a WASC accredited, non-profit, institution that focuses on meeting the educational needs of working adult students nationally.
Stanley Buchesky is the Chairman and CEO of pi-top, a global education technology company that brings computer science education to students around the world using project based learning. He is also the founder and Managing Partner of the EdTech Fund, investing in seed stage education technology companies in K-12 and Higher Education.
In January 2017, Mr. Buchesky was appointed to serve as interim CFO of the U.S. Department of Education. He ran and oversaw all of the Department’s finances and operations during the initial days of the Administration until the Secretary could be confirmed by the Senate and other senior political appointees could be hired.
He has a passion for education. Stanley first became involved in education while leading mergers and acquisitions for McGraw-Hill and then as one of the founding board members of Equality Charter School in the Bronx. Starting with an idea in the heads of three educators, he led the school through start-up phase, established oversight committees, and eventually helped expand Equality from a single middle school to a high school as well, graduating its first senior class in 2018.
Stanley has led M&A departments and activities for large companies such as McGraw-Hill, L-3 Communications and Pitney Bowes, leading deals ranging from minority equity investments and joint ventures to multi-billion dollar transformational acquisitions. He has a depth of knowledge in private and public company tax and accounting issues and is a skilled negotiator. He has has also advised candidates for Governor in two different states on education policy.
Prior to a career in business, Stanley was an Airborne Ranger Army officer serving in peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia. He is a West Point graduate with a BS in computer science engineering and a double major in German and French, and he holds an MBA in finance from Columbia Business School.
Recently retired, ShaSha Chang was the Chief Executive Officer of Wolters Kluwer China since 2009. While there, she oversaw the business activities in China including legal, tax, accounting, and healthcare information. She previously worked with McGraw-Hill Companies in several management functions, among them Vice President, General Manager of McGraw-Hill China, and Country Manager of Standard & Poor’s China operation. She gained broad experience in several positions in the legal, financial, and property development areas with several companies in the United States, such as Skadden Arps, the First National Bank of Chicago, and Tishman Speyer. Ms. Chang holds a Master of Arts degree from New York State University and a bachelor’s degree from Guangdong Foreign Languages University and was an exchange student at Colgate University.
The grandson of a well-known author, musician, professor, and artist, Chris Clark grew up with art all around him. The fondest memories of his childhood include the sweet smell of oil paints from his grandfather’s art studio and the sounds of Spain coming from his flamenco guitar. These impressions left an indelible mark.
Recognizing a similar calling, Chris became enamored with the advertising arts while attending college at Point Loma Nazarene University. It was through being a professional skateboarder and recording artist that he discovered he also had a strong passion for writing and design. Following his heart, he relentlessly pursued a career that reflected his passions. That pursuit led him to a career as a hybrid advertising creative and professor. He loves every minute of it.
Chris has almost 20 years experience as an award-winning hybrid advertising creative, producing work for such brands as Intel, Qualcomm, Shure Audio, Red Envelope, Total Gym, and The Corky McMillin Companies, to name a few. Active in the industry, he currently works as a designer, copywriter, and commercial music composer.
Chris has 12 years experience as an award-winning creative advertising and design professor, having previously taught at The Art Institute of California – San Diego, Point Loma Nazarene University, UCSD, and the Academy of Art University, before joining NewSchool as their lead creative advertising and media design professor. In the almost 3 years he’s been leading NewSchool’s media design program, the program has had many successes including multiple wins at the American Advertising Awards.
Providing instruction from a real-world perspective, Chris passionately seeks to create the strongest of creative practitioners, ones that have both the design-mindedness to conceive strong conceptual solutions and the production skills to bring them to life.
Chris has an MFA degree in advertising from the Academy of Art University. He and his family live in San Diego, near the NewSchool campus. Still skateboarding and playing music, you might see him doing both around town after class.
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