SHORT AND SWEETAnnie Valdes is a Life and Death Design Coach. She brings a human centered design approach to her coaching, specializing in helping individuals gain new perspectives and take action towards building meaningful lives, no matter how much or how little life they have ahead. She has a unique ability to hold space for difficult topics while bringing a lightness that energizes the exploration. Annie draws on twenty years working in human-centered design as a design researcher, strategist, educator, and project and program lead, including a decade at IDEO, an award-winning global design consultancy. She is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and an INELDA-trained End-of-Life Doula.THE EXTENDED CUTAnnie Valdes is a Life and Death Design Coach. She brings a human centered design approach to her coaching, specializing in helping individuals gain new perspectives and take action towards building meaningful lives, no matter how much or how little life they have ahead. She is especially skilled at companioning people through difficult moments and challenging circumstances with lightness and ease.Annie draws on over twenty years working in human-centered design as a design researcher, strategist, educator, and project and program lead, including a decade at IDEO, an award-winning global design consultancy, where she led work across the organization's domains of health, wellness, and aging. Through Design Tugboat, she has worked with organizations on design challenges like women’s sexual health, tailored health and fitness coaching, digital delivery of mental health support, and design for aging and other life transitions. Some of her clients include health systems, foundations, nonprofits, and tech startups. She taught a consistently popular course in the Stanford Continuing Studies program at Stanford University called Design Execution: Bringing Ideas to Life. She will be teaching a new course in the Stanford Continuing Studies program in Summer of 2024 called Design Your Departure: A Creative Approach to End-of-Life Planning.Annie is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) and an INELDA-trained End-of-Life Doula. She holds a BA in Anthropology from Emory University and an MBA from Georgia State University. She is a surfski kayaker, runner, and retired Balboa and Lindy Hop swing dancer.