Cool Dad Job: Creative Director, Stanford d.school

Cool Dad Vibe: Collaborative

Cool Dad Bona Fides: Doorley calls himself a “work in progress,” a suggestion that his 11 years at the helm of the d.school at Stanford is just the beginning of a truly epic life’s work. Doorley is a designer and a design thinker. He lives and breathes the stuff, and his motto “make ideas tangible” suggests a motivation for the work that he does. At the d.school, he’s not just a teacher and administrator, but also the designer of the different physical spaces that make up the school. His book, Make Space, is all about how to design spaces for creative collaboration, so it makes sense that he would apply that knowledge to his day job as well. He plays very well with others, including his kids.