Kendall College of Art and Design
Located in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids, Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD) is committed to creating lasting impact in West Michigan and beyond through collaborative partnerships, cultural innovation, and an educational model that prepares students for leadership in design, the visual arts, and art history; provides innovative, collaborative education that fosters intellectual growth and individual creativity; and promotes the ethical and civic responsibilities of artists and designers, locally and globally.
Funded By: The Wege Foundation
The Wege Foundation’s mission is “Planting seeds that develop leaders in economicology, health, education, and arts, and enhance the lives of people in West Michigan and around the world.” Their four pillars of support, in rank order, are:
Equation for Impact
"What’s exciting is that the Wege Prize gives us a way to begin educating people about how to apply design thinking and collaborative design principles to solve any problem, on any scale, anywhere in the world." — Gayle DeBryun, Chair of the Collaborative Design program and Chief Sustainability Officer at Kendall College of Art and Design.
Is it possible to solve the unsolvable problem? The Wege Foundation believes it is, and they are putting their money on KCAD to help do it.
The difficulty of solving "wicked" problems - those socially complex issues for which any attempt to grapple with one aspect of the problem inadvertently reveals new layers, obstacles, and challenges - stems from the inadequacy of our existing methods of problem solving.
But what if we discovered that we already have the power to make issues like hunger, poverty and environmental degradation obsolete? What if every one of us possessed the capacity to learn how to solve any problem, no matter how wicked?
The key lies in the principles of design thinking and collaborative design that have long been integral component's of KCAD's educational model. The Wege Foundation believes that these principles are the future, and they've enlisted KCAD's expertise to help the community at large understand their importance and witness their implementation, allowing the world's brightest collegiate minds to lead the way.
Wege Prize is a competition that gives teams of college/university students from around the globe the opportunity to experience the power of design thinking and collaborative design firsthand, while simultaneously showing the world how use those principles to discover and develop its own talent for problem-solving.
KCAD + The Wege Foundation = Wege Prize
It's not a theory. It's an equation for impact.
Wege PRize organizing team
Meet the people working behind the scenes to create a successful program year after year.
Martha Stackhouse
Wege Prize Program Coordinator
Kendall College of Art and Design
Martha began working for Wege Prize in November of 2021 after moving to Grand Rapids from Philadelphia. Having worked various jobs in higher education, with a BFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and a master’s from Drexel University, Martha brings a strong background in student support and educational program coordination to the team. In her role, she works behind the scenes to build the global network for Wege Prize while organizing, planning, and promoting each phase of the program. She is inspired by the influential and interdisciplinary work that Wege Prize participants are doing and looks forward to continuing to grow the program and its impacts on the world of circular economy design and innovation.
Gayle DeBruyn
Professor and Sustainability Officer
Kendall College of Art and Design
Gayle is a Professor and Sustainability Officer for Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is Chair of the Collaborative and Master of Arts in Design Programs and advises the Furniture Design concentration in the Product Design Program. In addition to teaching, Gayle is on KCAD’s planning team for Wege Prize and Wege Prize High School Summer Collaborative Studio. Her classroom experience is shared with the broader community by providing professional development training for teachers and as a Co-Developer of XQ Super School, Grand Rapids Public Museum Middle and High School. She is past president of the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum, and she serves on the City of Grand Rapids leadership committees for both the Community Collaboration on Climate Change (C4) and United Nations University Regional Center of Expertise in Sustainable Development.
Kyle Austin
Content Coordinator
Kendall College of Art and Design
Kyle Austin is the Content Coordinator at Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University (KCAD),where he co-leads the Communications team in showcasing the talents and accomplishments of KCAD’s far-reaching creative community. As a founding member of the Wege Prize organizing team, Kyle has helped shape evolve the competition's mission, competitive framework, educational experience, and communication strategy while amplifying participants' success stories and the positive impact of their work. He believes in the power of whole systems thinking, collaborative design, and creative problem solving to transform our world for the better and is continually inspired by all those working to realize a circular economy.
Jill Armstrong
Wege Prize Project Manager/Consultant Emeritus
Armstrong Marketing LLC
Jill is a Grand Rapids native having travelled throughout the Midwest with corporate jobs throughout her career. After a 20-year career in residential and contract furnishings, Jill had the opportunity to consult in green marketing early on in its inception. From there her business blossomed into working with sustainability, environmental and social justice marketing and events.
Jill worked with Wege Prize for ten years as a consultant, facilitating global connections and partnerships while providing project management and event planning support for the Wege Prize competition. Jill was been a core asset in supporting Wege Prize’s growth from a local competition into a powerful global platform for creative problem-solving that's drawn incredible participants from institutions around the world.