Dr. Ruth Richards is one of the leading researchers on creativity in daily life. Many years ago, before she went on to earn an M.D. from Harvard and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, she was studying to become a high school teacher.  While taking a required psychology class, a discussion about diagnostics tests led to a light bulb and life changing moment: she realized that it was possible to come up with profoundly creative ways to answer even standardized questions! That creativity, even in such a mundane situation, was real and could be studied.  Today, Dr. Richards teaches at Saybrook University's Creative Studies Program and has written a book on Everyday Creativity that has achieved both scholarly and popular acclaim.

We will also be joined by Professor Seana Moran, who has an MBA, M.Ed. in Mind, Brain and Behavior from Harvard, and postdoctoral training at Stanford.  Her research interests take a developmental perspective on how individuals make contributions to situations, institutions and communities and how they recognize themselves as contributors. Each of us is part of the “environment” for others’ development: psychology includes not just how environmental stimuli affect an individual’s psychology, but also how an individual’s psychology stimulates other individuals’ -- as well as more collective forms of institutions' -- psychology.  Among her research interests are to explore how an individual and culture's noting of "good" affect whether and how creativity is manifested, and how do creative contributions, in turn, sometimes lead to moral turbulence.

Join us a stimulating conversation around the nuances of creativity, and how it can help us transform the mundane into a service learning opportunity for a richer experience of life.