Spotlight on CEE Presenter: Dr. Roger Firestien

Interview with Dr. Roger Firestien

Dr. Roger Firestien, one of the CEE (Creativity Expert Exchange) conference presenters, is a Senior Faculty member at the International Center for Studies in Creativity at SUNY Buffalo State. With more than 40 years of experience in the field of creativity, he has presented programs to over 600 organizations nationally and internationally ranging from major fortune 500 corporations, government agencies, universities, associations and churches. Additionally, Dr. Firestien is the author and co-author of five books. His expert views on creativity have been reported in “Fast Company” and “The New York Times”.

In his CEE talk, Roger will reflect on his forty years of experience teaching, facilitating and researching Creative Problem Solving (CPS).

“As I was researching this talk, I discovered a diagram that shows the overlap of CPS and Synectics that I created in 1981. I am pretty sure that this is the nexus point that created the Creative Problem Solving process that is taught at the International Center for Studies in Creativity and practiced world-wide today,” Roger stated.

“The beautiful thing about the Creative Problem Solving process is that is continuously evolving. The model that I learned when I received my Master’s degree in Creative Studies in 1979 is different than the one we teach today.” Roger noted that although the basic building blocks of the CPS process are the same as they were 40 years ago, there have been many refinements of the process over the years.

As a Creativity professional, it is important to keep abreast of the latest creativity research and practice. The Creativity Expert Exchange, October 13-15, is a fantastic opportunity to network with colleagues and alumni of the International Center for Studies in Creativity.

As Dr. Firestien stated, “I fell in love with creativity in 1977 and have never stopped loving it.”

Interview conducted by Pingjing Wang

Pingjing is a graduate student at SUNY Buffalo State pursuing a Master of Science degree in Creative Studies (creative thinking, creative problem solving and change leadership) at the International Center for Studies in Creativity.

Pingjing has over 14 years working experience in Human Resources area, specializing in talent development. She has been an Asia Talent Development Manager in an international automotive company for nearly 4 years and she has been a training and development manager at Robert Bosch GmbH for 6 years.

Pingjing has a B.S. in International Economics from JiangNan University in China. She is also a certified trainer by DDI.