Director of Innovation
Patrick Benfield
Patrick's approach to innovation is the result of his experiences at the intersection of art, technology, entrepreneurship, and education.
He has shared his expertise internationally at conferences and institutions, including Stanford, MIT, SXSW, and the IB Global Conference.
Patrick began his journey following an introduction to the iconic sounds of the Hammond B3 by his friend and mentor, keyboardist Ian McLagan while living in Southern California. In Austin, Patrick founded McLemore Avenue while also performing as a studio musician for a variety of labels and artists including Mojo Nixon and celebrated artist/musician Tim Kerr.
It was during this period that his adventures in technology began, starting with his stint at Applied Materials on the Endura line where he learned the fundamentals of project management (kanban), electronics, manufacturing, and the unpredictable nature that's the life of a tech worker. Looking for more stability, Patrick shifted to education, where he integrated design, coding, and hand-on learning with gifted students in Round Rock ISD. This ultimately led to his involvement in the Maker Movement in 2014, starting with his participation in the inaugural Thinkery EdExchange fellowship program.
Since then Patrick has been on the leading edge of the international effort to develop best practices to support maker education in schools. His first iteration of this was at St. Gabriel's Catholic School, where he was the founding director of its makerspace and PreK - 8th grade STEAM initiative which he presented to the 2015 FabLearn Conference at Stanford. That same year, he was selected to be part of the founding team of UTeach Maker, which has since become a national program that prepares the next generation of innovative educators.
In 2017, Patrick created his second school innovation initiative, beginning with the i.lab for Design + Making at The Magellan International School, where he refined and expanded on his earlier efforts.
It was through these experiences that Patrick became acutely aware that, despite efforts to democratize access to these powerful ideas and tools, there were systemic forces at play that prevented full participation, especially in underrepresented communities. This led to creation of Co.Lab Community Makers, a free, non-profit creative studio and fabrication lab, co-founded by Patrick, in 2018.
In 2023, Magellan moved to its Forever Home, where Patrick has created an updated i.lab for Design + Making for the primary school, and the bauhaus design lab, the new innovation space for the middle school. Patrick's writing on making and innovation have been published in several peer reviewed science education journals and in Meaningful Making.