At SCEU educators have the community and tools to teach for complexity, not just within it.
Join our global movement to help educators, change makers, and systems understanding enthusiasts connect, experiment, and evolve systems and complexity learning — together.
As educators, changemakers, and systems thinkers, we already feel the pressure.
We’re teaching and leading amid rapid systems change fueled by areas with chronic underfunding, the rise of AI, mental health crises, cancel culture, environmental stress, violence of many forms, and polarization impacting global populations.
Yet many of the systems we work within still behave as if problems are simple and linear — as if the same thinking that created these challenges can somehow solve them. As if fighting harder will fix everything.
Yet, we know, fighting harder only creates more fight. We need to shift gears.
The linear approach to change isn’t serving us. It isn’t serving those we educate for and with. And it isn’t serving our collective futures.
What if you found a place purpose-built for you?
Imagine connecting with educators and changemakers around the world who get it — who understand the weight you're carrying and the complexity you're navigating.
Imagine learning from peers who are also doing this work — sharing what’s working in different contexts and accessing tools, frameworks, and stories made for these times.
We don’t need another professional development requirement or another item on our to-do lists. What we need is community — a movement. A place where educators and innovators can grow together as the agents of change these times demand.
We're building a global community for educators and systems change practitioners who are ready to move beyond linear thinking and influence change in their education offerings and beyond, together.
Introducing
Systems. Change. Educators. Unite.
This community understands that the crises we're facing aren't simple problems to solve — they're symptoms of deeper system dynamics. We are uniting educators and change practitioners who want to learn how to contribute to shifting systems in their classrooms, boardrooms, and far beyond and who are committed to providing the tools and practices to help their teams and students do the same.
The future of humanity, this planet, and of education requires systems-aware, complexity-informed, self-aware, and impact-focused leaders who, in turn, support the development of those mindsets and skill-sets among their teams, students, and clients.
By connecting and learning together we can not only fuel our own personal growth and capacities, but also our individual and collective capacity to accelerate systems change contributions in a world in need of ethical and impact-focused leaders.
What’s On Offer
A community learning about and in complex systems, together.
Access to a learning community for educators and change leaders from around the world with workshops, networking, and resource sharing opportunities both online and in-person.
A platform to share what we need, want, and can offer in these complex times.
A home to share global systems change education efforts and a place for them to connect, cross-promote, co-learn, and co-create.
What You’ll Get
A learning community that fits your life.
There are different types of calls:
3-5 Presentations Each Month
Learn directly from the people who wrote the papers or made the models, from educators bringing systems thinking into their classrooms, from those working on systems change in their organizations and communities, and more!
Book Club Calls:
A quarterly Book Club where SCEU members and the wider network can read a systems or complexity related book together and debrief it with someone who wrote the book or is deeply connected to the work.
Office Hours:
Calls hosted by experts in different systems and complexity related arenas available to brainstorm, think through, or share ideas about whatever
Drop-In Peer Mastermind Sessions:
Bring what's going on for you. No prep required. Just show up, share your challenges, and think through them in small groups with peers who get it.
Map the System Educators Calls:
For those educators who are part of Oxford’s Map the System program: a monthly peer-to-peer learning platform designed to support and enhance the MTS experience.
Recorded - so you can watch those you miss later!
Meet the Team
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Daniela Papi-Thornton
CATALYST
Daniela Papi-Thornton founded a “Social Impact Educators” group in 2013 that grew to include educators from around the globe and SCEU is the next iteration of that work. She teaches and consults on systems-led leadership and is on the teaching team for many global education programs. Daniela founded Map the System when she was the Deputy Director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford’s Saïd Business School. Her work including Tackling Heropreneurship, the Impact Gaps Canvas, and Theory of Systems Change/Theory of Contribution are used by social change practitioners and educators globally. She often shares her thinking on her Substack and through the SCEU newsletter. -
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Carolyn Niehaus
OPERATIONS DIRECTOR
Carolyn Niehaus is a systems thinker and educator who uses those tools to support the operational and organizational work of moving missions forward. She works as an instructor and project manager at Portland State University and a project manager with Oregon Health & Sciences University. She also works in the leadership development and executive coaching space, supporting the use of research-backed tools that help expand our scope of awareness. -
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Cassie Bingham
BOARD CHAIR
Cassie Bingham is a systems and design educator and impact strategist who holds degrees in Sociocultural Anthropology with an International Development emphasis, and Sociology. Her experience includes roles in nonprofit development for immigrant and refugee communities, leadership of disaster relief operations at Moria Refugee Camp in Greece, and social entrepreneurship with East African artisans and small business owners. As Director of the UVU Center for Social Impact, she has developed integrated strategies grounded in systems thinking and social change design. She mentors the Center's annual cohort of student Impact Fellows and UVU's Oxford Map the System research teams. She created the UVU Design for Impact pitch competition and regularly serves as an Alumni-in-Residence for Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design Teaching and Learning Studio. Cassie also serves as adjunct faculty, designing and teaching courses on Social Impact Strategy, Systems and Design Thinking for Macro Social Work, and Philosophies of Justice. Beyond academia, she is a relational strategy systems and impact consultant. -
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Susan Sanning
BOARD SECRETARY
Susan Sanning is the Associate Dean and Executive Director of Civic Education and Innovation at Grinnell College, where she leads complexity-informed civic learning initiatives that integrate systems thinking, dialogue, community engagement, and interdisciplinary collaboration across curricular, co-curricular, and residential contexts. Her approach to civic education is shaped by an interdisciplinary academic background that includes a B.B.A. from Baylor University, an M.Div. and Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and doctoral study in women’s studies and world religions at Drew University.Committed to fostering both individual and collective civic agency, Susan has developed a dynamic ecosystem-based model of civic education that invites students to explore the intersections of identity, values, academic inquiry, and public life while building the insight and capacity needed to contribute meaningfully to collaborative, multi-sector systems change efforts. The initiatives she and her team develop are grounded in intentional inclusivity, reflective dialogue, and a commitment to sustainable, systems-oriented transformation and collective flourishing.
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Daniel Hires
BOARD MEMBER
Daniel Hires is an ecosystem builder, convener, and systems change practitioner at the intersection of leadership, inner development, and societal transformation. Over the past 20 years he has worked across business, government, and civil society - building global communities, advising impact-driven organizations, and supporting leaders navigating complexity, change, and transition.
As CMO of the Inner Development Goals (IDG) Foundation, he helped build one of the world's fastest-growing ecosystems around inner development and leadership transformation. A social entrepreneur at heart, Daniel co-founded MakeSense Germany, a global social innovation community, shaped climate innovation initiatives at the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), and helped develop green entrepreneurship programs across the MENA region through UN Environment's SwitchMed program. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the BMW Foundation Responsible Leaders Network, and is based in Barcelona.
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Rowan Spazzoli
BOARD MEMBER
Rowan Spazzoli is a systems change educator, social entrepreneur, and adjunct lecturer at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He first entered the field of systems thinking as a Map the System participant in 2017, before going on to lead the Map the System programme at the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at UCT for seven years. In that role, he supported and mentored student teams applying systems thinking to complex social and environmental challenges in South Africa, including the first African team to win the global Map the System competition at Oxford in 2022.
Rowan is the co-founder of The Sparks Impact Fellowship, a pan-African social enterprise building pathways for purpose-driven graduates into impact careers through work placements and training in systems thinking, impact measurement, finance, and storytelling. He also co-founded Phaphama SEDI, which has impacted more than 600 students and 150 township based entrepreneurs over the past decade. Alongside this work, Rowan serves as Community Lead at Yunus Social Innovation, where he supports a global network of social entrepreneurs in WASH and health, and has guest lectured across various social impact, entrepreneurship, and systems change programmes.
One thing we know for certain about systems change…
…it is never something that happens simply by one person acting alone - it takes many varied contributions. Another thing we know: systems change is happening, even if we take a nap. So if you want to contribute to shaping the systems you care about - the education system, the economic systems, or far beyond - then you need to know how to contribute. And you need the community and inspiration to find our own unique you-shaped hole in the world where you can contribute your gifts into the collective change that is possible, together.
You might find that community here if:
You work in “systems”
If your skills, experience, or passion are related to systems understanding, systems thinking, or systems change, we’d love to have you here.
You work in “change”
If you work in “change” - i.e. innovation, social change, entrepreneurship, internal systems change work, or anything change/innovation related, join us!
And/or you are an “educator”
If you educate, from classrooms and boardrooms, to coaching and facilitation, there is room for you. Learn directly from educators bringing systems thinking into their work, organizations, and communities.
