Transform Your Life - Original

We have mentored and shaped some of the top creativity educators in the world. Become one! 

Lead educational change, teach others creativity, and bring more creativity to your teaching practice (from early childhood through university-level education).

Our combination of required and elective courses makes our master's degree ideal for educators who seek permanent and professional licensure through a degree that offers a unique and valuable set of knowledge and skills.*

*Teacher certification requirements vary; consult with SUNY Buffalo State’s Teacher Certification Office or the New York State Education Department for specific issues regarding licensure in New York state.

Learn to infuse applied imagination into your career and become better at what you're doing—then train others in your organization and beyond to do the same. 

Today, innovation is not an option—it is a survival practice for organizations around the world.

Creativity is the fuel of innovation, and creative problem-solving and change leadership are its backbone.

If you see yourself as a future creativity scholar, join us here where it all began.

With great pride, we think of ourselves as creativity studies geeks.

All our faculty members—and many of our students and alumni—have published scholarly articles on applied creativity in leading academic journals. For us, creativity is fundamentally a marriage between being and doing, theory and action. Our students and alumni bring the unique perspective of applied, real-world creativity to academic research, and turn scientific findings into life and business solutions.

Creativity and creative thinking skills will give your career a boost and provide you with a mark of distinction.

Applied creativity and creative problem-solving nurture skills that will make your work and contributions to your field more significant, no matter your expertise, field of study, or profession.

Our diverse student population and alumni—which includes everyone from priests to school teachers and accountants to motivational speakers—understand how creativity can build skills and drive new problem-solving approaches.

Our program will prepare you eager to start your own enterprise or take your current entrepreneurial journey to the next level. 

Many of our students and alumni are either entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs. Studying applied creativity will nurture skills like autonomy, agency, and free-thinking.

The theories, tools, techniques, and practical experience you will gain will elevate your entrepreneurial skills and make you a more effective creative leader.

If you already have an M.B.A. or are currently enrolled in an M.B.A. program, upgrade your skills with a certificate or degree in creativity and change leadership. 

Creative thinking has become the most in-demand skill of our time.

Today, in our ever more complex and ever-changing world, major corporations recognize the need for creativity.

We pride ourselves on nurturing global citizens primed with coping skills that enable them to more effectively respond to change and life's complexities.

Our alumni surveys show that one of our program's most important takeaways is the impact it has on their personal lives. It is the main reason our graduate courses, as well as our undergraduate minor, have become so popular.

Program graduates have applied creativity principles and problem-solving in their parenting, personal relationships, and daily routines.

Change is the only constant in today’s volatile business and social environment. Critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity are skills in high demand throughout the public and private sectors.

While leaders and CEOs agree on the need for more creative thinkers and the value of applied creativity in leadership and in the workforce, the Society for Human Resource Management has reported that creativity is one of the top skills missing among new hires. 

We teach creative thinking and problem-solving skills every day and in every one of our classes.

Our programs are designed to blend theory and research with hands-on, real-world applications to help students understand how imaginative thinking and innovative ideas can transform organizations and drive new solutions. We like to believe—and our alumni family keeps reminding us—that we foster change agents and leaders. Learn how you can drive innovation and push the envelope in your organization by investing in your workforce and the study of creativity.

Change is hard. Change is usually forced upon us by external pressures and happens in abundance in our fast-paced environment.

As a change leader, you can lead transformative processes and be a positive force.

Humans have a bias toward conformity and predictability—we prefer the comfort zone. The practice of creative thinking and problem-solving skills can sharpen our capacity to predict future outcomes while helping us to prepare for and even drive positive change. We name this practice “change leadership.”

More and more entities, including for-profit, not-for-profit, educational, and governmental businesses, are seeking individuals with creative thinking and problem-solving skills to be leaders within their organizations.

These “soft skills” are among the most in-demand skills in the workforce today. In a world increasingly driven by automation, it is precisely skills like imagination, cognitive flexibility, leadership, and emotional intelligence that make individuals future-proof.

The United Nations specifically ties creativity, creative problem-solving, and innovation to its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Creative thinking in today’s complex world is critical to driving social impact and developing new and innovative approaches to sustainability. 

Our founding faculty—Drs. Alex F. Osborn, Sidney J. Parnes, and Ruth Noller—were pioneers and proponents of social responsibility.

Moreover, SUNY Buffalo State's campus community is proudly focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, with a majority of our undergraduate students coming from underrepresented minorities. In our program, students have many chances to do volunteer work, practice civic engagement, and serve our communities.