Lindsay Tan is a best-selling author and award-winning strategist whose expertise has been featured in places like Forbes, Reuters, Faculty Focus, Homes & Gardens, CBC, and NBC. Her strategies, systems, and toolkits are used by high-performing teams around the world. Tens of thousands more have benefited from her books, workshops, programs, and seminars.
Lindsay Tan is widely recognized as a thought leader who breaks the mold at scale. She was named Most Innovative Educator by Top Hat and among her field’s Most Admired Educators by DesignIntelligence.
She is author of the #1 best-seller Project Management Playbook and the award-winning Brilliance Hacks for Work-Life Balance as well as two interactive digital textbooks.
Armed with a unique skillset, Tan has been able to bridge gaps and jump fences throughout her career, applying her design insight to interiors, exteriors, exhibits, visual merchandising, stage, TV and film, products, digital and print media, UX, virtual and augmented reality, apps, and games.
She is the founder and CEO of West Second Street LLC, a multispectrum design consulting studio focused on designs for learning.
Her ability to simplify complex ideas into engaging sound bites without compression loss has made her an adept collaborator and in-demand expert source for journalists. You can find her featured in places like CBC, NBC, Forbes, Reuters, Homes & Gardens, and Faculty Focus.
She has written numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, trade publications, and popular press and is a named and unnamed contributor, expert reviewer, editor, and ghostwriter on a variety of writing projects.
Tan worked in higher education for over two decades, spanning three top-ranked programs. During her time in the classroom, she developed almost 100 unique courses and maintained a five-star average across 19,000 student reviews.
Her contributions to teaching and research earned her rank and tenure as the W. Allen and Martha Reimer Reed Professor at Auburn University, an R1 land-, sea-, and space-grant institution with Carnegie Community Engagement classification, where her leadership roles included Program Coordinator for the nationally-ranked interior design program and Director over two research labs.
She was a founding member of the Tallahassee School of Design and pioneered the fields of design ecology and environmental symbology.
honors
Most Innovative Educator
W. Allen and Martha Reimer Reed Professor
Community Engaged Faculty
NCIDQ Ambassador
SGA Outstanding Faculty Member
Mary Jo Weale Award for Excellence
Best Space Planning - Hospitality Design
Favourite face of design
Auburn Author Awards
Outstanding Incorporation of Diversity & Inclusion
Academy of Reviewers
Most Visually Engaging Poster
Mary Jo Weale Award for Excellence
Best Elevator Interior - Hospitality Design
Most Admired Educator
Advisory Board
At-Large Board
Star Award - Innovative Marketing Campaign
Merit Award
CAD Lab Goddess
education & training
PhD Forestry
Building Resilience
Prescribed burn Manager
LEED-GCP Green Classroom Professional
EDAC certified
Responsible Conduct of Research
Philosophy Minor
First aid
MFA Interior Design
NCIDQ certified
Selling with Empathy
BS Interior Design