Join your colleagues and friends as they learn to implement creative strategies in all aspects of their jobs. Watt Family Innovation Center and University Relations will host the next popular CoCreate event 10 a.m. Oct. 26 at the Watt Family Innovation Center auditorium.
It’s free, but register here so that we can roll out the red carpet for you >>> tig.rs/creativity
What you’ll learn
We take it everywhere with us. It never looks the same. We have it with us at work and in everyday life. It’s a living for some and an escape for others. At this panel, five Clemson Alumni will discuss their creative processes and how they’ve been inspired to take risks, try something new, or simply hone in on their craft.
Ben Burris | Ben is an improv performer and instructor with Alchemy Comedy Theater (Greenville, SC). His comedy career started in 2007 with Mock Turtle Soup (Clemson, SC) and has since introduced him to performers, teachers, and students of improv from northern Alaska, London, and around the world.
Emily B. Martin | Park ranger by summer, author/illustrator the rest of the year, Emily received her BS and MS in Parks and Protected Area Management from Clemson. An avid hiker and explorer, her experiences as a ranger help inform her characters and stories. When not patrolling places like Yellowstone and the Great Smoky Mountains, she lives in Pendleton with her husband, Will, and two daughters, Lucy and Amelia.
J. Drew Lanham, Ph.D. (Clemson ’88, ’90, ’97) | Drew is an Alumni Distinguished Professor and Alumni Master Teacher in the Clemson University Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation. A native of Edgefield and Aiken, South Carolina, he is the author of numerous published essays in anthologies and the award winning memoir “The Home Place – Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature” (Milkweed Editions 2016) and a chapbook of poetry “Sparrow Envy” (Holocene Press 2016). Dr. Lanham is a wildlife ecologist and conservation ornithologist who’s current work centers on land ethic and cultural connections in conservation. Drew espouses that art, science and literature can form an effective trinity for conservation–head to hand to heart.
Chris Bandy | Chris graduated from Clemson in 1992 and majored in Textile Management with a concentration in Marketing. After several sales and marketing jobs, Chris landed back in Clemson where he is now a co owner of Tigertown Graphics. While Tigertown Graphics still has a strong presence in downtown Clemson and on campus, Chris splits his time running Southern Fried Cotton apparel brand as well. Since the launch of Southern Fried Cotton in 2012, Chris and partners have opened up 2 Southern Fried Cotton retail stores and the brand can be found in over 300 retail stores across the Southeast.
Bill Mitchell | is the founder of Billiam Jeans, a handmade jean brand located in Greenville. He began creating jeans in 2009 in his apartment in Clemson with a sewing machine from Goodwill and the wisdom of YouTube. Within a few months, he had a waiting list of around 400 people and the local newspaper was asking for an interview. He graduated from Clemson in 2010, and eventually moved the business out of his parents’ basement and into the back of a rock climbing gym. Billiam Jeans has been in its current location on Wade Hampton Blvd. for three years. Their jeans are sold in boutiques around America and in the UK through a partnership with Oliver Sweeney. They donate 20 percent of their year-end profit to Wellspring Living in Atlanta to fight sex trafficking.
