About Us

Diane Friedlaender, Ph.D., Founder

Diane (she/her) has devoted her career to infusing humanity and justice into education. She believes learning is not only intellectual but also social, emotional, creative, spiritual, physical, and deeply relational. A community-builder at heart, she creates spaces where people can imagine together, connect across differences, and move toward collective liberation. Diane feels great joy in creating spaces for organic connection and meaning making. In addition to leading Deep Currents, Dr. Friedlaender serves as an external evaluator for public schools and non-profits, documenting the power of arts integration as a tool for equity and deeper learning, and as an expert within the Purpose and Gratitude Pillar of Stanford Lifestyle Medicine.

Prior to launching Deep Currents, Diane spent over two decades at Stanford University. As the former Associate Director of Stanford Living Education (SLED), she taught nearly 1000 students through 25 courses and workshops on community building, leadership, purpose, and resilience. At SLED she directed the LEAD program for Leadership, Community, Building and Social Change. Diane designed SLED's state of the art lecturer development program and oversaw program evaluation for the program. She also served as a frequent guest lecturer across departments on the Stanford campus. Prior to her work at SLED, Diane led qualitative education research as a Senior Researcher at the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) where she documented educational change processes and identified conditions in which students, particularly marginalized students, flourish. Her work—featured in the PBS NewsHour, Public Radio, Educational Leadership, and Education Week—explored the conditions that help all students thrive. Diane also helped start a whole-child charter school and an elementary school mindfulness program. She is the grateful mother of three astounding individuals!

She earned her B.A. in Anthropology from UC San Diego and her Ph.D. in Education Policy from UCLA—but it is her lived experience as educator, researcher, and community partner that most shapes her vision: learning spaces rooted in connection, imagination, and possibility.

The Deep Currents Metaphor

In the ocean, deep currents are slow, powerful forces flowing far beneath the surface and driven by temperature, salinity, and gravity. They don't look dramatic like surface waves or storms, but they carry enormous influence, regulating climate and sustaining life. They engage in an interdependent dance with the surface currents, each regulating the health of the other. Unlike the faster paced and more turbulent surface current, the deep current takes 1000 years to circumnavigate the globe.

Metaphorically, deep currents point to:

Let us help you dive deep into the waters of your untapped potential: your creative, embodied, spiritual, relational, emotional and cognitive self.

We believe that through relational and experiential exploration of the deep currents that run through us, we learn to:

Clients and Collaborators

We serve leaders committed to just, caring, and sustainable communities—nonprofit executives, educators, organizers, social entrepreneurs, and professionals navigating change or deepening impact. Whether through individual coaching, team workshops, or organizational partnership, we tailor learning experiences to your context and goals.