David J. Staley is a writer, designer, futurist, historiographer, presenter, educator, strategist, and artist, and was recently described as an "eclectic academic." ??He is an Associate Professor in the Departments of History and (by courtesy) Design at The Ohio State University. He is the author of Alternative Universities: Speculative Design for Innovation in Higher Education (Johns Hopkins, 2019), the co-author of Knowledge Towns: Colleges and Universities as Talent Magnets (Johns Hopkins, 2023) and author of Visionary Histories (Center for Science and the Imagination, 2022), a collection of his essays about the future. He is the author of three books of historical theory: Historical Imagination (Routledge, 2021); Computers, Visualization, and History 2nd ed. (Routledge, 2013); and History and Future: Using Historical Thinking to Imagine the Future (Lexington Books, 2007). He has also written Brain, Mind and Internet: A Deep History and Future. (Palgrave Pivot, 2014). He is the host of the "Voices of Excellence" podcast, and president of Columbus Futurists, a local think tank. In 2022 he was awarded "Best Freelance Writer" by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists for his "Next" futures column with Columbus Underground.