My Faculty Page

About Me

'We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are' - Anais Nin

Hello~ I'm Lori Clinchard, and I've been teaching Humanities at De Anza College for over 20 years. I serve as Humanities Department Chair and I've been Faculty Director of the California History Center since 2022. I have a Ph.D. in Humanities, with a concentration in Transformative Learning and Change, and an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology. I'm currently working on an interview series to engage with artists and philosophers on the challenging questions arising out of the AI era.

I am a 4th generation Bay Area native, currently living in Santa Cruz, CA. I lived for 12 years in Taos, New Mexico, and 1 year in France, and I still enjoy speaking French and Spanish. I worked in women's health care before returning to graduate school, including several years of midwifery training, and post-partum home care.

I love working with the De Anza students, and I want my classes to give them opportunities to learn through experience, and to discover and respect what they already know. 

I have three young adult daughters whose courage and creativity inspire me daily. I want my students to know that I am serious about the value and importance of creativity, so I will share how I have supported my own children to live creative lives:

Maggie - (age 29) - a storyteller, writer, and excellent cook who has traveled the world on a shoestring budget; worked in Alaska, the Bolivian jungle, Australia, and New Zealand; lived in a travel trailer in Montana and Wyoming during winter; is currently studying creative writing and journalism at Arizona State University. She also plays guitar, paints, and is learning to sew.

Lizzie - (age 22) - an outdoors person, farmer, and environmentalist who is also an artist with experience in theater, ceramics, singing, and playing guitar; studied and worked in Ecuador and New Zealand; traveled in Portugal, Spain, and Scotland. She's currently creating her own major at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA.

Naiomi - (age 32) - a singer/songwriter who also works with children in the Los Angeles area; earned a B.A. in Child and Family Development at SDSU; is planning to write children's books; and has released three albums of original music over the past five years: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnGAvNsJmTqKFlWpCP1PBgQ or: https://open.spotify.com/track/5L87WZbWIVkrNFkEYHu3jO?si=439b983fa7c84244 

Believe in yourselves!!

My office is located in the California History Center: deanza.edu/califhistory/  

“The true method of knowledge is experiment.” - William Blake, British poet and artist.

Classes I Teach

Spring 2026

CRN	Course	Sec.	Title
41755	HUMI 1	51Z	Creative Minds
47092	HUMI 1	55Z	Creative Minds
49861	HUMI 1H	51Z	Creative Minds - HONORS
49862	HUMI 1H	55Z	Creative Minds - HONORS

Winter 2026

CRN	Course	Sec.	Title
30755	HUMI 1	51Z	Creative Minds
31584	HUMI 1	54Z	Creative Minds
39860	HUMI 1H	51Z	Creative Minds - HONORS
39861	HUMI 1H	54Z	Creative Minds - HONORS

Course Syllabi

Humi 1 - Creative Minds - Asynchronous

Humi 1 - Creative Minds - Hybrid