Creative Education Foundation

American nonprofit organization The Creative Education Foundation (CEF) is a non-profit U.S. membership organization dedicated to creativity and problem solving, founded in Buffalo, New York, in 1954. History The organization was established in 1954 by advertising specialist Alex F. Osborn, the inventor of the concept of brainstorming. In 1955, the organization held the first annual Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI), an international creativity conference, at the University of Buffalo. For several years, the organization was led by Osborn together with creativity theorist and education researcher Sid Parnes. When Osborn died in 1966, Parnes took over the chair. He established the "Lifetime creative achievement award", granted to individuals who had shown outstanding merit in the field of applied creativity, and also installed a media program of CEF publications. In 1987, John Meyerhoff took over as CEO, and expanded CEF's educational offer to include business training. Subsequent CEOs added partnership programs and VIP days, and reinstalled CEF consulting and training programs. Operations Initially, the activities of the foundation focused on organizing the annual conferenc