Culture Futurist® Bridging Creative Industries + Brain Science with Future of Work

With over 30 years of professional experience navigating the complex terrains of healthcare, social innovation, academia, and the creative economy, I've rallied an extraordinary professional alliance across science, business, and the arts. Together, we've unlocked the secret to embedding TRANSFORMATIONAL CREATIVITY within an organization’s culture and strategy. This isn't just theory; we’ve put it into practice, and the results are game-changing. It’s called WONDERVATION™

I’m experienced in building unexpected culture collaborations in the for-profit, nonprofit, and public sectors. A nine-generation Appalachian, lifelong artist, poet, and innovator, in 2015, Southern Living Magazine named me one of "50 People Changing the Face of the South" for the futurist arts leadership demonstrated in co-founding IDEAS xLab.

From 2018-2021, I assembled and led a research team in an industry-university cooperative research center funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). My team devised and scientifically validated the Cultural Wellbeing Index and was honored as the winner of the University of Louisville Trailblazer Award for Research & Innovation (2020-2021). This work continues to grow. For instance, it is now used by Colorado as a core component of its groundbreaking Small Business Resilience Index.

Today, I’m part of an international leadership team pioneering a neuroscience-inspired private sector application of Creative Brain Capital. This work involves a growing array of collaborating companies, cities, and people who are collectively embarking on an ambitious brain skills project: Creativity America. The initiative is bringing together arts, science, and business with the goal of boosting America’s creativity skills by 25% within the next decade.