I work with the tools of systems, scenarios, resilience, and design thinking and practice.
For many years, I was senior writer and analyst at Portland, Oregon-based Ecotrust, where my projects included SectionZ, Salmon Nation, Vivid Picture, Resilience and Transformation, and People and Place. I led the development of publications large and small, for dozens of partners and clients, in a wide range of media. And I thought about social change, with “environmental outcomes” and “ecosystem services” as ultimate metrics of success.
Along the way, I gained experience in food systems, fisheries and forestry, climate and energy, green building, and restorative finance. I learned about approaches to spatial planning, market design, event design, life cycle assessment, online-offline engagement, and developmental evaluation. I began to see this work as a practice of boundary bridging, institutional entrepreneurship, and community support. Increasingly, I developed a systemic view.
Now I teach systems thinking in the Collaborative Design MFA program at Pacific Northwest College of Art.
