Kelvy Bird

Kelvy Bird is an artist and internationally recognized scribe. She has worked in the field of human development since 1992 with a focus on collaboration, collective intelligence, and systems thinking. As co-founder of the Presencing Institute, she has guided the direction of core tools and methods, and now serves as senior faculty for u-school for Transformation, leading the Visual Practice pathway for learning.

In 2016, she co-edited: Drawn Together through Visual Practice, and in 2018 released Generative Scribing: A Social Art of the 21st Century, establishing key frameworks for the field. She received a BFA and BA from Cornell University, and lives on Nonotuck land near Amherst, MA USA.

current clients

  • Conservation International: Moore Center for Science | 2024-Present
  • UMass Amherst: Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledge | 2023-Present
  • Phillips Academy: Tang Institute | 2022-Present
  • United Nations – UNDP, UN SDGs, UNHDR | 2020-Present
  • The Nature Conservancy | 2013-Present
  • MIT (various Schools) | 2012-Present
  • MIT Executive Education | 2009-Present
  • Eileen Fisher | 2007-Present
  • Presencing Institute | Co-founder, Senior Faculty | 2007-Present

previous clients

  • Ford Fellows | (w/dpict) | 2022-2023
  • EnPro Industries | 2017-2021
  • World Economic Forum | (w/The Value Web) 2007-2017
  • Harvard School of Education | Learning Innovations Lab 2009-2015
  • SOL Ed: Camp Snowball | Systems Thinking for Educators 2011-2015
  • Society for Organizational Learning | Leadership materials (with RLH Consulting) 2010-2013
  • The Ashland Institute | Adjunct faculty for Coming Into Your Own programs 2002-2008
  • Dialogos | Content and knowledge base integrator 1998-2008
  • Capgemini’s Accelerated Solutions Environment | Environment and event designer, process facilitator, scribe, and systems integrator 1996-2005
  • CGEY Center for Business Innovation | Graphic facilitator 1999-2002
  • MG Taylor’s Knowhere Stores | Merchandise development for tools in the knowledge economy 1997-1998
  • MG Taylor Corp | Systems integrator and knowledgeworker for DesignShops 1995-1998
  • Consensus Development | Office manager for startup in collaborative technologies 1993-1995

publications

  • “Using Color”, with Holger Nils Pohl, The Visual Facilitation Field Guide, Edited by Rachel Smith, Tim Hamons, and Jeroen Blijsie. 2019. Order
  • “On Tone”, The Visual Facilitation Field Guide, Edited by Rachel Smith, Tim Hamons, and Jeroen Blijsie. 2019 Preorder
  • “Visual Presencing”, Advances in Presencing, Volume 1, Edited by Olen Gunnlaugson and William Brendel. Trifoss Business Press, 2019.
  • Generative Scribing: A Social Art of the 21st Century. PI Press, 2018 Purchase
  • Color Inserts: Theory U: Leading from the Future as It Emerges, Otto Scharmer. Berrett-Koehler, 2016 Purchase
  • Drawn Together Through Visual Practice, an anthology edited by Brandy Agerbeck, Kelvy Bird, Sam Bradd & Jennifer Shepherd, 2016. Purchase
  • Noteworthy: Inc. Magazine, included in an article on “The Art of Inspiration“, February 2014
  • Portfolio: Salamander, a magazine for poetry, fiction, & memoirs, Suffolk University, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2007
  • Cover Art: Biography of Water, by Carrie Bennett, The Word Works Press, 2005
  • Diagrams: Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory, by Art Kleiner, Doubleday, 2003
  • “On Viewing”, NEXT: Arte e Cultura, Italian Publication. March-May, 1990

education

  • BA in Modern Art History, Cornell University 1989
  • BFA in Painting, Cornell University 1988

volunteering