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

• UMass Amherst: Center for Braiding Indigenous Knowledges and Science | 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 with Sloan School of Management | 2009-Present
• Eileen Fisher | 2007-Present
• Presencing Institute | Co-founder, Senior Faculty | 2007-Present

previous clients

• Conservation International: Moore Center for Science | 2024
• 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