Catalytic Thinking Labs emerged from the experiences of Jane Lorand (California, USA) and Bruce McKenzie (New South Wales, Australia), teaching in the GreenMBA, which was the first sustainable business MBA program in the world. Both have had diverse, expansive careers as leaders and consultants in business, government, social welfare, and education.
Together, Jane and Bruce pulled together a handful of top alumni and key mentors on a team to develop these resources to give access to adults who did not have a chance to do the GreenMBA.
This team includes Barbara Strickland, Karri Winn, Kyra Auerbach, Karen Olson, and Orland Bishop. All have close ties to Northern California and have worked closely with Bruce and Jane on many projects. All have rich, diverse, and unique backgrounds that contribute greatly to the quality of these Labs.
How did Jane's life path support her contributions into the Labs? Read more about the Roots of the Thinking Practices and Jane's story, here.
Jane Lorand
Social Architect | Co-Founder
With deep roots in California, Jane has been an elementary public school teacher, school counselor, tax attorney, consultant in a wide variety of industries, and an entrepreneur in higher education and in developing moral social technologies. She is the mother of five Waldorf school graduates and an ongoing mentor to GreenMBA alumni. She’s been busy! Together with Bruce McKenzie, they pioneered the WindTunneling software toolset to navigate complex issues. She was a pioneer in sustainability business education, designing and building the first accredited GreenMBA from 1999-2017. She is the author of the upcoming book, A System of Teamwork for Kids (for children 7-14, their parents, and teachers). Her body of work is incorporated in the Catalytic Thinking Labs.
Barbara Strickland
Social Architect | Co-Founder
Barbara Strickland is a Social Architect and Certified WindTunneling Facilitator. Barbara’s practice of navigating complexity advances crucial improvement for any size organization. She advises companies in their various stages of growth and administers in-depth due diligence and oversight for business acquisition transactions. She is a serial entrepreneur founding several companies in consulting, media production, travel, and real estate. Barbara has an extensive background using and training others to use technology. Barbara has an MBA (GreenMBA) in Sustainable Enterprise, Dominican University of California and a Bachelor’s degree (BA) in Telecommunications, Indiana University. With her warmth and ever-present optimism, she gracefully sets about getting everything done and is a huge support to the team. Along with the other core members, Barbara takes pity and helps pull Jane out of her tech gaps.
Karri Winn
Social Architect | Co-Founder
Karri has spent the last three decades becoming increasingly knowledgeable about complex global issues, critical thinking, and holistic decision-making. She has dedicated her life to the well-being of human cultures and the more-than-human world. She has advanced degrees in sustainability (an MBA and a Masters in Sustainable Development UCD). She has professional certificates in leadership, design thinking, systems thinking, public speaking, permaculture, and somatic movement. She has been a pioneer and manager of GreenFest in San Francisco and with NIA, an international movement organization out of Portland. She has been a consultant into Future Insight Maps, a certified WindTunneling practitioner, and is a core member developing the Labs on the technical side while also monitoring and enriching content.
Orland Bishop
Social Architect | Co-Founder
Born in Guyana, Orland resides in Los Angeles but works globally with youth leadership and advising funders about how to understand money. He has built the Shadetree Multicultural Foundation, a network over the past three decades in Los Angeles supporting effective design for gang intervention and social capital development. A powerful and sought-after public speaker, he supports social justice and sustainability pioneers in Europe, Brazil, with Nicanor Perlas in the Phillipines, as well as New York, Newark, New Orleans, and Oakland. Orland brings deep wisdom from various traditions. He is the author of the recent book, The Seventh Shrine:From the Middle Passage to the Mountain Top. His commitment to systemic methods has arisen from hard years of experience with chronic under-performance in the Civil Society sector.
Kyra Auerbach
Social Architect | Co-Founder
Kyra is a social innovator with broad interests and holds two Master’s degrees: Somatic Psychology and Education and Sustainable Enterprise (GreenMBA). She is a mother of two teen daughters and a community leader in Sebastopol, California. She is the founder and director of GaiaWise (2009), an umbrella for various systemic initiatives related to personal and professional development, focused on social-ecological justice-advocacy work and permaculture. She volunteers for Ceres Project, an NGO that mentors teens in organic food growing and prep, delivering their products to people with life-threatening illnesses. Kyra has worked with Karri and Barbara on the technical side, and has monitored and supplemented content.
Photo by In Her Image Photography
Karen Olson
Social Architect | Co-Founder
Karen is an architect and writer who, after living and practicing for many years in France, is currently based in Sacramento, California. She is a designer with great instincts and skill. Karen was closely involved in shaping the evolution and protection of the GreenMBA from its inception. Karen was on the design team for the Fort Baker Leadership Summits, planning a Sustainable Future for California. A founding member of the Catalytic Thinking Labs and WindTunneling, Karen continues to offer her deep wisdom and potent questions to this work. She holds a BA in Political Science from Stanford University and Masters in Architecture from Harvard University. Karen’s perspective is always sought by teammates as her insight almost always awakens us to a deeper level and true alignment with our higher purposes.
Bruce McKenzie
Mentor
Bruce is a mentor to the Catalytic Thinking Labs team. His work with systemic thinking and methods underlies the Arena Labs in Navigating Complex Issues. An Australian pioneer in systems thinking and recognized guru in universities around the world, Bruce has developed methods that tap diverse voices to create rich pictures of complex issues as a foundation for later emergence and development. A federal Cabinet Minister as head for Social Services in his 30s, Bruce has worked in Community Development and as a successful consultant to local rural recovery and consultant to some of the largest global corporations. He taught Systems Thinking and Systemics in the GreenMBA for eight years and he is a beloved mentor of the students. He and Jane developed the WindTunneling software.
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