People & Networks

Founding Team

*Founding Board of Directors +Core Advisors

  • THEO EDMONDS *

    BOD President
    CA Program Lead

  • COLLEEN KEEGAN *

    BOD Treasurer

  • MOLLY SURNO *

    BOD Secretary

  • RONI REITER-PALMON*

    BOD Member
    CA Scientific Lead

  • DEBORAH JORDY *

    BOD Member

  • Kristina Newman-Scott +

    Advisor
    VP Arts - Knight Foundation

  • Michelle T. Boone +

    Advisor
    CEO - The Poetry Foundation

  • Robert Beer +

    Advisor
    CA Tech Co-Lead

  • Amanda Ralston + Tech co-lead

    Amanda Ralston +

    Advisor
    CA Tech co-lead

  • Mitch Morecraft +

    Advisor
    CA Business Analyst

Leadership Profiles

  • Theo Edmonds, JD, MHA, MFA, is a Culture Futurist®, artist/poet, entrepreneur, and analytics innovator who bridges the creative industries, brain science, and technology with the future of work. With over 30 years of executive, artistic, and research experience spanning healthcare, social innovation, academia, and the creative economy, Theo has led groundbreaking projects for Fortune 100 companies, top-tier cardiovascular programs, city and state governments, family offices, universities, and national arts organizations. His mind-expanding approach to quantum storytelling and wonder as tools for leading systems change has made him a highly sought-after keynote speaker and executive advisor.

    A nine-generation Appalachian from Jackson, KY, Theo was named one of Southern Living Magazine’s “50 People Changing the Face of the South” for co-founding the arts-science-business nonprofit IDEAS xLab in 2013. From 2018-2021, he led a National Science Foundation-sponsored team that won the Epic Trailblazer Award for groundbreaking advancements in corporate cultural analytics. Now a Research Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Denver, Theo is an unconventional "pracademic" who leverages his neurodiversity as a leadership advantage, pioneering the integration of cultural data signals, such as loneliness, into strategic foresight modeling.

    A serial social entrepreneur, in 2024, he founded Creativity America, a decade-long collaboration with leading creativity research labs, artists, and business leaders across the U.S. This initiative bridges the arts and sciences of cognitive, emotional, and social creativity to drive innovation through a national network of Wondervation™ hubs.

  • Dr. Reiter-Palmon is the Varner Professor of Industrial/Organizational (I/O) Psychology and the Director of the I/O Psychology Graduate Program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). She is also the Director of Innovation for the Center for Collaboration Science, an inter-disciplinary program at UNO. She received her Ph.D. in I/O Psychology from George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Her research focuses on creativity and innovation in the workplace at individual and team level, development of leadership and creative problem-solving skills, and leading creative individuals.

    In 2024, she was named recipient of the Arnheim Award for Outstanding Achievement in Psychology and Creativity. This lifetime achievement award presented by the American Psychological Association (APA) recognizes outstanding achievement in psychology and the arts.

    She is the co-editor of Handbook of Organizational Creativity: Leadership, Interventions, and Macro Level Issues, Second Edition covers creativity from many perspectives in two unique volumes, including artificial Intelligence work, creativity within specific applied domains (e.g., engineering, science, therapy), and coverage of leadership.

    She is an associate editor for the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, as well as Frontiers: Organizational Psychology. She is the former Editor of The Psychology of Creativity, Aesthetics and the Arts, the leading journal on the psychology of creativity. She serves on the editorial boards of 10 additional journal in I-O psychology, management, and creativity. She has published four edited books on the topic of creativity, and is the editor of the Palgrave series on Creativity and Innovation in Organizations. She has been President of APA Division 10 (creativity) and fellow Division 14 (I-O) in recognition of her contribution to the field of organizational and team creativity.

Scientific Advisors

  • Dr. Adam Green

    Professor, Georgetown University Director, Laboratory for Relational Cognition | Co-Founder, Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity | Editor-in-Chief, Creativity Research Journal

  • Dr. Rebecca Zarate

    Associate Dean (Research), College of Fine Arts, University of Utah

    LINKEDIN

  • Dr. Yoed Kenett

    Faculty of Data and Decision Sciences, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

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  • Dr Wendy Ross

    London Metropolitan University, UK | Co-chair of the Serendipity Society | Vice-President of the Possibility Studies Network

    LINKEDIN

  • Prof. Vlad Glaveanu

    Full Professor of Psychology and Director of the DCU Centre for Possibility Studies, Dublin City University, Ireland

    LINKEDIN

  • Dr. Hannah Merseal

    Postdoctoral Researcher, Penn Center for Neuroaesthetics, University of Pennsylvania

    WEBSITE

  • Payge Japp

    PhD Candidate at University of Nebraska at OmahaUniversity of Nebraska at Omaha

    LINKEDIN

  • Cameron Lister

    Data Scientist, Cultural Wellbeing Researcher | Senior Clinical Systems Analyst

    LINKEDIN

  • Jen Katz-Buonincontro, Professor, School of Education, Courtesy Professor, Psychology, Drexel University

    Jen Katz-Buonincontro

    Professor, School of Education, Courtesy Professor, Psychology, Drexel University

    WEBSITE

Organizational Advisors