Portland, Oregon

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 925-362-4736
Web: http://communitystrengths.org

Kristin Bodiford is Principal of Community Strengths and brings over 20 years of strategic planning, engagement, and communication experience to her work with communities, offering skills and expertise in working with groups of people and organizations to create a positive future. Kristin's background in working with communities using dialogue models and other transformative strategies brings a unique blend of expertise to her work supporting community and systems planning for positive change. Kristin's research interest focuses on how tapping into and strengthening our relational resources helps us to propel social innovation.

 As a researcher and a practitioner, Kristin's recent work includes developing and managing:

 An international community of practice with more than 3,000 members focusing on creating more aging-friendly communities in partnership with UC Berkeley and the CDC Healthy Aging Research Network.

 A federal demonstration project to create a more responsive system for children and youth exposed to domestic violence.

 A collaborative inquiry with youth to participate in and host dialogues and conversations to create positive change in their schools and communities.

 Kristin also provides strategic consulting and facilitation support for OvationNet, a customized online platform and approach to support sustainable capabilities for large-scale Appreciative Inquiry-driven innovation. Past projects include: American Society for Association Executives Global Summit on Social Responsibility and the Houston Healthy Kids, Healthy Schools Summit. Also in partnership with iCohere, she has supported large scale change projects and conferences including the America’s Promise Alliance Action Forum and the What Works: Strengths-based Approaches to Early Childhood Education Conference.

 Kristin is a Taos Institute Associate and holds a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from Tilburg University and an MBA from University of California at Davis. Most importantly, she is a wife and parent of four, who teach her all the time how to be the best person she can be.

 Kristin is co-teaching Qualitative Research at Eastern Mennonite University's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Summer Peacebuilding Institute.