Team

Using a combination of Futures Thinking, Equity-centered/Liberatory Design, innovation practices and ethnographic field research, Fiona designs and leads visioning and strategic planning projects for mission-focused organizations and their communities, helping them to think about the future, identify the future they want, and make plans to get there. Fiona has led and co-led strategic foresight projects for schools, school districts, and colleges, as well as for the San Diego County Office of Education, and the Florida Department of Education. She has a background in philosophy, artificial intelligence, anthropology, and psychology. Her interests are focused on the capabilities for catalyzing sustained collective change, and she works to unlock the capacities for creative problem solving in organizations, groups, and individuals. Fiona uses experiential design, narrative, and a variety of art forms to inspire communities to dream about the future they want, and to develop a sense of collective agency by making plans and taking action to get there.

Fiona has a BA in Philosophy from University College London, an MS in Artificial Intelligence from Kingston University, UK, an MA in Counseling Psychology from JFK University, California, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Brunel University, UK.

Fiona specializes in strategic foresight, equity-centered/liberatory design, innovation culture, leadership development, facilitation and cultural change processes.

Over the past 20+ years, Sonya has sharpened her experience in the public education transformation sector, coaching education leaders to develop social justice-oriented outcomes and strategies, providing leadership for human-centered execution of strategies, and building talented teams to sustain improvement over time. She has led or co-led numerous efforts in helping school districts think about the future and make plans to get there. Specifically, Sonya co-led San Francisco USD’s Vision 2025 process, co-led the Pittsburg Unified School District (CA) Vision 2027 process as a Collective Invention team member, and co-led the statewide educator professional development redesign prototypes for the Florida Department of Education.

Sonya earned her BS in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Sonya specializes in leadership development, data driven decision making, design thinking, facilitation, and organizational development and cultural change processes.

Tiara started her career in education as an elementary school teacher in the Alum Rock Union School District in San Jose, CA. Over the past 15 years, she has coached teachers, principals, and school district leaders to develop a continuous learning mindset while improving instruction for students of color and English Language Learners. As a district leader, Tiara designed and facilitated teacher and leader professional learning, engaged in visioning and multi-year strategic planning, and led a collaborative design process to reimagine the teacher evaluation system.

Tiara earned her BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from UC Berkeley, where she
focused on the relationship between globalization, tourism and the indigenous cultures of Latin America.

Tiara specializes in leadership development, team building, facilitation, instructional coaching and project management.

Over the past 20+ years, Carrie has worked with students, teachers, and school leaders as a teacher, professor, and school transformation coach, to shift both mindset and practice to create systemic change so that classrooms and schools become more culturally responsive and socially transformative spaces. As a school transformation coach, she worked in partnership with principals, teachers, and district leaders in Title I schools, to facilitate systemic change. Through results-oriented cycles of inquiry with a central focus on racial equity and school transformation, she supported schools to implement culturally responsive, research-based practices to provide meaningful, engaging, affirming, grade-level instruction. She has also led instructional leadership teams in visioning and strategic planning to create more equitable school environments as well as creating structures that work to amplify the voices of marginalized families in schools.

She earned both her Masters degree in language, literacy and culture and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research focused on how rigid policy contexts influenced teachers’ abilities to implement culturally responsive pedagogy. 

Carrie specializes in culturally responsive teaching & learning, facilitation, data driven decision making, culture change w/in organizations, team building, and leadership development 

As Design Consultant at Prospect Studio, Myrna Newcomb creates visually compelling reports and publications for clients. Throughout her 20+ years of experience, she has developed a thoughtful approach to design, balancing the need to communicate with a desire for design aesthetic.

Myrna has also worked with Gap Inc., the Anchorage Museum’s Discovery Center, Menlo College, Stanford Live, Trips for Kids and Equator Coffees.

Myrna has a BFA in Graphic Design from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco.

Julian Wong Nelson is a writer, researcher and educator. Their research interests are focused upon art as a site of resistance and communication for marginalized communities. They work with Prospect Studio on a variety of projects to support research and community engagement work.

They have a BA from UC Santa Cruz and an MA from the San Francisco Art Institute.