Creative Partners

Living Tapestries works with creative and resourceful partners in systems and organization change, design thinking and innovation, strategic facilitation, and the arts.

Meet Jennifer Shepherd, Principal

Ask Questions
Get Messy
Collaborate with Friends

Are you asking enough questions? I ask a lot of questions. I mean, a LOT of questions. Most clients love me for it because it helps them clarify their big ideas, shift how they see the world, and envision new possibilities.

Systems change is continuous. Sometimes, it can get a little messy. I’m okay with getting messy. When you are engaged for the long-term payoff and you throw your heart and soul into the work, you need to roll up your sleeves and muck about in the trenches. I’m learning right there with you as we observe, sense into what’s needed, and prototype our way into the future that’s calling us.

Do you need to navigate through ambiguity? I’m serious about transforming entrenched mental models, shifting organization culture, and solving the perplexing puzzles that our global society really needs to muddle through to feed and sustain life. I think big, and I also care about the details.

Do you develop strong partnerships and friendships? I do, too. I like to build long-term client relationships and partner with peers in diverse fields to collaborate in the work.

Does creativity captivate you? Arts-based methods inform my facilitation practice, help me to make sense of the world, and nourish me to sing my song with a joyful heart. I make connections naturally. Drum playfully. Tell stories with sass. Paddle peacefully. Photograph patiently. And create my own adventures.

Credentials

  • IAF Certified Professional Facilitator, International Association of Facilitators
  • MA Human Systems Intervention, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada
  • Member, International Forum of Visual Practitioners

Jennifer Shepherd’s Living Tapestries form a powerful mural of stories, emotions, and images which imprint in our minds and hearts. Her ability to swiftly transcribe key messages to graphic art depicting the prominent issues is both creative and effective; the tapestries connect ideas, record events, encourage discourse and open new pathways for exploration.

Danielle Aubrey, Conference Participant, Women Forging a New Security: Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict, Nobel Women’s Initiative