In the past 15 years Courtney Savie Lawrence has lived, worked and traveled across more than 70 countries in pursuit of positive impact for people and planet leveraging design and participatory based approaches to craft collaborations that lead to high impact. Since 2018 she has worked with the United Nations at the intersection of innovation, tech and climate with UNDP and UNICEF's regional and global innovation teams.

 

While working among the UN System she has held many volunteer and cross sectoral roles across the ecosystem: coleading the Oxford Climate Tech Initiative, researching systems change and the future of just transitions around climate tech, cofounding the The Circular Design Lab based in Bangkok, Thailand, using systemic design as a process to table the first national clean air policy act to Parliament, and she also serves on the Governance Committee for the School of International Futures.

 

Courtney is also a fellow with the Royal Society of the Arts (RSA) and is working with the UNDP Chief Digital Office on the Nature, Climate, Energy Portfolio of the "Digital X" Partnerships for Scale Program and the UNICEF East and Southern Africa Regional Office teams on climate tech and innovation R+D. She is the coauthor of Inclusive Innovation - Bridging Theory, Policy and Practice, published this year by the Routledge Press and is currently studying at the Oxford Saïd Business School as a recipient of the Executive MBA Director's Award focused on sustainable and regenerative development. You can catch her on twitter @cocosavie, Medium or LinkedIn.

Other scholarship and honors include selection as a Vital Voices Global Fellow, Cordes Opportunity Collaboration Fellow, The Coaching Fellowship for Women Leaders, Social Entrepreneur Fellow of the Amsterdam based THNK School of Creative Leadership, and Rotary Cultural Ambassadorial Scholar. Since 2016 she has also worked with the MIT International Development Design Summits, by co-leading in the Colombia, Thailand and Australia programs. From 2006-2014 she also served on the Executive Committee, the policy and governance oversight arm, to the of the Swiss-based INGO, World YMCA as a global representative of the North America region.

 

She has co-founded and led two companies (DSIL Global and Green Loop) and has worked in and among large scale organizations like Ashoka, various other United Nations agencies (UNEP, UNHCR, ILO) as well as academic centers such as MIT's D-lab and Stanford's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. You can now find her anchored in Europe, yet for nearly a decade she has been Asia-based working in the climate and social impact sector as practitioner, entrepreneur, consultant and university lecturer.
 
She holds a Masters in Responsible Management and Sustainable Economic Development from the United Nations University for Peace, in Costa Rica, and a Bachelors in Political Science, International Relations from the College of Charleston; with one year spent in South Africa, at the University of Stellenbosch. Courtney has also earned a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training in Thailand, ran across the country of Costa Rica in a 27 hour relay race and spent a month in Wyoming with the National Outdoor Leadership School. 'Ubuntu' is a life guiding philosophy that connects her passion with her purpose.
 
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