Cynthia F. Kurtz is a researcher, software developer, consultant, and writer who has been helping communities and organizations work with their stories since 1999. Originally an ethologist, Cynthia discovered the field of organizational narrative at IBM Research, where she conducted research projects to help IBM develop internal and client services centered around organizational stories. She built on that work at IBM’s Institute for Knowledge Management and at the consulting firm Cognitive Edge before launching her independent consultancy. She has consulted on over 100 narrative projects for a variety of clients in government, for-profit, and non-profit sectors. In 2008 she self-published the first edition of her textbook, Working with Stories in Your Community or Organization. Now in its third edition, the book is widely considered a vital resource for participatory story work.
Paul D. Fernhout (Cynthia’s husband) has over forty years of programming experience using a wide variety of languages and systems. He has worked at IBM Research, The Principal Financial Group, NBCUniversal, and Pacific Biosciences. His academic degrees are in Psychology and Biology. He has worked on several open source projects and has written about technology, society, and abundance.