Welcome to the website of Stina Brown (she/they): Artist, writer, and systems thinker. Stina coaches, designs and facilitates because she loves people who are doing their best to change the world and knows some practical ways to help.

VISION 2030 Delta BC School District (SD37) 2020-2021
Visioning, Community Engagement, Design and Facilitation, Graphic Documentation
Outside The Lines Team with Avril Orloff, Stina Brown and Meriko Kubota

Everyone listened carefully and sought clarity when needed, asking pertinent questions, and offering up new ideas and differing points of view. You all did an exceptional job of keeping us focused and encouraging us. You kept us calm during a process that was undertaken during a sensitive time. I cannot imagine going through this process with any other team – the fact that you dove right in and never doubted the timing was really critical for us! Your positive attitude was contagious and helped to keep us going through what was a very busy time! ~Assistant Superintendent SD37

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LA Family Housing 2020-2022
Executive Coaching, Strategic Planning, Meeting Facilitation, Senior Leadership Team and Programs Leadership Collaboration, Courageous Conversations
Our Mission:LA Family Housing helps people transition out of homelessness and poverty through a continuum of housing enriched with supportive services.

I love the honest and raw conversations. Be ready to hear and accept the feedback you get from Stina. It’s not always what you want to hear but it’s what is going to propel you the individual and/or agency forward.
~2020-2021 LA Family Housing

Working these past few years on multiple projects with Stina brought calm, perspective, structure, and joy to LA Family Housing’s teams as she helped us navigate through enormous and challenging growth across our agency. Stina recognizes that each person processes differently and she helped leaders within LA Family Housing with tools to slow down and lead their individual teams through a collective visioning and engagement process – the success of which is felt through the shared ownership of –  and pride in –  our programs and services. ~ Stephanie Klasky-Gamer, CEO, LA Family Housing

Working with Stina has been transformational in so many ways. I first brought Stina on to facilitate a team-building retreat with my fundraising team. She was a pleasure to prep with and her facilitation style and content really engaged the group and created an impactful day, even on zoom! The fact that Stina can create a genuine day of team reflection and empowerment on zoom is testament to her skills. My work with Stina then continued in the vein of executive coaching. She has been a constant source of support and guidance for me and several of my colleagues, helping us work through challenges and issues in the workplace. I’ve also seen Stina in action facilitating larger meetings focused on internal agency capacity building and strategic planning, all with the same high level of expertise, kindness, and humor. I can’t recommend Stina enough as a support for any agency and team. 
~2020-2021 LA Family Housing Executive

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Planning Institute of BC PIBC 2009-2021
Strategic Planning and other Design & Facilitation
(a collaboration with Avril Orloff in 2021)

Stina has been an invaluable resource in designing and facilitating our organization’s strategic planning sessions through several iterations over the course of more than a decade. She brings well thought-out, nimble, and easy to understand structures and approaches to the planning process in a way that is engaging, dynamic, productive, and even fun. Be sure to ask about the potential for incorporating the use of play dough and lego creations into strategic planning! Her style and facilitation of sessions are always organized and yet creative, accommodating and yet focused, open and yet results-oriented – even when working through challenging discussions and bringing together seemingly disparate points of view. It is always a joy and pleasure to work with Stina.
~Dave Crossley, Executive Director, Planning Institute of British Columbia

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Seiche 2016-2019, 2020-2021
Strategic Planning, Executive Coaching, Business and Team Development
Work: Creating the world we want requires integrating business and art, structure and chaos, intuition and logic, concept and execution, playfulness and formality. In everything: people come first.

We chose to work with Stina because we knew that our company was at a crossroads, and we needed support to envision and articulate what was emerging. We knew Stina through past projects, and appreciated her strategic, thoughtful, intuitive facilitation, and we appreciated that she was skilled in working alongside socially conscious businesses. We knew that she’d support us in “leveling up” and evolving into the company that we’re called to be at this time. ~ Seiche

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Canopy 2008, 2014-2021
Strategic Planning and Team Building Retreats
Vision: To protect 30 – 50% of the world’s Ancient and Endangered Forests – and in doing so help protect human health and stabilize our climate, biodiversity and freshwater systems – by 2030. Canopy is in the business of planet saving

Working with a professional facilitator has been an invaluable investment for Canopy! Stina got to know us – our culture and mission as she facilitated us through our strategic planning process. We have worked with Stina in person in the past and she did not miss a beat as she pivoted to a virtual platform over the last two years. ~Canopy

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Open Agency Network Mastermind Retreats 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022
Design and Facilitation of Strategic Planning Masterminds for 10-12 Businesses each Retreat on location

OAN: A small, informal, fun and super confidential peer business group designed exclusively for principals of values-based firms serving clients working for sustainability and/or social change via the digital landscape. OAN provides the only secure environment for principals to learn how to better run our businesses, develop a professional network we can trust completely, find what we need personally to sustain our work for the long term, and grow and influence the movements for social transformation we are a part of.

OAN Companies include but are not limited to: thebuildtank.com, provoc.me, echo.co, tealmedia.com, seiche.works, softwareforgood.com, seachangestrategies.com, wiremedia.net, capulet.com, percolatorconsulting.com

What’s the Value of having Stina involved in OAN?

Immense? Incalculable? Seriously, she’s amazing and makes OAN work. ~OAN

All the value in the world! She’s wonderful, keeps us organized and focused, and makes us feel structured and safe in a very
vulnerable setting. ~OAN

Stina’s an amazing facilitator. She gets us centered and ready to participate and support each other. She listens well, adds valuable insights to the conversation, and captures important points well in both her written notes and illustrated boards. ~OAN

There’s so much energy when you get this group together, Stina helps hold it together. Keeping the energy positive and evenly distributed is a valuable contribution that Stina brings in addition to all the other things she does as a facilitator, convener and moderator. ~OAN

Stina creates spaces where it’s easier to be authentic and transparent. That’s critical for visioning, strategic planning and problem solving work. Stina helps make a space where that hard and important work can happen. ~OAN

Stina sets the stage for deep trust and sharing at our annual retreat. She works with our wiley band of entrepreneurs to design an agenda that never loses momentum and she pilots us through a focused, five day process of sharing and discovery. Under her expert guidance, new ideas and deep understanding comes to the surface. ~OAN

Stina is a “host” who is entirely focused on making sure the group and individuals in the group get the most out of the experience, work hard to achieve that and also respect the experience and each other. She makes a safe, productive space where meaningful learning and encounters can happen. ~OAN

Stina has a delightful, calm presence and super smart ways to wrangle a group of headstrong, Type A, entrepreneurs. She’s consistently able to keep things moving on schedule, to keep a positive and collaborative tone, and to provide a solid point around which to pivot. ~OAN

Stina Brown is an excellent synthesizer of complex information and has a gift for distilling salient points which makes the conversation productive.  She brings high octane energy into the room which is an intangible and necessary quality for a full day strategic planning session – especially one with diverse viewpoints. ~OAN

Stina is a master at guiding a group through the really deep work of exploring personal and professional challenges and vulnerabilities that stand in the way of progress. She creates a structure for the work that is inquisitive, comprehensive, safe, and fun. She makes what could be an otherwise very draining experience feel uplifting. Succinctly: She creates a space to tackle the everyday challenges that often feel daunting to professionals and turn them into transformative exploration and discovery. ~OAN

Stina is an embedded facilitator and coach who helps individuals and groups imagine their best selves. ~OAN

BC School District 37 Courageous Conversations on Privilege + White Fragility ~February 2020
Purpose: To spend time looking at our different sorts of privilege and our responses to growth in this area, to hold a level of curiosity and kindness even within some discomfort as we practice reflection and courageous conversations, a step on the path to creating a more just and inclusive community and world.

Stina is one of the most intuitive, thoughtful facilitators I’ve ever encountered. She continually reads what’s happening in a space, easily weaving the threads into a cohesive whole. ~Non-Profit Client

Stina is a “host” who is entirely focused on making sure the group and individuals in the group get the most out of the experience, work hard to achieve that and respect the experience and each other. She makes a safe, productive space where meaningful learning and encounters can happen. ~Non-Profit Client

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QMUNITY 2012-2015
Strategic Planning, Team Development, Leadership Coaching
Purpose: QMUNITY is a non-profit organization based in Vancouver, BC that works to improve queer, trans, and Two-Spirit lives. We provide a safer space for LGBTQ2SAI+ people and their allies to fully self-express while feeling welcome and included. Our building serves as a catalyst for community initiatives and collective strength.

Stina worked with QMUNITY, BC’s Queer Resource Centre for a number of years, leading our three-year strategic planning process, in addition to a number of staff development days. Stina spends a significant amount of time carefully researching, analyzing and preparing in order to ensure that the time you’ve dedicated to bringing your team together is used as effectively as possible. As a result of Stina’s facilitation, QMUNITY was able to move through a difficult transition period, improving the organizational dynamics, and ultimately informing significant material improvements for QMUNITY. Our team is healthier, happier, and more productive, and Stina played a significant role in helping us achieve this vision. ~ Dara Parker, Former Executive Director QMUNITY, BC’s Queer Resource Centre