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Erica Dorn

Social Systems Choreographer

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Erica Dorn is a social systems choreographer. She educates and facilitates organizations, movements, and communities in long-vision systems transitions. She has led an extensive career in local economic development, social impact investing, business and leadership education, and experience design. In 2015, she co-founded and served as the Managing Director of the Good Work Institute, formerly known as etsy.org. She built the organization from its roots, with a focus on the design and the delivery of a first-of-its-kind bioregional fellowship program in New York’s Hudson Valley. She has worked in US Microfinance for Kiva and Accion, entrepreneurial and design education at City University of New York and School of Visual Arts, and community and leadership development in Latin America. Erica is a doctoral researcher in Transition Design at Carnegie Mellon University, researching and developing theory in Place Relationality. She is on the Board of Directors for Third Millennium Alliance, a rainforest conservation organization working to restore the last remnants of coastal Ecuadorian rainforests. Erica is a life-long dancer and recently completed a 4,400-mile bicycle trip across the US. Originally from Colorado, she currently resides in Portland, OR, and calls New York home.

“My mission is to develop a place network made up of residents from diverse places across the United States who will learn together to restore and build welcoming democratic communities.”

Learn more about Erica’s Landecker Democracy Fellowship project here.

Updated June 2021

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