Kerry O'Connor

Kerry is the Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Austin. The Innovation Office helps diverse and inclusive teams by building innovation pathways through the following services: facilitate co-creation, problem-framing, and strategy design workshops; employ open innovation methods such as social knowledge management, idea generation, challenges, prizes, crowd-consulting, and hackathons; consult with human-centered design research and strategic design; offer innovation skills and team-building workshops; coach, mentor, and support a virtual innovation community of practice at http://civicinnovation.bloomfire.com.

Previously, Kerry worked at the U.S. Department of State, where she established an innovation unit called the Research and Design Center in the Office of the Secretary of State, which offers research, consulting, brainstorming facilitation, and strategic design services. She developed and managed an employee idea generation program, helped architect sustainable management reforms, coordinated logistics for the Pittsburgh G20 Summit, served as an executive staffer, and improved programs and operations at two U.S. Embassies.

She is an intrapreneur, diplomat, storyteller, innovation catalyst, logistician, connector, mentor, activator, and fierce advocate for innovation in government. She holds a Master of Arts in International Affairs from The George Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs from James Madison University.

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