Brad Fortier

Brad Fortier, MA, is an anthropologist, author, educator, and entertainer and has been teaching and training adults in a variety of settings for more than 20 years. He combines two fields of applied work in his research and training background: applied anthropology and applied improvisation.

He has been working in the inclusion, diversity, equity, and access space since creating Spontaneous Village, a trauma-informed game and play-based community-building intervention for refugees used in 2014 in San Antonio, Texas, and 2016 in Berlin, Germany. He had an advisory role with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in 2016 for incorporating interactive and experiential training methods in their work.

Brad is the author of “Long-Form Improvisation: Collaboration, Comedy, Communion”; “A Culture of Play: Essays on the Origins, Effects, and Applications of Improvised Theatre”; and a chapter in “Applied Improvisation: Leading, Collaborating and Creating Beyond the Theatre” published by Bloomsbury London in 2018. His thinking, scholarship, and field research on applying improvisation are foundational for this emerging field of training.

Brad is a senior Training and Education coordinator for Uplift Oregon. He was the Training and Development specialist for the Oregon Health Authority’s Equity and Inclusion Division. He also coordinated the Portland Community College (PCC) Illumination Project, a student leadership program that uses interactive theater to teach about social justice issues. While at PCC, he sat on the planning committee and delivered training for the first-ever Whiteness History Month.

He has also spoken, taught, directed, and performed across the United States, Canada, and the European Union about both improvised theater and applying improvisation to solve human problems offstage. He tries to listen more than he speaks and be accountable, present, genuine, and clear when he facilitates.

Mr. Fortier is embarking on a new consulting adventure called Northwest Cultural Solutions, focused on individual and organizational change based in social science and delivered through interactive and experiential training and coaching.

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