About Us
Dr. Johel Brown-Grant, Founder
Originally from Costa Rica, Dr. Brown-Grant’s journey through storytelling and design began when, as a grad student in English Literature, he read Karen Shriver’s Dynamics in Document Design. With his prior training in sociolinguistics, Dr. Brown-Grant started to make the connections between culture, stories, language and design. That experience came full circle when he worked in the software industry researching the design and development of style guides for graphical user interfaces. His entire career since then has been a constant exploration, discovery, testing, learning, and training others on the story-design-experience lifecycle. Dr. Brown-Grant’s career is a collection of eclectic stories and experiences as a usability engineer, college professor and administrator, head of corporate communication, UX researcher/designer, knowledge management leader, strategist and author. However, his most prized role is as a storyteller aficionado, who enjoys joining storyslams and occasionally making appearances in the DC Moth storytelling circles.
A sought-after speaker and facilitator, Dr. Brown-Grant’s practice-driven workshops, seminars and presentations focus on finding solutions for complex organizational problems requiring a people-centered strategy. Dr. Brown-Grant’s professional experience includes substantial work developing knowledge and design resources to support enterprise learning, organizational change, and strategic communication in business, science and technology, higher education and the federal government. He has conducted numerous storytelling workshops ranging from basic “How to Tell a Story” sessions to full-blown storytelling strategy development events for large organizations. Dr. Brown-Grant has written about user interface and user-centered design, information and communications technology, and knowledge management. His most recent book, Knowledge Management and the Practice of Storytelling, by Emerald Publishing, offers practical advice and guidance on the skills and competencies organizations need to implement successful and sustainable storytelling initiatives.
