About BSI
Biomimicry for Social Innovation is part of a growing global network of innovators, designers, biologists, and leaders who are emulating the genius of the natural world to create conditions conducive to life. Building on biomimicry’s success in design and engineering, BSI provides tools and connects an ecosystem of practitioners who are applying nature’s intelligence to the social sector. Working closely with Biomimicry 3.8 and The Biomimicry Institute, we translate biological knowledge into practices that transform the way we lead organizational and societal change.
Our Purpose
BSI exists to help leaders and change makers learn from nature and apply evolutionary intelligence to cultivating a thriving, resilient, and regenerative world. We demonstrate that nature can be a source of inspiration and guidance for evolutionary change. We help leaders bring nature’s adaptive genius into their organizations and enterprises. We apply a whole systems approach and a living systems lens. We engage with practitioners, cross-pollinating among innovators and organisms, to discover and design collaborative, resilient pathways into the emerging ecological age.
Guiding Principles
Hover or click to reveal
Relationship before task
Walk in integrity. Adhere to science, including Indigenous/Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Connect a broad and diverse network of biomimicry practitioners
Commit to social justice - in principle, action, and structures
Reintegrate marginalized voices in service to wholeness
Stretch imaginations and belief in what’s possible
Reconnect people to our true nature and love for the Earth
Imbue Life’s Principles in our design, operations, and ecosystems
Board & Team
Hover or click to reveal
With years of ethnographic fieldwork with young people in community-based arts organizations throughout the U.S., Adelma studies the creative activities and interactions of youth, both in and outside of school. Adelma is trained as an educational anthropologist, receiving a degree in Social Anthropology at Stanford University and a Master’s from Stanford's School of Education. Adelma has served on the Santa Fe Children and Youth Commission, the Santa Fe Arts Commission and on the boards of many non-profit organizations. She founded and ran Resolana Farms, a land-based creative residency program, and oversees her family’s historic ranch in northern New Mexico.
Adelma Aurora Power Hnasko
Board Chair
Dayna is the Co-founder of Biomimicry 3.8, Co-Director of the Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University, and creator with ASU of the world’s first Master’s of Science in Biomimicry. With a devotion to applied natural history and a passion for sharing the genius of nature, Dayna is the senior editor of Biomimicry Resource Handbook: A Seed Bank of Knowledge and Best Practices (2014), and led the growth of the field of biomimicry since 1998. Dayna has helped more than 100 companies consult the natural world for elegant and sustainable design solutions, including Nike, Interface, General Mills, Boeing, Kohler, Seventh Generation, and Procter & Gamble.
Dr. Dayna Baumeister
Board Member
Elsa has spent more than 35 years working in theatre as a writer, director, producer, and performer. She is the Deputy Director of Arts and Culture with the City of Albuquerque, and formerly the Director of Performing Arts at the National Hispanic Cultural Center and Field Representative for Senator Martin Heinrich. She has facilitated various workshops and retreats, including Bioneer’s Cultivating Women’s Leadership and the Women Leading Change initiative. Her latest creative endeavor is a project with POC artists investigating the impact of white supremacy culture on climate change, supporting locally-inspired climate solutions.
Elsa Menéndez
Board Member
Rachel is an award-winning author/artist/activist/educator; a former member of Bobby McFerrin’s a cappella ensemble, Voicestra, with a Stanford Law Degree. She is the founder of Singing Farm, a 20-acre solar-powered organic farm and learning center in central Virginia, where she offers creative leadership and healing retreats for women. She served on the founding faculty of BSI’s Living Systems Leadership retreats. An internationally recognized keynote speaker who has mentored women to unleash their voices as instruments of transformation, Rachel is the bestselling author of Daughterhood and Divine Daughters: Liberating the Power and Passion of Women’s Voices.
Rachel Bagby
Board Member
Drawing applied wisdom from the natural world, Toby is committed to the creation of a just, healthy, and regenerative society, acting as a cross-pollinator among leaders working on social equity, regenerative systems change, and climate solutions. With 30+ years of facilitation experience, she is an internationally recognized trainer, organizational consultant, and executive coach. She is Founder of BSI and faculty of Living Systems Leadership, a Senior Trainer with the Rockwood Leadership Institute, a certified Biomimicry Specialist, consultant to The Sierra Club and others, and key faculty in Biomimicry 3.8’s Professional Certification Program.
Toby Herzlich
Board member& Founder/Director
Alice is a biologist and designer for Sustainability, holding a Bachelor's degree in Biology from the University of Coimbra and a Master's degree in Design for Sustainability from the University of Lisbon. Her master thesis focused on the contributions of Biomimicry to the design of human social systems. She also works as a copywriter at Reboot Project, a youth organization dedicated to Sustainability communication. Besides her passion for nature and Biomimicry, among her interests is science communication, with a focus on scientific illustration. She is also passionate about social issues, which has led her to be involved in various social projects in her local community in Lisbon.
Alice Teixeira
Design Catalyst
Ana Javier accelerates people's and organizations' potential by focusing on the how. She generates life-enhancing systemic change by facilitating processes where agile action and co-creation are necessary. Ana has supported NGOs, governments, companies, and even citizen movements to reach a new 'what' based on a toolbox compiled through a diverse career path in entrepreneurship, transformative innovation, and her inner journey. As of 2021, she is pursuing a master's degree in Biomimicry at Arizona State University, and in 2022 he joined the BSI team to strengthen the community. One of the many lessons she has learned from the Nature world is the value of diversity in creating meaningful, mutually beneficial partnerships, such as lichens.
Ana Javier Quintero
Network Catalyst
Gina LaMotte is a social entrepreneur, systems-thinker and creative who is dedicated to the vision of a thriving, just and regenerative future. With over 20 years of experience working at the intersection of K-12 education, social innovation and sustainability, Gina has extensive experience in business strategy, cross-sector partnerships, and fundraising. In 2008, she founded EcoRise, a nonprofit supporting thousands of K-12 schools with programs advancing climate action, youth leadership, sustainability and environmental justice. Additionally, she created Gen:Thrive, a national initiative integrating biomimetic strategies, that provides data visualization tools to advance health, equity and climate resilience in K-12 schools.
Gina LaMotte
Growth & Impact Catalyst
Cate is a creative and strategic communicator who is passionate about climate change storytelling. She has studied community-led sustainable development in Thailand, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. She graduated from the University of Denver with a degree in International Relations and Sustainability where she wrote her thesis on co-created sustainability ethics in fishing communities on the Indian Ocean. She has worked as a communications professional in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors, and she is also a 200-hour certified yoga teacher. She is passionate about the intersections of individual health, community health, and the relationships between people and their local ecosystems.
Cate Daniels
Communications Catalyst
Therese Francis, PhD, has been working in nonprofit accounting for over 20 years. She has bachelor degrees in medical biology (with an emphasis in ecology) and English literature, a masters of science in medical communications, and a doctorate in theology with an understudy in quantum physics.
She currently sits on several nonprofit boards covering topics from animal rescue to bioethics.
Therese Francis
Chief Finance Officer