What We Do
Tessa Finlev
Research Manager, Ten-Year Forecast
Follow Tessa on Twitter: @futressa
As research manager for the Ten-Year Forecast program, Tessa has a special interest in social responsibility, international development, and building effective social change movements. She came to IFTF as a program manager for the Ten-Year Forecast team in 2008 with a degree in anthropology and experience as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya. When she later temporarily left IFTF to attend graduate school at Fordham University, she began to look critically at the role futures thinking might play in helping people break out of cycles of violence. Enamored with the process of creating foresight, she returned to IFTF at the start of 2012.
Tessa’s current work is focused on building inclusive futures and moving beyond violent conflict into futures without fear. She is interested in facilitating a broader understanding of Africa, particularly leveraging the continent’s experience in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world to build resilience globally. More recently, Tessa has begun to look into how humans as a species might be evolving into something different from what we are today, with massive implications for how we build the world around us. She holds a BA in anthropology from UC Santa Cruz and an MA in international political economy and development from Fordham University.
Making the Future
“As the old adage goes, ‘the journey is more important than the destination.’ The process of creating foresight together can go a long way toward building a more equitable and peaceful world. Collaborative foresight can elicit nuanced perspectives on our particular dilemma, build a common language around a shared future, and empower us to feel in control of our own futures. Collaborative foresight should be a regular tool for all social change movements.”