Research Interests

Organizational culture and change, metaphor, emergent change

Biography

Dr. Deb Kirby received her Ph.D. in Transformative Studies from CIIS. She is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the CIIS School of Consciousness and Transformation, the School of Professional Psychology and Health, and is a Distinguished Fellow of the CIIS Center for Writing and Scholarship where she teaches two courses and primarily works with dissertation writers in developing critical thinking and academic writing skills. Metaphor has been a long-time research focus as an extrarational way of knowing and a portal to generativity. She has ghostwritten over 60 articles for publication in trade and business journals, and most recently authored an article for Strategic HR Review.   

Education

California Institute of Integral Studies, Ph.D. Transformative Studies

Wisdom University, M.A. Wisdom Studies

Illinois State University, M.S. Speech Communications and Organizational Development

Courses

Comprehensive Exam: Literature Review (several departments)

Ecology of Ideas

Introduction to Academic Research and Writing

Academic Foundations: Academic Writing and Scholarship

Academic Foundations: Composition and Communication Skills

Publications

Kirby, D. (2019), "Changing the nature of organizational change," Strategic HR Review, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 155-160; “Healing the corporate body: A 21st century metaphor for change.” Human Science Institute conference on Compassion, Connection and Response-Ability, September 2016.

Deb has been invited to speak at the 20th International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, and Change in Organizations in May. The title of her presentation is, "Drawing Out Imagination: Liberating the Invisible Forces of Culture Using Metaphor to Reimagine Change."