Mia Birdsong is a pathfinder, culture change visionary, and futurist. She has a gift for making visible and leveraging the brilliance of everyday people so that our collective gifts reach larger spheres of influence, cultural and political change, and create well-being for all of us. She is also the founder and Council member of the Black Women's Freedom Circle. 

Mia is the founding Executive Director of Next River: An Institute For Practicing the Future. Through Next River, Mia is shifting conversations, culture, and resources to nourish the people, practices, and ideas that move us toward a liberated future. In her book How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community (Hachette, 2020), Mia maps swaths of community life and points us toward the promise of our collective vitality. In “More Than Enough,” her podcast miniseries from The Nation, she expands the guaranteed income movement by tapping into the voices and visions of low-income people.  

Previously, as founding Co-Director of Family Story, Mia lifted up a new national story about what makes a good family. As Vice President of the Family Independence Initiative, she leveraged the power of data and stories to illuminate and accelerate the initiative low-income families take to improve their lives.

Believing that, taken collectively, we are the guides we most need, Mia has made an art out of inviting people into rich explorations of how we map paths forward. Her writing, interviews, and public conversations draw targeted attention to the stories of people who are finding their way despite myriad barriers. Mia’s culture and context-shifting work helps us understand and embrace radical frameworks for concepts like freedom, deservedness, and interdependence. 

Mia is a Senior Fellow of the Economic Security Project, a Future Good Fellow at the Institute For the Future, and an inaugural Ascend Fellow of The Aspen Institute. She lives in Oakland California on the occupied land of the Chochenyo Ohlone people.