Nina Simon

Nina Simon has worn many hats: NASA engineer, slam poet, mystery game designer, exhibit developer, museum director, global nonprofit founder. Most of her career has been spent in museums and cultural centers, and she has been described as a “museum visionary” by Smithsonian Magazine for her community-based approach to design. She is an Ashoka fellow and the founder of OF/BY/FOR ALL, a global nonprofit that creates digital tools to help civic and cultural organizations become more inclusive, relevant, and sustainable.

Alongside her work engaging communities, Nina is an in-demand writer and speaker about community participation in museums, libraries, parks, and theaters. She has sold over 40,000 copies of her self-published books The Participatory Museum (2010) and The Art of Relevance (2016), and for thirteen years, she ran the top blog in the museum industry, Museum 2.0. She has over 25,000 Twitter followers, and she has shared her work as a keynote speaker at over 300 conferences in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, including several state and national library conferences. Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, NPR, the New York Times, and on the TEDx stage.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Nina now lives in an off- grid community in the Santa Cruz mountains with her husband and daughter. She loves outdoor sports and adventures.