Keara Cormier-Hill is a dynamic, trauma-informed facilitator with over 15 years of experience creating inclusive, engaging, and strategically grounded learning environments. With a background in sociology, adolescent counseling, and design research, she brings a rare blend of warmth, critical inquiry, and systems thinking to every space she holds.

Keara has designed and facilitated sessions with a wide range of participants, from youth in the Dominican Republic reimagining community service, to state leaders evaluating social programs, to health tech teams exploring user insights.

She’s skilled at guiding groups through sensitive conversations, especially those involving vulnerable populations, equity, or lived experience. Her trauma-informed approach creates space for honest dialogue and deep reflection, while her ability to connect the dots between individual stories and systems-level change helps participants move from insight to action.

Whether she’s helping a team develop a theory of change, leading a participatory design sprint, or facilitating a multi-stakeholder strategy retreat, Keara’s style is collaborative, friendly, and highly adaptive. She’s able to meet people where they are while gently pushing them to think bigger.
She is also the founder of The South Design Research Studio, where she leads regional
co-design and research projects across the American South, Latin America, and the Caribbean.