Danielle Knight
Partnerships and Development Lead at the School of System Change
Background
Danielle develops strategic partnerships with changemakers that navigate complexity to realise regenerative possibilities. She has led partnerships for just and regenerative futures with world-leading design organisations including Superflux and four different universities, most recently Central Saint Martins, UAL.
Her work has shaped systems in various contexts: placemaking, agriculture, health, the creative industries, sustainability, and international cooperation. Partners have included the British Library, Mozilla Foundation, the United Nations Development programme, Innovate UK, Science Tokyo, rearc institute, British Wool, and the Swiss Centre for Design & Health.
As the first person in her family to go to university, Danielle is an advocate for the transformational power of learning. After studying philosophy, she investigated mindfulness and flow states through postgraduate research at the intersection of cognitive science, digital anthropology, and narrative theory.
Through her practice she continues to learn – including crafting speculative fiction, tending to a community permaculture garden, and yoga practice.
At the School of System Change
As Partnerships and Development Lead at the School, Danielle works with the CEO, workstream leads and Operations Director to lead and enable strategic partnerships and develop our funding pipeline. Through this work within the Enabling Team, the School creates pathways from overwhelm to agency so changemakers and leaders can navigate complexity and the evolving field of systems change.
"The School embraces multiple methods and perspectives of systems change. So in this spirit I offer two quotes from two very different thinkers which nod to the emergent, interconnected, nested and alive nature of systems change practice in different ways. From philosopher Michael Foucault: “Justice must always question itself, just as society can exist only by means of the work it does on itself and on its institutions.” From speculative fiction writer Octavia Butler: “All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you.”"
