Jewlya Lynn
Systems change facilitator
Background
Jewlya Lynn is a distinguished facilitator, advisor, and researcher dedicated to supporting global leaders in addressing complex social and cultural challenges—commonly known as 'wicked problems'—characterized by intricate interconnections and persistence. Her career began more than twenty years ago with the management of a transformative project designed to enhance social services, juvenile justice, and education systems in response to the Columbine school shooting. Over the subsequent decade, Ms. Lynn facilitated, managed, and contributed to a diverse array of system change initiatives at both local and state levels. She acquired extensive practical experience in reforming public- and private-sector systems that directly impact individuals and the environment.
From there, Ms. Lynn shifted to working with philanthropy to tackle global problems. Her current work focuses on exploring how AI is disrupting systems and can augment our systems change work; and making visible how change really happens in complex, dynamic systems. A few of her notable roles and projects have included: serving as the Co-Director of the Causal Pathways Initiative, a facilitator and developmental evaluator with the National Science Foundation’s EarthCube Initiative (building cyber infrastructure in the hard sciences for the 21st century), an advisor, facilitator, and trainer with N Square (the cross-roads for nuclear security innovation), leading the systems mapping and systems practice for Horizon 2045 (an audacious project to end the nuclear weapons century), and leading systems learning practices for Humanity United and the Freedom Fund’s joint effort to end slavery in the seafood industry.
At the School of System Change
Jewlya is a contributor to a Seedling Series session in September 2026, Using AI to Augment Systems Change Practices.
With Julia Coffman, Jewlya taught two related courses on mental models in systems change in February 2025. One course was for philanthropic partners, recognising that power dynamics are part of how we navigate differences in mental models. The other was more generally focused for anyone engaging in systems change work.
Jewlya is also a member of the MEL in Systems Change Inquiry Group hosted by the School of System Change in 2023. The inquiry group convened people specialising in monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) to co-produce thought pieces on what is emerging in MEL in the field of systems change as well as bridge traditional MEL with complexity-informed developmental MEL. Learn more about the project.
