Donna Flynn

Donna Flynn is Vice President, Global Talent, leading Steelcase’s efforts to attract, retain, develop, engage, and inspire Steelcase employees around the world. She has been with the company since 2011 and was appointed to this role in March 2020. Prior to this role, Donna served as Vice President, Workspace Futures, leading a team of design researchers studying the future of work, workers, and the workplace to inform Steelcase’s strategy, culture, and product design and development. She has collaborated with, hired, and been inspired by many ID graduates and faculty over the years.

Before joining Steelcase, Donna spent nine years leading experience research and strategy at Microsoft, helping to design and develop user experiences across a range of products. She was also a user experience consultant at Sapient in San Francisco, a social science analyst at the International Center for Research on Women in Washington, DC, and an international development consultant in Africa and the Middle East. She has also served on the Advisory Board of the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado, an interdisciplinary institute for radical creativity and invention.

Donna earned her PhD in anthropology from Northwestern University (1996) and never imagined at that time that she would ever call herself a designer. She was a Fulbright Scholar from 1993 to 1994, and received a BA in anthropology/African and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Colorado (1989). Donna’s home base is a 20-acre ranch in Colorado and she travels the world physically and virtually to design better work experiences for Steelcase and their customers.