Brad Fortier

He/Him

Board Secretary

Brad Fortier, MA, is an anthropologist, author, educator and entertainer. He has been teaching and training adults in a variety of settings for more than 20 years. He combines two fields of applied work in his research and training background: applied anthropology and applied improvisation. Brad has been working in the inclusion, diversity, equity and access space since creating Spontaneous Village. It’s a trauma-informed game and play-based community-building intervention for refugees used in 2014 in San Antonio, Texas, and Berlin, Germany, in 2016. He had an advisory role with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in 2016 for incorporating interactive and experiential training methods in their work.

Brad is the author of “Long-Form Improvisation: Collaboration, Comedy, Communion”; “A Culture of Play: Essays on the Origins, Effects, and Applications of Improvised Theatre”; and a chapter in “Applied Improvisation: Leading, Collaborating and Creating Beyond the Theatre” published by Bloomsbury London in 2018. His thinking, scholarship and field research on applying improvisation are foundational for this emerging field of training.

Brad was the coordinator for Portland Community College’s Illumination Project, a student leadership program that uses interactive theater to teach about social justice issues. While at PCC, he sat on the planning committee and delivered training for the first ever “Whiteness History Month”. Brad has also spoken, taught, directed and performed across the United States, Canada and the European Union. He tries to listen more than he speaks and be accountable, present, genuine, and clear when he facilitates.

Virtual Facilitation Experience: Brad has been facilitating virtual learning twice a week since June 2020. As part of the public health response to COVID-19 in Oregon, he has been delivering Contact-Tracing training with a focus on motivational interviewing, cultural responsiveness, and trauma-informed communication. As some of his volunteer board work for a local theater school, he has also been facilitating quarterly “Inclusive Teaching & Coaching” seminars for instructors through Zoom. He is a fan of using breakout rooms and the white board options in Zoom to facilitate group learning through simple games, activities, small group discussions, and capturing feedback in group debriefs.