Dr. Karen Tilstra

Need a speaker who brings energy, laughs, real tools—and zero snooze factor? Meet Dr. Karen Tilstra: creativity guru, Experience Architect, and audience activator.

Her secret? She believes everyone is creative and wired for leadership (even that guy in accounting).

Her high-energy, interactive keynotes are part TED Talk, part improv, part leadership boot camp, guaranteed to get people thinking, laughing, and doing.

Over the past two decades, Dr. Tilstra has had a blast helping teams and leaders do what they thought they couldn’t—think differently, lead boldly, and create real change. She’s launched award-winning innovation labs and led hundreds of high-impact projects with Fortune 500 companies, healthcare giants, pro sports teams, government agencies, universities, NGOs, and private businesses—all earning rave reviews and repeat invites.

As founder of Creativity Effect, Dr. Tilstra’s global work has taken her across the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, helping organizations ditch stale strategies and ignite bold new thinking. She's a two-time TEDx speaker, co-creator of the U.S.’s first undergrad program in Innovation & Social Entrepreneurship, and inventor of the Orchard Model of Innovation—yes, that’s a thing. She holds a PhD in Creative Leadership (because why not?), is a licensed Educational Psychologist, and is the author of two no-BS innovation books: Amazon bestseller "The Deathline: Stopping the #1 Killer of Human Potential" (2022) and "101 Ways to Ignite Collaboration, Boost Creativity & Fuel Innovation" (2023).

Offstage, she’s either on an annual “Art & Creativity Tour” with her artist husband or teaching her grandkids how to brainstorm like champions.

Want a keynote speaker who lights up the stage, and actually changes how people think and work? Dr. Tilstra won’t just inspire your audience, she’ll activate them. Because a keynote should shake things up... not put people to sleep.