Innovation Fellow

Marc Freedman Portrait

*

DEBORAH TIEN

Co-founder, Common Agency
Strengthening the social fabric and rebuilding intergenerational trust, one neighborhood at a time
“It takes a village to do anything, and for a village to work together, it needs to be built on intergenerational trust.”

Deborah Tien works at the intersection of regenerative networks, participatory design and technology for impact. She is currently working as co-founder of Common Agency, a start-up strengthening the social fabric of USA cities by building a program to support intergenerational “block stewards.”

Previously, she spent five years building ecosystems for inclusive innovation in Africa at Twende, a Tanzanian design hub for local-scale innovation, first as Director of Development, then as its first Executive Director.

Deborah holds a Masters of Management Science (Public Policy) from Tsinghua University, China, where she studied as a Schwarzman Scholar, and a BA from Wellesley College, USA, where she majored in astrophysics.