Alisha Bhagat
I am a futurist and strategist whose work focuses on the creative use of futures tools such as strategic foresight and scenarios planning to impact long term positive change. I am the Futures Lead at Forum for the Future, a sustainability non-profit where I work with organizations looking to make significant impact in systems such as food, consumer goods, and mobility. I also apply my futures practice to work with organizations tackling global challenges such as poverty, public health, and democracy building in the hopes that we can apply a long-term lens to present-day actions. In addition to my work at Forum, I am a part-time faculty member at Parsons School of Design where I teach immersive scenario planning and transdisciplinary design.
I am passionate about changing the narrative around who the future is for - and I am honored to have planted the seed that grew into the Diaspora Futures Collective. I'm deeply inspired by the ability of futures to expand to fit new modalities and am integrating concepts of decoloniality, circularity, collaboration, and healing into my work.
When not thinking about the future, I am a sci fi enthusiast and avid gamer. One my greatest pleasures is being an urban flanuer and walking around my city and discovering new things.
Q&A
What are the problems you are interested in solving?
In many ways we are living during a time of great disruption and collapse. Many aspects of the old world are dying and no longer serve us. I am interested in futures that seek to envision and create new possibilities for some of our critical global systems - our economic system, the way we work and live, and our relationship to the planet.
Fundamentally I am interested in bridging futures into action, and using futures a means to getting people and organizations to act urgently, and collectively on the problems of the next 20 years.
What areas of work can people contact you for?
I love working on projects that help people see the future differently and inspire collective impact. Some of the tools I use are horizon scanning, scenario planning, ethnographic research, facilitation and workshops, game design, immersive futures, and speculative design.
Where can people find you?
www.forumforthefuture.org
https://www.thefuturescentre.org/
https://www.newschool.edu/parsons/faculty/alisha-bhagat/
