Keri Tietjen Smith

Keri has traveled to more than 40 countries, studying how different cultures think about work, identity, community, autonomy, and capability. That global exposure, seeing how societies construct value and structure opportunity, deeply informs her approach. It reinforced her belief that the way we work is not natural law, it is constructed, which means it can be redesigned.

Keri’s core strength is navigating liminality, the space between the old and the emerging, the familiar and the unformed. She helps companies decide when to Human and when to AI, choosing the moments where human judgment and intuition must lead and the contexts where technology can accelerate pattern recognition and operational scale. She ensures that AI enhances capability without eroding dignity or human decision making.

Keri built recruiting operations during NetSuite’s hypergrowth, led large scale workforce deployment for the U.S. Census, and has advised leaders on how AI, psychology, and culture shape opportunity. Her campaign experience sharpened her understanding of narrative, influence, and political cognition and how humans choose leaders, stories, and values.

Through The Wildfire Group, Keri operates on two fronts

• partnering with corporations to modernize hiring systems and cultivate psychologically safe and high trust cultures

• working with driven private clients to reconstruct identity, capability, narrative, and direction with clarity and intent

Keri is known for intellectual clarity, emotional steadiness, and authentic insight. People trust her to say the quiet part out loud, illuminate unseen patterns, and build roadmaps for real human growth inside evolving systems.

Education

• Capella University, B.S. in Psychology

• Cornell University, Brand Management Certification

• Chopra Institute and Institute for Integrative Nutrition, Total Wellbeing Coach Certification

Professional Focus

• Applied Psychology

• Talent Architecture

• Liminality and Identity Transformation

• Future of Work Strategy

• AI in Hiring and Selection Systems

• Ethical AI and AI Workforce Transformation

• Organizational Culture Development

• Leadership and Reinvention Coaching

• Brand Management and Human Narrative Positioning

Philanthropic and Advocacy Initiatives

• Mentor for individuals navigating career transitions

• Advocate for worker dignity and equitable hiring

• Supporter of economic mobility and opportunity initiatives

• Founder of KINVII, a regenerative living and community model centered on housing access, contribution based culture, and equitable quality of life

Email: keri@keriellentietjen.com

Medium: https://medium.com/@onlocationwithkeri

Substack: https://substack.com/@onlocationwithkeri

• Chopra Institute Health Advisor

• BSci Psychology

• TA Thought Leaders

• KINVII-Modern Regenerative Affordable Housing