Matt Birkhold is a cultural worker whose facilitation and teaching practices aim to connect people to their creative capacity to understand and transform the world because he believes deeply in people's potential for growth and creativity. He is the founder and co-director of Visionary Organizing Lab, a learning laboratory that facilitates shifts from me-first thinking to we-first thinking. 

He facilitates project and organizational visioning, planning, execution, and culture building for organizations around the US. He has trained foundations in trust based philanthropy, is the author of Black Power Praxis, a book on Detroit's Black power Movement, has made multiple short films on community self-reliance projects, and is currently writing a book on community self-reliance projects, When Things Stop Working. He is a sought after facilitator and groups and people he’s worked with have gone on to better understand their work, deepen it, and create dignity affirming cultures to support it. 

He lives in Baltimore with his partner of 14 years, loves house music, and has been involved in social change work for more than two decades. He has a PhD in historical sociology.