Ingrid LaFleur

Ingrid LaFleur is a cultural advisor, futures researcher, afrofuture theorist, and pleasure activist committed to exploring and implementing forward-thinking solutions across multidisciplinary industries including, but not limited to, art, technology, education, social enterprise, and finance. As the founder of The Afrofuture Strategies Institute, she facilitates the development of afrofuture thinking by combining foresight methodologies and the cultural movement Afrofuturism.

A former candidate for the mayor of Detroit, LaFleur has made it her mission to ensure equal distribution of the future. Through The Afrofuture Strategies Institute, she helps communities imagine digital solutions to address their socio-economic issues, and co-creates strategies for the digital transformation to take place. Throughout the process, LaFleur ensures the tech developed is culturally informed and community-driven.

As a thought leader, social justice technologist, public speaker, teacher, and cultural advisor, LaFleur has led conversations and workshops at Centre Pompidou (Paris), TEDx Brooklyn, Harvard University, and Oxford University, among others. Her work has been featured in the New York Times and TIME magazine and on NPR's "This American Life." She is a member of the Association of Professional Futurists.

Formally educated as an art historian, LaFleur began her career in marketing at the Museum for African Art in New York before returning to her hometown of Detroit. LaFleur holds a BA in Art History from Spelman College and attended the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University for her MA. She is currently studying at the University of Houston for an MS in Foresight.