JD,MHA,MFA (He/They)
Theo is a skilled, energetic Culture Futurist™ and innovator with 25 years of senior-level strategic national and international leadership experience spanning the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. A seasoned communicator, Theo’s unconventional background traverses and connects scholarly research with pop culture across scientific disciplines, data analytics, creativity, and cultural well-being in the places we work, learn, heal, and explore. As Directing co-founder of CU Denver’s Imaginator Academy – a cultural analytics, strategy, and futurist innovation hub, Theo is a weaver of ideas who scouts global networks of entrepreneurs, companies, scientists, artists, creative innovators, and change-makers of all kinds in order to find hidden opportunities that others miss.
Theo serves on the national board of directors for Americans for the Arts, the advisory board for Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association, co-leads the creativity sciences work group for the global Brain Capital Alliance, is lead culture strategist for Energize Colorado’s Small Business Resiliency Index.
An experienced builder of industry-university collaborations, Theo and collaborators have been recognized across many areas – from “Trailblazer” awards in research for culture analytics innovation inside a National Science Foundation-sponsored lab to many national grants and vision awards in arts and creative economy.
An artist, poet, and entrepreneur, Theo grew up in a nine-generation Appalachian family in southeastern Kentucky. Before moving to Denver, Colorado in 2021, Theo lived many professional lives in France, New York, Hawaii, Louisville, and New Orleans. In 2015, Southern Living Magazine named Theo one of “50 People Changing the Face of the South” for the futurist leadership demonstrated in launching the arts and culture innovation non-profit IDEAS xLab, with husband Josh Miller.
Today, Theo is the cultural well-being and creativity sciences lead for a diverse range of international initiatives operating at the intersection of creative industries, public health, neuroscience, and economics. Having served 2021-2022 academic year as Associate Dean for Transdisciplinary Research & Innovation in CU Denver College of Arts & Media, Theo returned to a hands-on innovation role as a research faculty team member in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences’ Master of Humanities and Master of Social Science programs (MHMSS).