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Christopher Bell  

Executive Consultant & Chief Associate at CreativityPartners, LLC; Creative Consultant & Creative Producer in Diversity & Inclusion in Entertainment

Dr. Christopher Bell is a speaker, scholar, and animation consultant who focuses on helping audiences discover the power of storytelling in building healthy relationships, workplace cultures, and organizations. His work is redefining the idea of “diversity training.” What can we learn from the popular culture we consume about who we are as a people and who we want to be in the future?

Aiming to bridge the divide between academic study and the production of entertainment media, Dr. Bell specializes in the study of the ways in which race, class, and gender intersect in different forms of young adult culture. His innovative Creative Inclusion strategy for story development and world-building is at the heart of his professional practice. Dr. Bell was an executive story consultant on the Pixar feature films Onward and Soul, Skydance Animation’s feature films Luck, Spellbound, and Pookoo and the streaming series WondLA, and 1943: The Rise of Hydra, an upcoming video game from Skydance New Media.

Recognized nationally for his expertise in children's culture, Dr. Bell has taught and published on critical analysis of popular culture, rhetorical theory, representation theory, and the history of mass media. He is a 1.3+ million-view TEDx speaker and a David Letterman Award-winning media scholar.

Dr. Bell holds a bachelor's degree in Social Studies and Creative Writing from the University of Northern Colorado, a master's degree in Screenwriting from San Diego State University, and a Ph.D. in Media Studies from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Speech Topics

Storytelling for Leaders

A story is a powerful tool that most people don’t know how to properly use -- and storytelling is one of the most important skills a true leader needs to succeed. A good story can change workplace culture, bring people together, inspire innovation, or provide a vision for the future. Dr. Bell gives audiences a concrete framework for telling a story in a unique and compelling way that will open the door for real connections with others.

Communication Across Generations

Everything we think we know about how generations work is fundamentally flawed. In this fascinating talk, Dr. Bell introduces audiences to a new framework for thinking about generations based on cultural touchstones that influence the generation’s values, motivations, and world views. This new configuration of generations unlocks significant potential for better, more open, more informed communication across generational lines. It is a truly mind-blowing experience.

Purposeful Storytelling

Particularly salient for audiences who are actively engaged in creating messaging, Dr. Bell presents a framework for why the type of stories we tell—and who is involved in telling those stories—matters. Drawing upon years of research and professional practice, Dr. Bell shows the audience the symbolic nature of storytelling and the ways in which unintentional messaging can creep into even the most carefully crafted of stories. Dr. Bell then provides a solid road map to telling deeper, more purposeful stories.

Media Messaging

Dr. Bell will open the minds of your audience to the ways in which popular culture shapes how we feel about ourselves, how we treat other people, and how we see the world. Dr. Bell reveals the roots of public pedagogy - how media perform the function of teaching us to be members of our society. Using examples from popular culture -- Star Wars, Disney films, the NFL … it’s all fair game -- Dr. Bell weaves an intricate and compelling tapestry of media messages to help attendees become more savvy media consumers.

Not Diversity Training

“I love diversity training!” said almost no employee ever. Dr. Bell takes audiences beyond the played-out, standard “diversity training” to help people understand and identify the roots of ideological, institutional, and interpersonal frameworks and move toward a more inclusive environment in a tangible way.

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