Donna Flynn is vice president, chief people officer at Steelcase Inc., the company that helps people do their best work by creating places that work better.
Donna joined Steelcase in 2011 and has since played a pivotal role in shaping the company’s people-centered culture across many parts of the business. In her current role, she oversees Human Resources, Learning + Development, and Leadership Effectiveness globally, and is responsible for leading the company’s efforts to attract, retain, develop, and inspire employees.
Previously, Donna was vice president, Workspace Futures, where she led Steelcase research on the future of work, worker, and workplace and embedded those insights across strategy, product, and marketing. Under her leadership, the team led design research + strategy on topics such as wellbeing at work, neuroscience of work, emerging technologies, and social dynamics of multigenerational workplaces—and also co-created a multitude of successful products with product development teams.
Before joining Steelcase, Donna worked as an experience strategist and research manager at Microsoft, where she designed and developed user experiences across mobility, healthcare, work and consumer products. Donna’s prior experience includes serving as a social science analyst at the International Center for Research on Women in Washington, D.C. and working as an international development consultant.
An active volunteer in her community in Colorado, Donna has most recently been supporting the design and development of an 8500 sf nature center for a 30-year old non-profit environmental education organization, Wild Bear Nature Center.
Donna received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology/African and Middle Eastern studies from the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where she was also a Fulbright Scholar.
