The future cannot be predicted, but it can be explored, challenged, and rehearsed.
What if being prepared for the future wasn’t about having the right answers, but about strengthening how you think? In environments dominated by short-term pressures, the ability to think beyond the present is emerging as a critical leadership advantage.
Imagination is a fundamental cognitive capability that allows us to generate possibilities beyond what exists today. Yet in fast-paced and uncertain environments, we rarely make time to develop it. When imagination is underused, we default to reaction, overlook emerging signals, and feel less prepared for what’s ahead. Research consistently shows that while the vast majority of leaders see imagination as critical to future success, only a small minority actively cultivate it in practice.
Strategic foresight provides a way to actively build this capability — combining data, signals, and structured exploration with generative thinking to help individuals rehearse possibilities and shape more intentional outcomes. Organizations that apply these future-focused practices consistently outperform peers in growth, resilience, and innovation.
Led by leading foresight practitioners, this interactive session engages participants in futures thinking and real-time exploration through approaches like scenarios, provocations, and reflection, creating space to strengthen imagination in action.
About the Speakers
Nina Maturu, MBA’13, MPP’13
Nina Maturu, MBA’13, MPP’13, is an award-winning strategist, futurist, and innovation executive. She was recently a futurist at NASA, where she led the expansion of its strategic foresight practice, leveraging AI and advanced analytics to map emerging technologies and trends through 2075, informing strategic investments in the present. At ARPA-H (DARPA for health), she served as senior advisor to leadership during its founding year, architecting innovation capabilities for the $4 billion agency to help breakthrough health technologies transition from bench to bedside.
Her Fortune 500 experience includes launching American Express’ mobile wallet ecosystem, transforming how millions of customers make payments. Her portfolio also includes launching an international wine category on Amazon, designing transatlantic flight experiences for JetBlue, exploring the future of collaboration at 3M, and creating a 10-year consumer health pipeline at Bayer.
As managing partner at Constellation Design Strategy, Maturu partners with private, public, and nonprofit organizations to implement strategic foresight and human-centered innovation approaches that drive real results and manage uncertainty.
She is a sought-after keynote speaker, engaging audiences globally on the future of human-computer interaction and how to future-proof humanity amid technological transformation.
Maturu shapes the next generation of future-forward thinkers as an adjunct professor at New York University and Parsons School of Design.
She holds an MBA and Master of Public Policy from the University of Michigan and bachelor’s degree in history from New York University.
Sabrina Sullivan, MBA’14, MS’14
Sabrina Sullivan, MBA’14, MS’14, is a corporate foresight practitioner, researcher, and educator with more than 15 years of experience helping organizations and leaders bridge the gap between future possibilities and actionable strategy. She is the founder of by+by foresight and the co-creator of Leaders for Humanity, a leadership tool and game designed to spark bold thinking in times of complexity.
Sullivan has held leadership roles at Deloitte and Foresight Factory and has advised and collaborated with global organizations including Ford Motor Co., TED, and Singularity University. Her global research on foresight practice also led to the development of the Foresight Spectrum, a framework for understanding and communicating how futures work creates value across organizations.
A sought-after speaker, she has presented at global forums including the Dubai Future Forum, with a particular interest in making futures thinking accessible to leaders, learners, and even children.
Sullivan holds an MBA from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business and an MS in sustainable systems from the School of Natural Resources and Environment, now the School for Environment and Sustainability, both at the University of Michigan, where she is a proud alumna.