About Connected to Place and Matt Biggar, Ph.D.
San Francisco Children & Nature @ Literacy for Environmental Justice
Mission
Connected to Place supports collaboratives, nonprofits, government, and foundations in becoming more effective, efficient, and impactful. We help catalyze systems change in regions, counties, and cities that regenerate nature, community, and local wealth through facilitation, strategic planning, research, workshops, writing, and presentations.
Top of Twin Peaks, San Francisco
Vision
All people live connected to nature, community, and each other in inclusive, resilient communities of well-being. We regenerate community, nature, and local wealth, alleviate today’s interrelated crises; and fill our lives with happiness, meaning, and hope.
Why Connected to Place?
In the 21st century, we face multiple interrelated crises— notably climate change, biodiversity loss, inequality, and social divisions. At the same time, Americans have become less happy and more stressed, worried, and angry. We are living shorter lives for the first time in a century. Underlying all these alarming trends is our alienation from nature, community, and each other.
Living connected to place restores these vital connections in our everyday life that are central to our well-being. We can drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, rebuild our social fabric, strengthen community resilience, and revitalize local economies through a local orientation to life. Systems change strategies (shifting power, transforming land use, and resetting culture) provide the path to Place-Based Systems and living with happiness, meaning, and hope.
Matt Biggar, Ph.D.
Principal and Founder of Connected to Place
Matt has 28 years of professional experience as a strategy consultant, researcher, organizational leader, and educator. He earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2015, where his research involved behavioral science, sustainability, and collective impact. In 2016, Matt founded Connected to Place. Matt is also a speaker and writer with a forthcoming book and several published articles in academic journals and the Stanford Social Innovation Review, involving his research on human behavior and systems change.
Connected to Place is a strategy consulting firm, supporting collaboratives, nonprofits, government, and foundations in achieving systems-level impact.
Certifications
California Small Business Enterprise (SBE) # 2006325
San Francisco Local Business Enterprise (LBE) #CMD06211000219 in Meeting/Retreat Facilitation
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Codes
54161 Management Consulting Services
541618 Other Management Consulting Services
6111 Elementary and Secondary Schools
488999 All Other Support Activities for Transportation
Essential Facilitation, Interaction Associates