Alongside his research and strategy practice, Cory now builds AI tools for the social sector and helps teams learn to use AI well: demystifying the technology, identifying practical use cases, and developing responsible AI policies. His current projects include Throughlines, a conversational tool for building Theories of Change, and Catastrofixing, a contingency-planning tool for nonprofits. He also writes AI for English Majors, a newsletter exploring what this technology means in human terms. He has recently led an AI workshop for the Chicago Vibrant Neighborhoods Collective and delivered a webinar for the Society for Health Communication.
This work builds on nearly a decade as a researcher and strategist with cultural and mission-driven organizations. As former co-director of Slover Linett, an audience research firm acquired by NORC at the University of Chicago, Cory led multi-method social research and evaluation studies for arts, culture, and social-sector organizations. His work has spanned museums like the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Field Museum, the Smithsonian, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art; performing arts organizations including Carnegie Hall, Cleveland Play House, and UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance; and public space and public history projects like the High Line, the Obama Presidential Center, and StoryCorps. That work taught him how nonprofits actually run: how decisions get made, where workflows break down, and where outside help is genuinely useful.
Cory came up as a maker. He holds an MFA in writing from the California Institute of the Arts and a degree from Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center, where he worked across film, video game production, and interactive media. After ETC, he helped design YOUmedia, a digital learning space for teens at the Chicago Public Library that has since been replicated in libraries around the world. AI has reopened that maker’s door in a new way, and much of his work now sits at the intersection of building tools and writing about the experience of building them.
Get in touch
For consulting inquiries, speaking, or just to say hello: hello@corygarfin.com · LinkedIn · Substack.