About Jessica

Jessica Riehl is an intrepid guide and curious explorer who journeys alongside mission-driven organizations through familiar yet ever-changing waters. Through Deep Current Studio, she helps teams discover what lies beneath the surface—uncovering hidden patterns, revealing unseen constraints, and charting courses through complexity together. Like the ocean itself, organizational challenges shift with seasons, currents, and context—requiring fresh exploration each time.

Jessica’s expeditions span diverse domains: from the decks of Navy vessels (USS Fort McHenry, USS Mt Whitney) to nonprofit board rooms and community halls in New Mexico to federal agencies and senior living facilities. She’s journeyed through systems thinking, human-centered design, visual facilitation, and collaborative design—each expedition revealing new ways to help organizations see clearly and move purposefully.

A co-developer of Systems Scribing methodology, Jessica has explored these territories with fellow travelers worldwide—training 450+ practitioners and co-authoring Systems Scribing: An Emerging Visual Practice (2023). As an Art of Hosting steward, she continues discovering alongside communities across the Pacific Northwest. As a member of the Portland Correspondence Co-Op, Pacific Northwest Collage Collective and the Special Agent Collage Collective, she continues to expand her personal artistic practice.

Like lifelong inspiration, Ernest Shackleton, Jessica knows the most valuable explorations are never solo ventures – they require trusted companions, adaptive navigation, and the courage to chart new paths together.

Image of Jessica Riehl. Jessica is a white woman with long brown hair.

Deep Currents

The Deep Current Studio name reflects both formal training and lived experience. With a minor in oceanography and time served in the Navy, navigation isn’t just a metaphor—it’s a practiced skill. The Navy taught the discipline of reading instruments, understanding currents, and charting courses through uncertainty. Oceanography revealed how powerful forces move beneath what’s visible on the surface.

 

Deep Current Studio brings this dual understanding—scientific knowledge of how systems work and practical navigation skills—to organizational challenges. Like experienced sailors who can sense changing currents, the work combines analytical rigor with intuitive understanding. This isn’t about quick fixes or surface-level solutions. Deep currents move slowly but powerfully. Meaningful organizational change takes time and sustained attention to underlying dynamics.

Learning

  • Workplaces At Their Best, Certification, VIA Institute, 2025
  • Nonprofit Management Certificate, Oregon State University, 2024
  • Human Systems Dynamics Associate, Human Systems Dynamics Institute, 2019
  • Foundations and Advanced Visual Practice, Presencing Institute, 2018 and 2019
  • Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, 2018
  • Brain Based Coaching, NeuroLeadership Institute, 2018
  • Authentic Leadership Certificate, Naropa University, 2016
  • Level 1 Improv, Brody Theater, 2015
  • Graphic Facilitation, The Grove, 2015
  • M.F.A. Pacific Northwest College of Art, Collaborative Design, 2015
  • M.S. Johns Hopkins University, Environmental Science and Policy, 2013
  • B.S. Oregon State University, Environmental Science, 2000

Clients

Art of Hosting Olympia, Athena Group, Authentic Leadership Center at Naropa University, Bridge Management, Center for Health Innovation New Mexico, Bridgeport Elementary School, Clackamas County Early Learning Hub, Cocomotion, City of Tigard, College and Career Collaborative, College Housing Northwest, Concepts in Community Living, Confluence Environmental Center, Energy Trust of Oregon, Hearth and Truss, Human Systems Dynamics Institute, Innovative Housing Inc., It’s Our School, Kelvy Bird LLC, Metzger Elementary School, National Association of Strategic Arts Agencies, Nations Alliance, Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission, Oregon Solar Energy Industries, Our Table Farm, Pratt and Larson, Pacific Northwest Conference United Church of Christ, Presencing Institute, PSU Impact Summit, Productive Conflict, Resonate Consulting, Rotary Club of Portland, Samara Group, Technical Assent, Tigard Tualatin School District, Timbers Army, Union Creative Agency, WA Government Performance Consortium.