Martha Bird, Ph.D.

Martha Bird is Chief Business Anthropologist at ADP, where she helps design and create meaningful services, experiences and products. Her approach both questions and contextualizes the social and cultural dynamics of technology. Martha understands technology as a cultural phenomenon and sees it as deeply embedded in the broader contexts of geography, social norms, language, physical space and infrastructural capabilities.

Her diverse background informs her expertise. Martha grew up close to the land on her great-grandmother's farm and grew up working there. She left the farm to pursue a degree at Boston College, where she studied Western Philosophy and Art History. From there, she went on to study contemporary art theory and criticism at the Art Institute of Chicago. In search of a path to apply art to work, she returned to school for a PhD.