Bonnie Buckner, Ph.D.
Program Lead & Senior Fellow
Dr. Buckner is the Founder and CEO of the International Institute for Dreaming and Imagery®. She holds a PhD in psychology, with an emphasis in media, and is an ICF PCC credentialed coach.
The core of Dr. Buckner’s work is using dreaming and imagery as tools for transformation in leadership, creativity, and personal development through coaching. Through the Institute she develops programming, facilitates learning, and oversees three certification programs. The Institute has three main pillars: the DYW Leadership program, focusing on leadership and coaching; the DYW Artist Lab, which applies the dreaming techniques for developing creativity in professional creative work; and, the DYW Kids® program which develops leadership and creativity in young people and trains their adult mentors.
Dr. Buckner is an Executive Coach and Senior Fellow at George Washington University’s Center for Excellence in Public Leadership and Program Lead in the Center’s One Humanity Leadership Coaching program where she also co-hosts the One Humanity Lab’s podcast.
She is a former adjunct lecturer for Fielding Graduate University in their doctoral and master in Media Psychology and Social Change programs and has spoken internationally on various topics of dreaming, the imagination, cognition, and role of images in behavior change.
Her previous experience includes co-founding MicroFocus Media, a political-media research company with clients including John Kerry for President campaign, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and others. She has served on the launch board for the Wilshire Center-KoreaTown business council, the grant selection committee for the LA Mayor’s Community Beautification office, and the Ambassador Hill Neighborhood Community-HBT-Councilman Garcetti partner tree-planting project in downtown LA. Dr. Buckner has also worked in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles; including directing a film/television production company and producing documentary programming.
