I’m Keri Tietjen Smith, a strategist, storyteller, and coach who has spent my life building bridges between people, ideas, and opportunity. My career began in talent acquisition, where I learned how to spot potential, build teams, and create systems that help organizations grow. Over the years, that work expanded into advising executives, developing future-of-work strategies, and helping leaders navigate disruption with clarity and confidence.

But my story isn’t just about business. It’s about resilience. I’ve navigated profound personal loss, raised a family while building businesses, and reinvented myself more than once. Those experiences taught me that transformation is never a straight line, it’s a fire you walk through, and when you emerge, you carry a strength you didn’t know you had.

Today, I bring that blend of professional expertise and lived experience to everything I do. Through The Wildfire Group, I coach executives, guide organizations, and design strategies for a rapidly changing world of work. Through Wildfire Success and our Spark Community , I create spaces for people to reclaim their voice, repurpose their lives, and turn challenges into catalysts.

Whether I’m writing, coaching, or speaking, my goal is the same: to help people see possibility where others see limits, to connect strategy with humanity, and to spark change that spreads.