Iris Kavanagh

Iris Kavanagh has lived in and built intentional communities since 1971. As a leader of the coworking movement since 2009, Iris has focused on supporting impactful workplace communities as places of belonging. As the founding employee, she led the NextSpace team during initial expansion from 1 location to 9 and co-founded various industry groups including the League of Extraordinary Coworking Spaces and Women Who Cowork, produced Freelance Camps and has spoken at various industry conferences. Iris gets fired up about supporting entrepreneurship when it supports the planet and is a tool of equity in the shift towards equality. A child of the wilderness, Iris reveres Nature and wild places and believes that Indigenous peoples hold the knowledge for the care and healing of Mother Earth and thus must be allowed sovereignty in their lands and way of life. A life long learner, Iris enjoys diversity of thought, and experience and actively works towards creating a world where all voices are heard and respected and all life is protected. Iris currently consults, co-leads Women Who Cowork and runs Wild Heart Bakeshop, which she started as a Covid side hustle. She lives on the unceded ancestral lands of the Awawas Speaking Uypi Tribe, the Amah-Mutsun Tribal Band of Ohlone people, today known as Santa Cruz, California with her son and various fur and feathered babies.