Deepthi Welaratna is a writer, musician, and independent consultant specializing in website and AI product development, data-driven storytelling, creative campaigns, and design for social impact.

In 2014, she founded Thicket, a data-driven design lab and technology startup with an AI-based platform that has spread innovation to millions of people around the world. Thicket has been featured in Fast Company, USA Today, and at SXSW Interactive two years running.

Her work has been published or aired by San Francisco's KQED Public Media, Stanford Social Innovation Review, the International Documentary Association, and Third Coast International Audio Festival among other outlets. She wrote the foreword to the book The Art of Voting (2020), created as a fundraiser for Stacy Abrams, and is a contributor to the ebook Communities Creating Health (2015).

Her music under the name Dark Spring Thunder has been played on the program Swiss Air airing on 4ZZZZ in Australia, and she is a member of Society of the Wing and Scale. She’s performed at venues including NYC’s The Bowery Electric.

Her creative direction and sound and video design work for live performance and exhibitions has been performed or installed at venues including the Mark Miller Gallery, New Ohio Theatre, Dixon Place, Columbia University’s Schapiro Theatre, Page 22, the NYC Fringe Festival, and 924 Gilman.

She’s been invited to speak at the American Evaluation Association’s Annual Conference, The New School, Parsons School of Design, Fordham Law School, Pershing Square Ventures, Magnum Foundation, NY Tech Meetup, SXSW. Generation Citizen, the BRIC Summit, AIGA, the National Academy of Medicine, West Point, and SuperNova South.

Her teaching experience covers subjects including English, US media and culture, design thinking, creative risk taking, strategic planning and social entrepreneurship for institutions including the Diamond School in Paris, the International Center of New York, NYC.gov, and The Knowledge House.

She has been a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (RSA) since 2019 and has been a recipient of fellowships and awards from SOCAP Global, ADELPHI Strategy Collective, Personal Democracy Forum, Startup Leadership Program, The New School, and as a team member from the Wilmer Shields Rich Awards. She was a judge for the Growing Up Asian in America essay contest.

She received her B.A. in English from San Jose State University in 2001 and her M.A. in Media Studies from The New School in 2010. She has completed certificates in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (St. Giles Language Teaching Centre), Data Analysis and Management (Global Market Insite, Inc. now part of Kantar), and Finance and Accounting (Harvard Business School Online).

She is currently working on her first novel titled Lions Among Us.