Jay Gregory

Jay Austin Gregory is based in Oakland, California, where he has lived most of his life. For the past eight years, he has worked at the San Francisco Human Services Agency as the Manager of Digital Services and as a designer, supporting public-serving systems through thoughtful, human-centered design and digital transformation. Previously, he spent time living in Japan and Bolivia—experiences that broadened his perspective on place-based culture, community, and interdependence.

Alongside his professional role, Jay brings deep experience as an artist and community builder, shaped by 18 years of radical participation in Burning Man. Co-creating large-scale art in the high desert cultivated creativity, collaboration, resource awareness, generosity, and collective resilience as lived practices. Over the past three years, Jay has been on a journey of personal and spiritual development through Steps to Knowledge, while also pursuing a calling to join or co-found an ecovillage or intentional community. These parallel paths have opened his eyes to the realities of ecological, social, and cultural collapse, and have strengthened his commitment to preparation, education, and bioregional support. Jay approaches facilitation as an act of service, holding grounded spaces where people can face difficult truths together. He invites participants to cultivate collective resilience rooted in acceptance, gratitude, and a deep love for the World and all living beings.