Independent (Adina-Iuliana Deacu)

I am an environmental psychology researcher, urban planner, and social entrepreneur dedicated to exploring how the environments we live, work, and learn in shape our behaviors, values, and collective well-being. With an academic background that bridges urban design and environmental psychology, my work sits at the intersection of systems thinking, trauma-informed research, and regenerative design. I currently serve as a Klaus Töpfer Sustainability Fellow at the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS Potsdam), where I am writing my first book Beyond Profit: Redefining Business for a Regenerative Future. As the founder of Tianmei World Academy, I have spent the past decade building a decentralized “network of classrooms” that blends environmental psychology, cross-cultural learning, and systems thinking to help people design their own environments for healing, growth, and purpose. The Academy’s programs—such as The Invisible Backpack, Puzzle Mindset, Center of My Environment, and Action-Reaction Model—guide learners to uncover the invisible influences that shape how they see themselves and others, and to translate that awareness into concrete personal and collective action. My mission is to re-humanize systems—education, business, and urban life—by reconnecting them to their original purpose: to nurture people and the planet. I believe that many of today’s social and ecological crises stem from environments that reproduce disconnection, competition, and learned helplessness. By redesigning these environments with empathy, inclusivity, and awareness of context, we can cultivate a culture of belonging and shared responsibility. Tianmei World Academy was born from this belief. What began as small experimental workshops in China has evolved into an international learning ecosystem linking practitioners, researchers, and changemakers who share a commitment to personal transformation as a pathway to systemic change. From Environmental Psychology Citywalks in Hangzhou to the Rehumanizing Profit podcast and the Invisible Backpack Lab, each initiative aims to translate research into lived experience, creating spaces where people can explore who they are, how they relate to others, and what kind of world they wish to build. My vision is a world where learning is not confined to institutions but embedded in everyday environments—a world in which people understand that the way we design our surroundings, our economies, and our relationships directly shapes our capacity for compassion, creativity, and resilience. I see Tianmei World Academy as both a learning community and a social innovation platform that nurtures “1-person companies” and regenerative projects aligned with the idea that business is an entity that solves social issues and creates social value in a financially sustainable way. Through Catalyst Now, I hope to connect with others who are re-imagining the systems that hold our societies together and to co-create pathways toward a more inclusive, healing, and regenerative future for all.