What does 20 years of leading digital at one of the world's most recognized nonprofits teach you about curiosity, change, and AI? In this episode of Escape Velocity, Tracey Halvorsen, CEO of adeo, sits down with Diane Querey, Vice President of Digital Platforms at World Wildlife Fund. The two first met in 2007 through Foursquare, back when checking in on an app counted as a social act. Nearly two decades later, they unpack what it takes to lead digital transformation at a mission-driven organization through three major shifts: the early web, the move to responsive design, and now AI. Diane led the WWF Together app that won a 2013 Apple Design Award, the Apps for Earth partnership with Apple that raised $8 million for conservation, and WWF's collaboration with Netflix on Our Planet. She also shares the inside story of WWF's recent website relaunch, a multi-year, 6,000-page migration that forced her team to rethink process, vendors, and the role of AI in their day-to-day work. She explains how her team is actually using AI (metadata, alt tags, thought partnership) and where they draw the hard line (original content writing stays human). She unpacks her framework for what separates order takers from strategic partners, and why curiosity is now the defining trait she looks for when hiring. Tracey and Diane also get into: The "compression to the middle" problem when teams over-rely on AI Why AI slop is flooding every platform and how to cut through it Raising kids who can tell the difference between real and generated content Reinvention, transition, and the pressure on women to constantly become someone new Curiosity, creativity, and caution as the three disciplines for working in this moment This is a conversation for digital leaders, nonprofit strategists, creative directors, and anyone trying to figure out how to lead a team through real change without losing the human at the center of the work. Escape Velocity is hosted by Tracey Halvorsen, CEO of adeo, a brand, digital, and communications agency based in Baltimore working with higher education, cultural institutions, nonprofits, and complex growth brands. Learn more at helloadeo.com. Topics: digital transformation, nonprofit technology, World Wildlife Fund, WWF, Apple Design Award, Apps for Earth, Our Planet Netflix, AI in the workplace, website redesign, creative leadership, curiosity and career, strategic thinking, order takers vs strategic partners, AI slop, digital teams, mission-driven work.
