Dev Cuny (they/them) is a speaker, performer, trainer, facilitator, and advisor who creates experiences that help people come alive.

For more than two decades, Dev’s work has explored a question that has also shaped their own life: What becomes possible when people no longer have to hide parts of themselves in order to belong?

Dev brings together storytelling, neuroscience, trauma-informed and healing-centered practices, spirituality, humor, and human connection. Their work is grounded in the belief that people are able to tap into more of their creativity and potential when they feel safe enough to be fully themselves. The things we have been taught to hide, minimize, or apologize for may actually hold some of our greatest gifts. Dev calls these differences our Dangerous Superpowers.

Dev earned a Master of Divinity and began their career as a hospital and hospice chaplain, sitting with people and families during some of the most vulnerable and profound moments of their lives. From there, they built a career in human services, training, facilitation, and organizational change. Their work has focused especially on trauma-informed and healing-centered practices, neuroscience, belonging, communication, and helping people better understand what human beings need in order to thrive.

Dev is also a TEDx speaker and the creator and performer of Assigned at Birth, an interactive solo show about faith, identity, shame, belonging, and the messy process of becoming ourselves. Drawing from Dev’s experience growing up in conservative Christianity and later coming to understand themselves as queer and trans, the show uses storytelling, music, humor, and audience participation to invite people into their own questions about identity and belonging. Its first full festival production at The Marsh’s In Front of Your Eyes Festival sold out both performances and received Audience Choice, Best Attended, and Best Newcomer Drama.

At the center of all of Dev’s work is the belief that belonging unleashes human potential. Shame takes an enormous amount of energy. So does hiding. So does constantly trying to figure out which parts of ourselves are acceptable in a particular room. When we don't have to spend so much energy protecting ourselves, we have more of ourselves available to create, connect, imagine, lead, and contribute.

Dev wants to help create more of those rooms.

Rooms where people can take risks. Where difference creates curiosity instead of fear. Where people can reconnect with their sense of purpose, trust their own gifts, and see something beautiful in themselves and each other.

Because when people are given the freedom to belong fully, they have a much better chance of coming fully alive.