Dan McLinden, EdD, founded Idea Networks to help communities address complex issues by applying group concept mapping, a state-of-the-art methodology relying on the power of a wise crowd of individuals pooling their ideas about a complex issue and using machine learning algorithms to visualize their collective wisdom. Before founding Idea Networks, McLinden worked extensively in public health and healthcare.  Previously, he was a hospital executive and an associate professor of medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Prior to joining the medical center, McLinden was a consultant applying idea networks with multiple clients, including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and multiple corporate clients. In public health/healthcare, his work involved applications of idea networks to create public health strategies. In the corporate world, McLinden has applied the approach to designing and evaluating investments in many aspects of talent development. He regularly shares the results of his work; he has published multiple articles, several book chapters and has made numerous conference presentations.