Dr. Melanie Ho
- Visual artist and storyteller + corporate executive and leadership consultant unique ability to bring complex ideas to life
- “One of the most empowering authors and visual artists right now” – Film Daily
- Creates memorable audience experiences, including interactive keynotes, workshops, and retreats where participants use the power of doodling to unlock new ways of thinking
- Works across sectors, with a special passion for mission-centered organizations
- Has advised hundreds of university presidents and senior leadership teams
Travels From
District of Columbia
Melanie Ho Speaker Biography
Ask Melanie Ho what gets her up in the morning, and she'll say this: helping people talk about their thorniest leadership challenges -- and maybe even enjoy the process along the way. She turns complex, emotionally charged topics into something teams can approach with clarity, creativity, and a renewed sense of connection.
Navigating resistance to change. Leading through uncertainty and upheaval. Preserving equity and inclusion when it matters most. Staying grounded when everything is shifting. Whether delivering a keynote at a conference, leading a multi-day training, or facilitating an intimate board retreat, Melanie tackles these and other timely topics through a unique blend of strategic depth and creative expression. Her sessions draw from in-depth research on organizational behavior and change, and then come alive through storytelling, comics, and interactive exercises that help participants see today's challenges in new ways.
Melanie’s approach is shaped by a background that blends two worlds often kept apart. She’s a former corporate executive and consultant who has built new ventures and advised hundreds of senior teams on leadership and strategy. She's also a visual artist, award-winning author, and former UCLA literature instructor with a Ph.D. in English. For a long time, these felt like separate identities -- but it's in their integration that her work comes alive. As a professional speaker, workshop facilitator, and storyteller, Melanie draws on both to help people think more expansively, engage more honestly, and lead with clarity and purpose in anything-but-normal times.
What if today's hardest leadership challenges could feel easier to talk about -- and even energizing to face?
Melanie's most requested sessions help leaders and teams face what's hard -- resistance to change, ongoing uncertainty, upheaval, and conflict -- with a mix of honesty, creativity, and forward momentum. Combining research-backed strategies and take-home tools with storytelling, comics, and hands-on exercises, her keynotes and workshops create space for insight, connection, and practical action.
Leading with Clarity in Times of Chaos: New ways to support teams through complexity, conflict, and change
How do you lead when the pressures keep mounting -- but the path forward only gets murkier? Right now, leaders are navigating more than just complexity -- they're dealing with overlapping tensions, impossible tradeoffs, and rising emotional strain across their teams. Every decision seems to carry higher stakes. Every conversation feels like it could escalate. And all of it is unfolding amid a backdrop of constant, unresolved change. This session offers insights and practical frameworks for leading with intention, presence, and clarity -- especially when there's no clear playbook. We'll explore what leadership mindsets need to shift in an era of complexity, experiment with practical tools for navigating high-conflict dynamics, and identify strategies for anchoring your team around shared direction.
Breaking Free from Today's Leadership Treadmill: Strategies for reclaiming time, energy, and focus for deeper impact
Leaders today describe their experience as a constant treadmill -- a nonstop rush of decisions, demands, and disruptions. For mission-driven leaders, this creates a painful irony -- being too caught up in immediate pressures to focus on the transformational work they came to do. These complex times require us to lead and plan differently -- but creating space for that shift requires stepping off the treadmill first. This session explores what it takes to protect your leadership energy, recalibrate priorities, and create space for the strategic work that matters most.
Reimagining What's Possible: Tools and approaches for thinking beyond the now
In times like these, it can feel like imagination is a luxury -- but it's actually a leadership necessity. When we're surrounded by uncertainty, urgency, or exhaustion, it's easy to get stuck reacting to the moment. Staying grounded in mission and values means making space to imagine the future we want to build. This session explores how leaders can use tools from the imaginative arts to break through assumptions, shift mindsets, and chart paths toward what's next. Drawing on creative visioning techniques, doodling exercises, and other approaches that unlock fresh perspectives, participants will reconnect with their ability to think beyond current constraints and help others do the same. No artistic experience required -- you'll be surprised at what emerges when you give yourself permission to play.
Comics for Real Talk About What Women Face at Work: Naming the patterns, shifting the culture
Women are often told to "lean in" -- speak up more, negotiate better, be more confident. But this advice assumes a level playing field that many still don't experience. In this engaging session, award-winning author and artist Dr. Melanie Ho uses her unique approach of combining comics, research, and candid conversation to explore the deeper dynamics women face at work -- and how we can support them in leading on their own terms. Drawing from her award-winning book BEYOND LEANING IN and her series of feminist comics, this session invites honest dialogue about double standards, invisible labor, and the complex dynamics that still make professional life and advancement harder for women. Empowerment starts by naming what we're really up against -- and imagining new ways forward together.
ADDITIONAL TOPICS:
Melanie offers additional keynotes and workshops on a variety of topics related to leading in times of complexity and change:
-Finding Your Compass When Everything Keeps Shifting: Creative practices to lead with presence and purpose
-Sustaining Culture When It Matters Most: Practices for psychological safety, trust, and belonging in uncertain times
-Navigating and Working Across Silos: Overcoming the hidden barriers to collaborating across teams and roles
-The Future of DEI, in Our Words: A hands-on workshop to explore what diversity, equity, and inclusion mean to us—individually and collectively
