Doing Her Work: Michelle Kinder Leading From the Inside Out

“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”  - Lilla Watson

Michelle Kinder is well-known in the domains of social-emotional learning and education. She is also an authoritative voice in the discourses of leadership, stress, emotional health, trauma and parenting. Her increasing passion about historical and structural inequities has led her to make an important shift in her career, which we explore in depth in our conversation. Michelle shares how growing up in Guatemala influenced her perspective on social issues and how this grew her capacity to innovate and problem-solve.  We hear her view on the destructive “us” and “them” narratives that often accompany outreach efforts and how cultural forces are counterproductive to our ability to be grounded and sensitive as individuals. We discuss the focus of Momentous Institute, her new partnership with the Stagen Leadership Academy, and her collaboration with Rex Miller, with whom she is co-authoring a book on the challenges of educators.  Michelle advises that, for us to be most effective in bringing about positive change, we need to do whatever work is needed to be able to regulate our own nervous systems. She speaks frankly on her view about the responsibilities of the corporate and philanthropic worlds in establishing a more equitable society.