Michele L. Shelton is an international speaker, certified executive coach, Master Trainer, author, and spiritual leader. With over 25 years of experience leading and guiding other leaders across business, government, nonprofit, and faith-based sectors, Michele has established herself as an authority in inclusivity and holistic leadership. Michele's diverse clientele spans industries including education, finance, government, healthcare, nonprofit, technology, and tourism, with notable organizations such as the American Red Cross, Kosair for Kids, and the US Travel Association among those she has served.
Michele's mission is to enhance the capacity of all organizational leaders to navigate their own challenges, do no intentional harm to others, and maximize the impact they were called and created to make in the workplace and beyond...
Drawing from her extensive leadership experience and her own journey navigating and surviving toxic leaders, Michele is deeply committed to supporting leaders who seek to build—not break—the spirit of their teams. She is well known by her clients for creating safe, engaging environments where audiences are compassionately challenged and inspired to pursue meaningful personal and organizational change.
As a powerful, relatable, and insightful speaker, Michele breaks down complex concepts into simple, actionable steps that prompt deep self-reflection and drive lasting impact. She delivers keynotes, executive coaching, and immersion experiences helping leaders build safe, healthy, high-performing legacies rooted in clarity, integrity, and purpose. Her engaging, organic style consistently leaves audiences describing her talks as "eye-opening," "informative," and "life- changing."
Michele's career leading HR, organizational justice, and executive development efforts included hands-on experience leading federally funded workforce development programs, enforcing EEO Compliance across multiple industries, and providing oversight to the development of diversity and inclusion programs for over 33,000+ state employees. These experiences and ongoing engagement with her clients inform her thought leadership and approaches when keynoting conferences, coaching and consulting, and facilitating personal or organizational transformations. Serving previously on both sides of the aisle as enforcer and employer makes her a uniquely informed, value-added, trusted advisor who remains unapologetically committed to empowering leaders to uplift both humanity and the bottom line.
Michele also founded The PEACE in Power Platform™ as a transformative framework for women leaders to guide them through the intersection of their personal, professional, and spiritual identities to overcome challenges to their success. Through this work, she empowers her clients to amplify their contributions with PEACE as a leadership strength and strategy.
Based in the USA, Michele is co-author of three international anthologies and is currently working on her fourth and solo title, The Power 2B Authentically Me: Leadership Lessons from the Front Lines of DEI. She has been featured in radio, TV, print, and podcast media and recognized as a Top 100 Diversity Trailblazer , Top 15 Coach, Top 100 Most Powerful Black Women, and University of Louisville Alumni Fellow. Michele's community engagement has included serving on boards promoting equity in education, healthcare, employment, and entrepreneurship. She has also held professional memberships in the Urban League, National Speakers Association, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Association for Talent Development (ATD), National Association for Female Executives (NAFE), and National Diversity Council.
Michele remains available on an international basis to keynote, coach, and inspire transformation impacting audiences worldwide through her commitment to making work worth it, communities more connected, and leaders more aligned to embrace leadership as both a privilege and call to action.
