Welcome!

You’ve come to the right place if...

You’re looking for direction in your quest to use power to create more inclusion and belonging.

You’re looking for tools you can use every day.

You’re looking for someone who not only understands what you’re facing, but can help you get where you want to go.

For 20 years I’ve been leading, coaching, and consulting with professional organizations and universities in international and intercultural leadership.

I wrote a book — Humanly Possible: A New Model of Leadership for a More Inclusive World — which distills many of the lessons from my career into specific, concrete things you can do every day to make the world more inclusive.

At age 23, during my first year in China as an English teacher, I was a confused mess of negative reactions against my environment. I had no training in how to manage my hard feelings, how to turn them into curiosity, and how to adapt my behavior in ways that would help me genuinely connect with people who were very different from me. I’ve been fortunate over the years to gain exposure to a set of tools, models, and frameworks to turn things around.

I’ve also learned that, as a cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied white man, I live in a world that’s been designed mostly for people like me. Those same negative emotions that I first felt living abroad at 23 can pop up anytime someone mentions my privilege. School, peers, the media…none of them taught me how my privilege benefits me and harms others. In fact, they’ve mostly done the opposite, telling me that I’m entitled to what I have. That I’ve earned it. And that others’ lack of “success” is because of some personal failing — or, worse, because a group that they belong to is somehow inferior.

The systems I grew up in, and still live in, never taught me any of this.

They also didn’t teach this to the people and organizations I work with.

I’ve learned that if we want to make a difference in the world, we need two things:

1. A skill set for managing our emotions and our perceptions — for getting outside of ourselves, and for getting curious about how our brains operate.

2. The ability to identify where we have power, and flip it into a tool for inclusion and belonging, instead of what it’s mostly been throughout human history: a tool for elevating ourselves at the expense of others.

I’ve applied these principles in my positions as Chief of Operations, Chief of Strategy, and Director of the Robertson Center for Intercultural Leadership at UC Berkeley’s International House; as Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins–Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies; and as Director of the Stanford Program in Beijing.

I’ve given dozens of speeches, taught dozens of courses, and led dozens of workshops for hundreds of professionals and university students from six continents. I’ve worked with CEOs and city leaders. I’ve trained professionals in the fields of intercultural and international education, and in global diversity, equity, and inclusion, to design and lead their own workshops. I’ve delivered hundreds of workshops on global leadership and global DEI, including at the International Leadership Association, NAFSA: Association of International Educators, the European Association for International Education, and the Asia-Pacific Association for International Education.

I’ve done all of this in service of what’s become my life’s mission: using power to build and sustain environments where everyone can thrive.

Interested in learning more or partnering? Join my mailing list, book a free call, or drop me a note.