Who We Are

Our work is human work. We revitalize organizational ecosystems by digging into cultures, holding up a mirror to their values, reframing diversity and difference, and helping everyone manage and leverage their difference. We know that when you meet the needs of your most marginalized people, you meet the needs of all your people–for their growth, creativity, productivity, health, and humanity. And we know that opportunity lies in people, not positions.

Jennifer McClanahan

CEO

Jennifer is an experienced facilitator, coach, and leader in organizational and leadership transformation.

Meet Jennifer

Dione Lee

Chief Financial Officer

Dione leads annual budgeting, financial planning, financial reporting, and accounting at Leverage to Lead.

Meet Dione

Kim Ho

Chief Human Resources and Impact Officer

Kim helps employees and organizations create equitable and inclusive HR strategies, policies, and procedures.

Meet Kim

Melody Gee

Director of Communications & Marketing
Melody designs strategies and creates content for Leverage to Lead’s diverse audiences.

Meet Melody

MJ Mathis

Managing Director of Learning & Development

MJ creates learning experiences that are human-centered and nurturing containers for growth and change, as well as providing one-on-one processing sessions, career strategy and advisement, and support for understanding white identity (for white identifying folks).

Meet MJ

Nick Obando

Program Manager, Learning and Development

Nick builds deep and meaningful relationships and guides equity-focused conversations that allow for growth and learning.

Meet Nick

Read More About Our Team

Deep Listening with Jennifer and MJ

by Melody Gee | June 9, 2020 | About L2L, All Blogs, Bias, Personal Stories, Uncertainty | 0 Comments

MJ Mathis joined Leverage to Lead as an Associate Coach this past March. You’ve already seen her voice added to our biweekly newsletters, and we’ve been busy with corporate trainings and DEI work across many different spaces. In July, we’re offering a session called...

Power, Influence, and the Limits of Comfort

by Melody Gee | May 29, 2020 | About L2L, All Blogs, Bias, Boundaries, Personal Stories, Power, Safety | 0 Comments

“Power is not influence. Power is when you have the ability to make change . . . Being speaker of the House, that’s real power.” -Nancy Pelosi We hear the word influence a lot these days. Celebrities on Instagram, CEOs lobbying in Washington, high-profile political...

A Space for Our Vulnerable Selves

by Melody Gee | May 12, 2020 | All Blogs, Bias, Pandemic, Personal Stories, Racism, Uncertainty | 0 Comments

“We are saying, if you have money and you’re white, you can do well here. If you’re not, good luck to you.” – Dr. Richard Besser, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and the former acting director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)....

I Cried at Target

by Melody Gee | April 3, 2020 | All Blogs, Pandemic, Personal Stories | 0 Comments

"Assume others are doing the best they can." – Brené Brown An Overwheling Kindness Like many people in our country, we were almost out of toilet paper. We've been making what feels like dangerous daily excursions to find some in our area. I knew that if we were going...

The Unfiltered Life

by Melody Gee | September 6, 2018 | About L2L, All Blogs, Assimilation, Audacity, Filtering | 0 Comments

This month, I have been spending time thinking about the shift in my clients. While I work primarily with women of color, I also have white female clients. Recently, I have found that a few of them feel my work around race doesn’t support them. As white women, do they...

Black Lives Matter

by leverage2lead1 | July 14, 2016 | All Blogs, Black Lives Matter, Personal Stories | 0 Comments

Note: I published this article almost two years ago. It’s sad that not much has changed for Black Americans over that time. But I am beginning to see recognition in the eyes of white people; they are starting to understand that Black Lives Matter and why. I am now...

The Cycle of Liberation

by Melody Gee | May 4, 2021 | About L2L, Accountability, All Blogs, Bias, Cycle of Liberation, Uncertainty | 0 Comments

It’s affirming to see our Leverage to Lead’s values held by others who are working in DEI and social and racial justice spheres. We feel gratified when we see work that is similarly steeped in humanity, and interpersonal growth. When we hear Adam Grant say that our...

Walking the Walk: Inside Our Team’s Values Excavation

by Melody Gee | September 21, 2021 | About L2L, All Blogs, Diversity, Leadership, Uncertainty, Values | 0 Comments

This is the first in a 2-part series on the Leverage to Lead team undergoing our own values excavation. Read about why we needed to do it, how it went, and what’s changed for us since. Since 2020, Leverage to Lead has tripled in size. Our team now includes Jennifer...

Walking the Walk: Inside Our Team’s Values Excavation – Part 2 of 2

by leverage2leaddev | October 6, 2021 | About L2L, All Blogs, Diversity, Leadership, Values Excavation | 0 Comments

This is the second in a 2-part series on what happened when the Leverage to Lead team underwent our own values excavation. Read about why we needed to do it, how it went, and what's changed for us since. Between Sessions Our first values excavation meeting with Alison...

See How We’ve Grown

by Melody Gee | July 26, 2022 | About L2L, All Blogs, Bias, Diversity, Inclusion, Leadership | 0 Comments

Since 2018, Leverage to lead has added Leadership Coaches/Facilitators, and heads of Talent Management, HR, and Finance. Hiring has been, without a doubt, a major growth area for us. Because it’s not exactly a piece of our DEI work, we haven’t shared much about this...