Stephanie High, PhD Candidate

Helping Organizations Lead Through The Hard Stuff

Workshops, keynotes, and consulting engagements for leadership teams navigating crisis, transition, and the complex human side of organizational recovery.

Fire Resources

Spokane Wildfire Organzational Recovery — Available Now.

Organizations across the Inland Northwest are currently managing the organizational and human capital aftermath of the 2026 Spokane wildfires. The research on disaster impact is clear: the acute crisis is followed by an extended period of psychological, operational, and community disruption that peaks weeks to months after the event — precisely when organizational support has typically scaled back.

Leadership teams are making high-stakes decisions while dysregulated. Teams are showing elevated symptoms of anxiety, grief, and burnout. Organizational cohesion is strained. And the pressure to return to normal performance is compounding the impact.

This is a moment that requires a specific kind of expertise — not general wellness programming, but a trauma-informed organizational framework built on what the research actually shows about how people, teams, and communities recover.

If your organization is in this moment — reach out. Engagements can be scoped and deployed quickly.

Trauma, crisis, and disaster don't stay outside when your employees walk in. They show up in decision-making, team cohesion, productivity, retention, and your leadership's capacity to hold things together when the environment is anything but stable.

I bring doctoral-level research in trauma psychology and community resilience — combined with 20+ years of applied experience in business strategy, marketing, and technology at Fortune 50 companies — to organizations that need both the human framework and the operational strategy to move forward effectively.

My engagements are built around what your organization is actually facing. Not a generic training. A designed intervention grounded in research, delivered with intention, and built to produce measurable organizational outcomes.

Areas of Engagement.

Trauma-Informed Organizational Leadership

For organizations whose teams have been affected by crisis, disaster, or systemic disruption — and whose leaders need a research-grounded framework for leading people through it effectively.

Applicable contexts: wildfire and natural disaster recovery, organizational crisis, workforce trauma, community-level disruption, leadership transition under pressure.

Engagement formats: half-day workshop, full-day intensive, multi-session leadership series, keynote

Community & Organizational Resilience

For organizations building the internal and external frameworks that allow them to absorb disruption, adapt, and emerge stronger. Grounded in peer-reviewed resilience research and applied to the specific organizational, community, or workforce context.

Applicable contexts: post-disaster recovery planning, community economic development, nonprofit capacity building, workforce development, regional resilience infrastructure.

Engagement formats: consulting engagement, workshop series, facilitated strategic planning

Community Crisis Communications & Business Recovery

For organizations navigating the reputational, relational, and strategic communications challenges that follow a crisis or disaster. This is not standard brand positioning — it is the specific, sequenced work of rebuilding trust, visibility, and organizational narrative in a post-crisis environment.

Applicable contexts: organizational crisis response, post-disaster community re-engagement, brand recovery following disruption, stakeholder communications strategy.

Engagement formats: consulting engagement, keynote, workshop

Technology & Operational Strategy

For organizations whose operational infrastructure — systems, data, automation, and technology stack — needs to be rebuilt, scaled, or rationalized following disruption or during a period of accelerated change.

Applicable contexts: post-crisis operational recovery, digital transformation, CRM and data infrastructure, systems rationalization, scaling infrastructure for growing organizations.

Engagement formats: consulting engagement, strategic advisory

Who I Best Collaborate With.

Organizations and institutions

Corporations, healthcare systems, nonprofits, government agencies, educational institutions, and community organizations navigating crisis, disaster recovery, or significant transition.

I come in as an external expert, embedded in your leadership context, and deliver a designed engagement that addresses the specific challenge your organization is facing.

HR, organizational development, and consulting professionals

Practitioners who are already inside an organization or client relationship and need a specialist to deliver a specific body of expertise.

If you have the relationship and I have the research, there is a collaboration worth building. These engagements are structured as genuine professional partnerships — not referrals.

Let's Talk About Your Organization.

Every engagement begins with a conversation about what your organization is facing and what outcomes you need to produce. There is no standard package — only a designed engagement built around your specific context.