i build Culture and people practices That drive human ingenuity.
Talent * Results * Purpose
Most organizations aren't short on human potential. The question is whether the culture, leadership, and people practices amplify it…or get in the way.
Because ultimately, the point isn't better HR.
It's better performance.
And tomorrow's problems won't be solved by yesterday's playbook.
How i build
HR from first principles.
Is a “best practice” truly helping - or just keeping the system stuck in place? I start with the outcome, question the assumptions, and design what the organization actually needs.
Design for coherence.
People don't experience work as a collection of HR programs. So why design them that way? I connect strategy, goals, performance, development, promotion, and rewards so people understand what success looks like - and how to get there.
Define the field of play. Then get out of the way.
Give people clear expectations, useful guardrails, the right tools, and real support. Then trust them to use their judgment. Good people systems enable performance without trying to control it.
In practice
Human-centered. Results-focused. At scale.
66%
of VPs promoted from within, prepared through enterprise leadership development program I built and led.
1.8M
species records brought together in one global knowledge platform. Led cross-institution planning and technology execution for the $50M Encyclopedia of Life initiative, with partners including Harvard, the Smithsonian, and Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
+13 POINTS
increase in a key driver of organizational engagement. Learning & Development engagement rose 13 points as we rebuilt how people learned, developed, and grew.
4x growth
people practices rebuilt for scale as the workforce grew from 150 to 600+. Led enterprise change across performance, talent, job architecture, and leadership in partnership with executive team.
Top 25%
manager effectiveness scores sustained in the top quartile of the New Tech & Nonprofit benchmark (standard for high performance)
following an integrated manager development strategy rollout.
5+ years
Built to last. Core performance and talent architecture remain in use five years after implementation - built for adoption, not dependency.
30+ countries
A shared language for success and growth.
Connected performance, development, and rewards across a global workforce while adapting to local employment realities.
Human-centered, results-focused
Too soft and nobody knows what winning looks like. Too controlling and you squeeze out the judgment and ingenuity you hired people for.
I work in the productive tension between human capability and organizational ambition - shaping the conditions for people to do their best work in service of what the organization is here to accomplish.
Start with the human.
Understand the system.
Shape the conditions.
Move what matters.
where I sit
What People Are Saying
“She knows how to encourage discussion and drive to meaningful outcomes.”
“Participants noted that the offsite sessions sparked deeper conversations afterward. And I see their motivation to continue collaboration through the projects and process improvements they have proposed since our offsite.”
“I hired Kristen as a coach to support team effectiveness. Each team she worked with bloomed, becoming a better and higher performing version of itself.”
“Kristen facilitated hard conversations among our managers to drive forward organizational changes around leveling our people, promotions, and career development to name a few.”
“From our first day working together, your facilitation and organization of various strategy and HR sessions has been an inspiration. Even in tough conversations I always enjoyed our times together.”