With more than 18 years of training, coaching, and facilitation experience, Melaina Spitzer brings strategy, creativity, and connection to her role as Senior Consulting Partner and Practice Leader for The Ken Blanchard Companies®.

Melaina specializes in resilience, leadership development, conflict resolution, change management, and social responsibility. A best-selling, award-winning author, Melaina created Blanchard’s Building Resilience programs and serves as the company’s Resilience Practice Leader. She has delivered more than fifty resilience keynotes and trainings, reaching 300 companies in 97 countries. A prolific writer and renowned journalist, Melaina has authored more than 25 articles, books, blogs, and radio and television reports for the BBC, NPR, and PBS, with work translated into eleven languages.

Melaina has trained more than 10,000 leaders across public, private, and nonprofit sectors. In addition to her work at Blanchard, she teaches masters’ students at the University of San Diego’s Knauss School of Business. Her playful facilitation style evokes fun and reflection and her real-world examples are relatable and practical.

An expert in conflict resolution, Melaina builds deep trust and vulnerability within teams, partnering with leaders to create culture change and sustainable results.

Prior to her work at Blanchard, Melaina directed a corporate social responsibility program for a global company and held various leadership roles. She created human-centered design tools for the World Bank Group and the US Department of Energy and trained coaches for ICF-accredited coach training programs. Based in South America for seven years, Melaina regularly coaches and trains in Spanish and in Portuguese and consults on diversity and inclusive leadership.

Melaina received her Bachelor of Arts from Brown University in History of Divided Societies and her Master of Arts in Peace, Conflict, and Security from Universidad del Salvador in Argentina as a Rotary World Peace Fellow. She is also a certified coach with the International Coach Federation and is the founder of a coaching and training company.

Deeply committed to service, Melaina volunteers for several nonprofit organizations focused on women, youth, and indigenous communities. She is an avid scuba diver, dancer, and runner, preferring to spend her free time in the great outdoors, accompanied by her puppy Rumi.