Founder and President

Lesley is the co-owner and founder of Sagely. She holds a doctorate from Duke University, where she focused on storytelling and social justice movements. She is particularly interested in helping clients heal from the impact of intergenerational trauma by rewriting their stories of what’s possible in honor of past lessons learned.

Her clients include people in a variety of fields, all with the common goal of promoting inclusion in high-stress environments. She also offers workshops and talks to top companies, DEI professionals, and is a Visiting Lecturer in Leadership, Innovation, and Management at UNC Chapel Hill.

Lesley has a unique perspective on DEIB work because she combines her humanities expertise with her study of psychology and meditation. She created the neuro-narrative approach to equitable culture change, relying on the close relationship between narrative and neuroscience to help clients make impact. She is also writing a book on the topic of self-reflection and equitable culture change.

Senior Consultant and Advisor

Cord Whitaker is the co-owner of Sagely, an author, and a scholar of the history of race. He has published in numerous venues and has been cited by NPR, the New York Times, Slate, and the History Channel. He is an associate professor of English at Wellesley College, the author of Black Metaphors: How Modern Racism Emerged from Medieval Race-Thinking, and Chair of the Presidential Commission on Ethnicity, Race, and Equity at Wellesley.

At Sagely, Cord blends his pedagogical expertise, systemic visioning, and narrative analysis skills to foster inclusion and promote lasting cultural change. As a coach and consultant, he has a special passion for helping leaders of color bring their full experience to their work in a way that avoids burnout and benefits the whole community. He supports inclusive leaders in a variety of roles by envisioning a new way of engaging that moves beyond traditional expectations of what has to be.

Consultant and Facilitator

Robyn Smith is a licensed clinical social worker and therapist. She holds a B.A. in Film Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, and an MSW in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania. Robyn completed the three-year intensive training program in Gestalt Therapy from the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Philadelphia. Her areas of clinical expertise include trauma, neurodiversity, anxiety, emerging identity, attachment, and ambiguous loss.

Robyn helps Sagely create healing educational experiences that bring compassion and attention to cultural change. She gives inclusive leaders the knowledge and practice that trauma therapists receive, helping them act and respond in high-stress situations with clarity and ease.

Consultant and Facilitator

Krishni Metivier, Ph.D. is an emerging leader and seasoned researcher at Google, advancing product inclusion, equity, and data privacy. As a strategic thought leader, she has garnered recognition for her compelling insights, spearheaded organizational excellence, and spoken at prestigious institutions such as Google, Harvard, and Duke.

Krishni holds a doctorate from Duke University, where she completed groundbreaking research on religion, race, and gender. Her academic background demonstrates her commitment to unraveling complex, intersecting systems. Her ongoing research encompasses critical areas such as gender and sexuality, data protection law, accessibility and artificial intelligence, and racial parity. Krishni brings her deep presence and unique awareness of interconnectedness to her work as a facilitator with Sagely.

Consultant and Facilitator

Alexandra is Sagely's cultural heritage consultant specializing in trauma-informed practice in galleries, museums, and sites of conscience. As a trained social worker, she works at both the micro and macro level when supporting clients in the heritage sector to understand the dynamic connection between past and present.

Alex uses systems thinking, restorative justice and peace-building approaches to foster connection and healing when working with museum and gallery teams, collections, originating communities, and sector leadership. As an International Peace Fellow sponsored by the Rotary Foundation at the University of North Carolina, she has designed, developed, and evaluated museum interventions in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Advisor

Dan Mahle is an ICF-certified executive coach and seasoned group facilitator with a passion for partnering with leaders to build more thriving, equitable, and inclusive cultures.

A life-long learner with a passion for culture change, Dan helps leaders connect to their authentic power in accountable ways by exploring and expressing vital parts of themselves that are often undervalued in startup and corporate business environments.

A systems-oriented leader with a passion for building humanizing relationships, Dan supports teams to collaborate more effectively by removing barriers to innovation, authenticity, and trust.

Advisor

Burgandy Holiday serves as a senior advisor for Sagely. She holds degrees in social work and psychology and has helped multiple organizations promote social, cultural, and organizational change. Burgandy engages clients through community building and gentle activism, focusing on race and identity-based healing and reconciliation.

At Sagely, Burgandy brings her impressive knowledge of neuroscience and healing to help us create effective practices of engagement. She prioritizes the emotional and relational experience of connection, helping clients build diverse and inclusive cultures in which all people thrive. She has a particular talent for conflict resolution, relying on her expertise in trauma transformation to initiate healing both for communities and individuals. In addition to her role as a consultant, she is Vice President of Belonging at her synagogue and a practicing therapist in Philadelphia, PA.