Signature Keynote
Stewarding What Drives Us
Protecting the passion, purpose, and people behind conservation
Conservation has always been about stewardship — protecting wildlife, restoring habitats, and maintaining healthy ecosystems for future generations. But there is another form of stewardship that is just as vital and often overlooked: stewarding the people who make that work possible.
Across the conservation field and other mission-driven systems, organizations face growing complexity, shifting expectations, leadership transitions, staffing issues, and increasing demands. During such times, it’s easy to focus on the work that must be done and overlook the conditions that keep people connected to why they chose this profession in the first place.
In this inspiring and thought-provoking keynote, Michelle Doerr draws on decades of experience in conservation and leadership development to explore what happens to passionate people under sustained pressure, what keeps us connected to purpose during times of change, and how each of us can help cultivate hope within our teams and organizations. Through stories, audience interaction, and real-time polling, participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how honest conversations, recognition, support, and stewardship create the conditions for both people and conservation to thrive.
Because the future of conservation depends not only on the habitats we restore, but on how well we steward what drives the people doing the restoring.
More Topics
Every keynote and workshop can be tailored to your team, timeline, and the season your organization is in.
Building Capacity in Conservation
Conservation doesn’t have a resilience problem — it has a capacity problem. This session gives teams a shared, honest way to talk about where their energy actually goes.
Applied Emotional Intelligence
Emotion isn’t an interruption to the work — it’s information about it. A practical, low-cost approach to bringing whole people into high-stakes conversations.
Why I’m Different
My work sits at the intersection of wildlife biology, ecopsychology, and leadership development — and decades inside conservation organizations taught me the difference between a system that’s genuinely stewarding its people and one that’s slowly extracting from them. I’m not interested in resilience talk that asks people to absorb more. My presentations name what’s actually happening and give teams language and frameworks they can use the next morning.
Read Grapevine
In the book I co-authored with my daughter, Grapevine: A Mother and Daughter’s Tangled Journey Through an Eating Disorder, we share a deeply personal story that explores the challenges and healing processes involved in such a journey. This book is not just a narrative; it’s a reflection on resilience, connection, and the power of shared experiences. Through this story, I aim to offer insights and guidance to others navigating similar paths.
Please reach out to me if you would like to schedule a speaking engagement or book reading.
