biography

Michele Mercer, Ph.D.

Dr. Michele Mercer is a global expert on visual intelligence and human-centric design with a mission of education and advocacy for creative inquiry and conscious awareness in leaders, educators, and entrepreneurs to advance new mindsets and human potential for a path of growth, service, and transformation in the world. Dr. Mercer is the Chief of Learning & Design at 1340, the Center for Creative & Conscious Leadership (CCCL), and believes as the world, business, and people are changing, leadership requires awakening the creative brain to effectively lead daily complexity and scaling up mental and emotional agility to navigate paradox and unprecedented change.

Prior to 1340, she served as the former Head of Global Learning and Executive Development at Cerner Oracle as well as executive roles in global talent and organizational development at some of the most iconic brands such as Nike, Starbucks, Microsoft, Schwab, HPE, and DocuSign. Leading global change and transformation across varying cultures has included mergers, acquisitions, going public, organizational re-design, advancing women in leadership, multicultural leader and team performance development, deploying worldwide talent initiatives, designing workforce evolution strategies, revisioning learning in the flow of work and accelerating a culture of leadership 4.0.

Considered a visionary changemaker advancing mission-based work, Dr. Mercer works with clients at the intersectionality of organizational effectiveness, behavioral science, and design psychology with innovative ways to shift mindsets, help leaders scale up to lead from the inside out, and navigate the future differently through building conscious cultures. As an expert in storytelling visualization, Dr. Mercer turns complex data and linear information into powerful design concepts, visual content, and unforgettable pitch presentations that elevate buy-in and winning outcomes.

By leveraging two decades of original and groundbreaking research on visual and creative leadership, she developed the empirically based framework, The Four Mindsets of Visual Intelligence, to help foster critical and creative thinking for top-team effectiveness, leadership development, and strategic visual communications. As an author of several publications including Visual Quotient, released in 2020, focuses on fostering visual intelligence to drive innovation. Dr. Mercer also penned The Four Mindsets of a Visual Ecology In The Workplace: Revisioning Language Through Visual Literacy, and as a chapter contributor for an anthology book, Drawn Together Through Visual Practice. Being an active researcher and adjunct professor, she is focused on design thinking and innovation, data visualization and visual storytelling, women in leadership, behavioral and spiritual psychology, high sensory processing, and holistic health theories.

Dr. Mercer has a Ph.D. in Organizational and Transformative Studies, an M.S. in Organization Development, an M.A. in Spiritual Counseling Psychology, and an ICF-certification as an Integral Life Coach. As an executive career coach, she is certified in multiple psychometric assessments, including the Hogan, EQi-2.0 + 360, The Leadership Circle 360, The Leadership Challenge Leader Practices Inventory (LPI) 360, MBTI, DISC, Strengths Finder, and the Team Performance Model. She is also certified as a Wellness Health Coach through the Institute of Integral Nutrition (IIN).

Recognized as an accomplished athlete, Dr. Mercer holds several awards including NCAA All-American and being inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame at her undergraduate alma mater and has competed in some of the most prestigious global expedition adventure races.

Outside of work and research, she enjoys remote and long-distance hiking, aesthetics and design, healthy living as a lifestyle, global adventure travel, and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Working With Clients From A Multidimensionality Lens: