Strozzi Institute
Lise Melvin has had an extensive and varied work experience. Most recently, they have been serving as the Interim Co-President at the Strozzi Institute since January 2023. Prior to that, they worked as the Program Director at the same institute from January 2022 to March 2023.
Before joining the Strozzi Institute, Lise founded "(re)spirited" in 2017, where they organized immersive retreats for women leaders in Costa Rica. Lise also served as a Senior Advisor to the Green Commodities Programme at the United Nations Development Programme from March 2014 to February 2022.
Lise has a background in education and academia, having worked as a visiting lecturer at the Copenhagen Business School from November 2013 to November 2015. Lise also worked as a consultant on start-up projects for World Animal Protection and served as a founding CEO for the Better Cotton Initiative, where they aimed to transform global cotton production.
In earlier roles, Lise served as the Operations Director at Aspiral Learning, a management learning consultancy committed to sustainable development. Lise was also a Project Manager for ActionAid International's "Get On Board" campaign and worked as an executive assistant to the CEO at Greenpeace.
Overall, Lise Melvin's work experience spans leadership, program management, advisory roles, education, and sustainability initiatives.
Lise Melvin attended Cranbrook Grammar School from 1991 to 1996. Lise then pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Life Science at the University of Nottingham from 1997 to 2000. Following this, they obtained a Master of Science degree in Responsibility & Business Practice from the University of Bath between 2004 and 2006. Lastly, they attended the Strozzi Institute from 2014 to 2016, focusing on Somatic / Embodied Leadership Coaching.
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Strozzi Institute
Our mission is to produce leaders who embody pragmatic wisdom, skillful action and grounded compassion. We propose a different approach to learning – embodied learning. We begin with the claim that learning is the ability to take actions that were previously unavailable to us. Secondly, we offer a new interpretation of the body that is fundamental to learning. This interpretation challenges the rationalistic tradition, the dualism of mind and body that our educational system has maintained over the past three hundred years. In contrast to this tradition we say that learning is the result of new practices that we commit our body to, not in gathering and understanding information. In the words of William Shakespeare, “By my actions teach my mind.” We challenge the notion that cognitive understanding produces the ability to take effective action. We are not suggesting abandoning cognitive learning. We are saying it is only one aspect of learning. We do see, however, that learning happens in our bodies. When we understand, for example, the power of making grounded assessments, requests, offers, and leading those we manage, but find ourselves incompetent to do so, we see it is necessary to design practices that train our bodies for these actions.
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