Michelle Risinger is an award-winning entrepreneur, behavioral designer, international public speaker, and certified professional life coach. She is currently the owner and principal strategist at Rising Solutions, a global innovation strategy firm for social impact that works with clients such as the United Nations, the Rainforest Alliance, the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) and AstraZeneca. She is also the founder and CEO of Restore, a technology company that revolutionizes productivity and scheduling with chronobiology, and co-founder of Moonwake Retreats, a luxury travel company.

Michelle is the national recipient of the 2019 End-User Transformation Award by Design Thinking USA and was formerly the founding member and Director of Innovation at global nonprofit, Pact where her work was featured in Forbes Asia and funded by Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Gates Foundation, USAID, US Dept of State, SIDA, Trafigura Foundation and Pan African Energy. She has a Master’s in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and began her career as an Assistant Station Manager for the American Red Cross, serving multiple assignments to Iraq and Afghanistan. She was the recipient of the American Red Cross 2008 National Employee Spirit of Excellence Award. She has previously guest lectured at Georgetown University, American University, the School for Visual Arts and the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Michelle is a certified professional life coach, a certified practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), and coaches executives on transformational change management. She holds a certificate from Cornell University in the Psychology of Leadership and is certified as a Wellness Coach by the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM). Her research focus is on innovation culture and psychological safety in the workplace, unpacking invisible barriers to innovation (workplace design, status quo bias, creativity bias, burnout and anxiety), bringing more creativity neuroscience and chronobiology to the future of work and documenting how rest leads to breakthrough innovations. She is a certified fitness and yoga instructor, as well as a certified mindfulness practitioner. A former member of the Scottish National Water Polo team, she is an avid lover of travel, exploring new countries through open water swimming.