About Me

Leslie Stevens (she/they) is a coach, community cultivator, people & culture strategist, and founder of Rooted Reclamation—a practice dedicated to disrupting loneliness and isolation in corporate and creative spaces.

With over a decade of experience across people & culture, communication, and corporate insights and program management, Leslie work centers Black women, femmes, and queer people of color in reclaiming agency, feeling belonging, and executing creative vision in a world that often demands disconnection.

Her coaching style is both strategic and soulful, weaving people-centered strategy and the ancestral wisdom of Black queer feminist thought. She’s passionate about creating spaces where people can unpack what weighs them down, rediscover what brings them joy, and move forward with clarity and ease.

Leslie partners with individuals and organizations to explore themes of workplace well-being, conscious leadership, identity-aligned career design, and the future of work. She specializes in coaching through transitions, designing people and culture strategy that honors dignity and care, and facilitating experiences that nourish connection, curiosity, and collective healing.

As a speaker and facilitator, Leslie is known for holding space that is both expansive and grounded. She leads workshops, team retreats, and talks on topics such as self-trust, workplace well-being, imagination as a leadership skill, and navigating life transitions with clarity and care. Whether guiding intimate circles or addressing larger audiences, Leslie invites reflection, deep listening, and courageous conversation—always rooted in a commitment to justice, wholeness, and communal growth.

Leslie’s work is deeply informed by the lineage of her background in rhetoric and communication, workplace culture and engagement experiences, and the Black Feminist wisdom of Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Octavia Butler, Lucille Clifton, Nikki Giovanni—and by the everyday wisdom of the Black women and communities of color who raised her. She believes rest and care are revolutionary, clarity is a compass, and healing is a radical, creative act. Her work supports empowered individuals who make sustained and lasting impact in the world.

Sample Speaking Topics

• Beating Burnout: Self and Collective Care Practice for Staying in Flow

• Reclaiming the Power of Imagination

• Experiencing Isolation & Loneliness in Life and Career

• Harnessing the Power of Introverts in the Workplace

• Mental Health & Career Setback

• Navigating Career Transitions and Personal Transformations

• Speaking Up: Self-Advocacy and Visibility for Women of Color in Tech

You can explore more of Leslie’s professional experience here and dive into her personal reflections and storytelling on the Rooted Reclamation blog—a space where she writes about visibility, sabbaticals, self-trust, and the beauty of becoming.

Recent Speaking Engagements

Conscious Leadership & Culture Strategy

I work with mission-driven organizations, nonprofits, people-centered teams, and managers to build workplace dynamics where employees can thrive. Through customized workplace learning and culture strategy, I help leaders and teams navigate change, deepen engagement, and align their internal practices with their external mission.

I partner with organizations and leaders to build full-cycle people practices and policies that fuel innovation and engagement in the workplace. My work includes designing community engagement frameworks, internal comms and HR policy strategy that bring forth the vision and values of the organization. I facilitate culture audits and engagement initiatives to surface employee insights and translate them into actionable, values-aligned roadmaps. I support the development of internal people policies, comms frameworks, and talent management systems that center continuous feedback, growth, and accountability. Through learning programs, communication strategy, and leadership coaching, I help organizations strengthen psychological safety, deepen team resilience, and cultivate connection across hybrid and global teams.

Whether you’re looking to strengthen your internal culture, launching employee initiatives, or navigating change with care, I offer:

• Fractional Workplace Culture & Engagement Leadership

• ERG and Culture Council Strategy Development

• People Policy Advising & Internal Communications Frameworks

• Team Retreats, Workshops, and Facilitated Learning Experiences

• 1:1 and Group Coaching for Culture Champions, Emerging Leaders, and Executive Teams

Project Highlights:

🔹 Guide to Navigating Organizational Change and Backlash
Designed and facilitated workshops and strategy sessions for People teams to proactively address organizational fatigue, backlash, and disengagement toward specific People initiatives.

🔹 Engagement Strategy for Hybrid or Remote Teams
Developed frameworks and communication guides to strengthen connection, belonging, and productivity across distributed teams, with a focus on creating meaningful collaboration and regional adaptability.

🔹 Hiring Excellence Workshop Series
Developed and delivered an interactive workshop for recruiters and managers to enhance selection processes, reduce bias, and improve candidate experience from sourcing through onboarding.

🔹 Conscious Leadership Workshop Series
Designed and facilitated a multi-module learning series for emerging and senior leaders, strengthening decision-making, feedback skills, sponsorship behaviors, and team empowerment practices.

We co-create rhythms of care that help you feel resourced and rooted in times of transition and transformation.

We unlearn external definitions of success so you can move in alignment with your internal compass.