Michael Bell is the president, chief executive officer and co-founder of InPartnership Consulting Inc., an organizational development and strategic change firm specializing in global cultural competence and leadership development. He designs state-of-the-art training, leadership development programs and organizational change initiatives for foundations and progressive non-profits. He is an international consultant and executive coach with special expertise in organizational assessment, team-building and mentoring programs. He is an expert in helping organizations understanding their cultures and their need for transformational learning.
A graduate of Cornell University, Michael is also an advanced facilitator using the conflict resolution model of Powerful Non-Defensive Communication (PNDC).
Michael serves as a 17 year faculty member of the Rockwood Leadership Institute, co-founded by Robert Gass. Rockwood’s signature leadership training, the Art of Leadership, supports deep, transformational leadership development. There, he also serves as an advisor and design team member to the trans-national Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity, designed to promote racial equity and dismantle anti-black racism. He is also co-designer and lead faculty with Building Power Fellowships in California and Ohio.
Michael designs & facilitates The President’s Forum on Racial Equity in Philanthropy for Keecha Harris and Associates, aimed at supporting equity-centered leadership for many of the largest philanthropic foundation leaders in the United States and beyond. Through his own company, Michael leads the Racial Equity Innovation Lab, which convenes senior leaders to offer peers support, expertise, encouragement and rigour as they upgrade and implement comprehensive organizational Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and specifically, Racial Equity programs.
Michael is a student/practitioner of Forward Stance, a series of physical practices based on the belief that our capacity for movement building rests not only on political alignment, strategy, or opportunity for collaboration, but on the capacity to embody a resilient stance and move as one. Forward Stance is a mind-body approach that gets us out of our heads—into our bodies—and supports our movement to do just that.
Michael is a Black, Queer parent of three young adults, and a lifelong meditator. For the past 10 years he’s been part of an established meditation community for queer men of colour. He lives on the traditional territories of the Ohlone, Muwekma and Chochenyo peoples (also known as Oakland, CA).