Michaela Leslie-Rule

Education: MPA from Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington; MPH from School of Public Health, Global Health, University of Washington; BFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts

Recent projects include: First and Always Melanin (FAAM), Omaha citywide DEI initiative planning (Peter Kiewit Foundation, Sherwood Foundation), Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Personal interests include: Documentary filmmaking, long-distance swimming, traveling, baking

Michaela Leslie-Rule is a researcher, storyteller and cultural strategist. For the past 15 years Michaela has supported communities, non-profit leaders and philanthropic institutions to advance racial and gender justice by leveraging the power of stories. Through participatory research and collaborative design processes she builds the capacity of young people, activists and non-profit and philanthropic leaders to center and elevate the voices of communities historically excluded from decision making. Michaela has extensive experience working in partnership with Black and brown communities in the United States and with movement leaders in East and Central Africa. 

She co-led Striving to Thriving, a multi-year research project supported by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that explores Black, Hispanic and young people experiencing poverty’s attitudes and mindsets related to education and work. She is a member of Wonder: Strategies for Good, a network of independent communications strategists, working to advance change on sensitive social issues using values-based messaging. At Wonder she is currently translating the findings from Striving to Thriving into tools and other public assets to support the field.

Outside of her consulting practice, Michaela is an artist. She is a founding collaborator of the Spiritual Technologies Project, a collaboration between composers, musicians and other culture makers to explore the unique knowledge held by Black people in the American South. She holds Master’s degrees of Public Health and Public Administration from the University of Washington and a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts degree from New York University.