We are all called to serve in different ways. #3 in the Summer Of 67: Adria Kitchens — When Crisis Becomes Calling.
Two moments of crisis forged Adria Jordan Kitchens into the culture strategist who’s transforming how we think about belonging and systemic change. The first came during the 2008 financial crash—bankruptcy and depression drove her to Dr. Claire Zammit’s Feminine Power program, where she discovered “relational-power tools” that help people “disrupt the stories that keep us stuck.”
The transformation was so profound she became faculty, eventually guiding thousands of leaders across 100+ countries.
But it was the second crisis that crystallized her true calling. When her teenage son was wrongly accused of a crime and dragged through Georgia’s juvenile court system for ten months, Adria watched a Black judge openly consider jailing him “because I don’t like the way your hair is cut”—even after accusers recanted on the stand.
Watching the juvenile justice system upend her family’s life—despite her son’s innocence and their shared racial identity with the judge—crystallized how systemic racism operates not as abstract theory but as lived reality that can destabilize any family, regardless of preparation or position.
Instead of breaking her, it sparked the question that would reshape her work: Could the same tools that helped her dismantle personal doubt also help people dismantle racism and promote belonging? Eleven women from Australia to South Africa raised their hands to help answer that question.
They’ve met ever since, co-authoring an interactive book designed to move communities from fear and hierarchy toward what Adria calls “systemic love.”
Today, as Senior Faculty Coach at The Institute for Woman-Centered Coaching and Activism Director at Out of Hand Theater, Adria has built her career on a radical premise: culture change isn’t just an outcome—it’s the most powerful answer to increasing productivity, healing workplace dysfunction, and creating environments where people #thrive.
Through programs like Equitable Dinners and the Community Impact Lab, she helps leaders see that how we relate to one another is the most untapped source of innovation, resilience, and transformation.
Her vision? “A #thriving world where we exist in a collective love consciousness.”
Leaders like Adria remind us that our greatest breakdowns often become our most powerful breakthroughs.
In Presidential Leadership Scholars, we learned that authentic leadership emerges when we stop running from our wounds and start transforming them into wisdom that serves others. What crisis in your life contains the seeds of your greatest contribution?
#Leadership #Culture #Belonging #SystemicChange #RelationalPower #PLS #Transformation #SummerOf67