Leadership For A Just World

SPEAKING THAT

SPARKS CHANGE

NY TIMES

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POLITICO

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LA TIMES

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THE NEW YORKER

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AND MORE

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NY TIMES • POLITICO • LA TIMES • THE NEW YORKER • AND MORE •

Work Featured In

NATIONALLY RESPECTED

SPEAKER, COACH, AND STRATEGIST

Meredith Horton brings two decades of experience leading and advising social change organizations. Known for her grounded presence and transformative insight, Meredith helps teams, executives, and emerging leaders navigate the complexities of leadership, culture, and justice work with clarity and compassion.

Whether addressing a room of nonprofit professionals, law students, corporate ERGs, or movement builders, Meredith speaks with candor, warmth, and deep expertise.

Meredith has been a featured speaker in Political, Legal, Academic, and Advocacy spaces such as:

  • Biden-Harris 2024, Harris-Walz 2024, Democratic Party of Georgia

  • Venable LLP, American Bar Association, National Bar Association

  • University of Virginia School of Law, University of Chicago Institute of Politics

  • Win With Black Men, Kairos (Michael Blake), Lawyers for Biden

SPEAKING

TOPICS

  • With over 20 years in campaigns, nonprofits, and consulting, Meredith offers practical tools for hiring, retaining, and supporting talented staff while building equitable, resilient cultures. She guides leaders through the unspoken challenges of knowing when to grow or move on, and how to lead with clarity, intuition, and emotional intelligence. This talk equips teams to stay creative, grounded, and effective as they do the urgent work of shaping a more just future.

  • What does it mean to keep leading when life gets hard? Drawing on her own experiences with grief, illness, and transition, Meredith offers honest reflections and practical guidance for navigating personal challenges while sustaining impact. She names the pressure leaders feel to always appear strong—and reframes vulnerability as a powerful leadership tool. Participants will learn how to honor their limits, build resilient teams that can thrive through uncertainty, and cultivate leadership that is authentic, grounded, and sustainable.

  • Meredith shares her first-hand experience sparking a leadership shake-up at the Southern Poverty Law Center—challenging entrenched power and a culture rife with allegations of harassment and discrimination. Drawing from this and other culture-shifting efforts, she offers candid reflections and practical lessons on transparency, accountability, and the risks of “forever leaders.”

    This session explores what it takes to lead with deep integrity and build values-aligned workplace cultures prepared to meet today’s challenges and take advantage of the opportunities ahead.

  • For those eager to meet this moment and do more to effect change, this talk supports emerging leaders in clarifying their values, identifying their unique contributions, and embracing non-linear career paths. Meredith also affirms the impact of those who give back outside their day jobs, offering guidance for meaningful volunteerism and community engagement.

    Ideal for colleges, universities, civic leadership programs, community organizations, and professional associations.

LET’S LEAD INTO
WHAT’S NEXT

TOGETHER

Through keynotes, interactive workshops, and retreat facilitation, Meredith equips audiences with justice-centered insights, bold storytelling, and strategies for transformative leadership. Her work invites leaders to imagine — and build — the world we want to see.

  • Meredith has an instinct for people and the distinctive knowledge of how to not only build power, but wield it. Bold, heartfelt, and insightful, she moves entire audiences to action while making each listener feel seen. We need more of Meredith’s wisdom and calls to action in these uncertain times.

    Rebecca DeHart, CEO, Fair Count

  • Thank you so much for joining my Careers in Voting Rights workshop at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics! The students and staff absolutely raved about you and got so much out of your talk. Your comments about finding ways to take care of yourself for the long haul were an important reminder for me as well - thank you.

    Caroline Hutton, Practitioner in Residence, University of Chicago Institute of Politics

  • Meredith was a voice of clarity and encouragement in the early days of my new leadership. She is empathetic, reassuring, and provides resources that I continue to come back to. Her experience and insight is unparalleled – particularly for the public interest leadership sector, and I am glad she is sharing that with the world.

    Elaine Poon, Deputy Director for Advocacy, Legal Aid Justice Center

  • Meredith's experience working in the non-profit sector made our sessions invaluable. She understood the dynamics that I was navigating professionally. Meredith has strong instincts and understands people and systems really well. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to work with her.

    Patrice James, Executive Director, Illinois Black Advocacy Initiative

  • [Meredith] taught me to check in with my mental and physical health, and how stress had to be acknowledged. [She was] creative and researched interesting techniques to help disrupt my fixed thinking about certain topics. What was perhaps most important was the way [she] gave me permission to be my authentic self, confess difficult truths, and consider different sides.

    Danielle Taylor, CEO of Strategic Disruption Consulting