Michelle James-

Michelle James has been pioneering Applied Creativity in business for 18 years. She is CEO of The Center for Creative Emergence and founded of the Capitol Creativity Network – an Applied Creativity community hub in DC since 2003, and more recently the Cville Creativity Network in Charlottesville, VA. Michelle is an organizational development and creativity consultant, facilitator and coach who has designed and delivered hundreds of programs for organizations such as VHDA, Microsoft, Deloitte, Panasonic, GEICO, National Institutes of Heath, Dept of Health and Human Services, NOAA, Dominos Pizza, Assn of Arts and Humanities, John Deere, The World Bank, Kaiser Permanente and Invest Northern Ireland among many others. She is an adjunct faculty at the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, offering monthly programs on Improv theater for Leadership and Creative Thinking to senior government executives and policy leaders.

Known for creating richly textured learning environments that weave together storytelling, improvisation, the arts, and other whole-brain approaches with creative solution finding methods and sound workplace practices, her sessions have been featured on television, the radio and in several books. Michelle performed full-length improvised plays with Precipice Improv for 10 years and developed Quantum Leap Business Improv. She’s been recognized for Visionary Leadership in Fast Company’s blog, Leading Change, and she produced and two sold-out Creativity in Business Conferences in Washington, DC, and the first online Creativity in Business Telesummit. She founded the Capitol Creativity Network in DC – a community service hub – which she ran from 2003-2013 until she moved to Charlottesville, VA where she started the Cville Creativity Network. She is currently writing a book, Pattern Breaks: A Facilitator’s Guide to Cultivating Creativity, due out in 2017.