Kristina Martin is a people strategy and organizational evolution leader with over 20 years of experience helping organizations navigate pivotal change, expand impact, and build long-term resilience. Guided by the insight that lasting change is a collective endeavor — “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together” — she works with leaders to strengthen the systems and practices that allow bold change to endure.
At her core, Kristina is a human systems architect and strategic translator. She works side-by-side with leadership teams through pivotal periods of change, aligning new direction with organizational capabilities and behaviors — turning strategic intent into everyday practice that fuels growth, impact, and longevity.
She has partnered with CEOs, executive teams, and Boards across science, technology, education, professional services, and equity-driven organizations — working with organizations ranging from startups to multi-billion-dollar global enterprises across the U.S., India, the UK, Latin America and Sweden.
Some of her most meaningful work has come through strengthening leadership capability for a shared purpose. One pivotal change effort at a purpose-driven org began with executive team effectiveness work and ultimately reshaped the entire organization — moving it from the brink of insolvency to long-term stability within two years, unlocking major partnerships and funding that permanently shifted its trajectory. Across her career, she has supported organizations in expanding globally, evolving product portfolios to deepen impact, and navigating periods of 20–50% year-over-year growth — always with a focus on systems that endure.
Organizations Kristina’s partnered with
Kristina blends systems thinking, an equity lens, and data-driven insight with deep respect for the human side of change
Her specialties include:
Designing organization and leadership development strategies that convert vision into real capabilities and results
Strategic-to-operational translation: Kristina has led human resources, learning and organizational development, communications, revenue strategy and partnerships, operations, and DEI functions across both startups and multi-billion-dollar organizations. She moves fluidly between strategic vision and operational execution
Leveraging difference: embedding psychological safety, representation, and inclusion into processes, practices and decision-making
Using proven wisdom: impactful assessments, action learning and change frameworks
Using analytics, predictive insights, and KPI dashboards to support organizational health and continuous improvement
Navigating complexity and organizational polarities with clarity, care and nuance
Staying Curious and Connected
Kristina’s undergraduate and graduate studies in the behavioral sciences (George Mason University and American University) span human systems, social psychology, conflict and identity, systems complexity, culturally responsible evaluation, qualitative and quantitative methods, and predictive analytics. She is also trained and/or certified in learning design and facilitation through the Association for Talent Development, Immunity to Change through Minds At Work (Lisa Lahey and Robert Kegan), and action learning methodologies by Michael Marquardt.
Kristina is an invited speaker and thought partner to executive, academic, and industry audiences. She has presented on leadership systems, organizational evolution, equity in practice, and navigating complexity at forums including the National Science Foundation & Ecological Society of America, Society for Scholarly Publishing, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a number of other leadership innovation communities. She also founded the California Action Learning Leadership Forum (CALF) in 2016.
Her personal interests include sci-fi books and shows (favorite authors are Becky Chambers, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Ted Chiang; shows include The Expanse and The Man Who Fell to Earth) live music, time in nature, and learning from her children.
