Her Story
About Kristina
I've built my career at the intersection of human capital transformation and artistic expression, creating a unique path that honors both my analytical and creative sides. As a Change Management Specialist, I've spent 7 years in this position and 11 years total in HR consulting, leading end-to-end life cycles of transformational changes for businesses and organizations. My work involves heavy stakeholder engagement and involvement, impact assessment to evaluate the purpose of shifts and how they affect businesses and communities, communications planning where I develop and execute communication strategies, executive and leadership coaching to help leaders speak about changes and their impacts, building training programs around different changes so people can be up to speed, establishing KPIs and success metrics to track whether changes are actually impactful, and resistance management where I anticipate pushback and address employees' concerns with care. In everything I do, I lead with care first, thinking about the impacts on people and communities, because we all know that a lot of organizations get backlash for sometimes not thinking about that and leading with care. I bridge the gap between organizational transformation and employee adoption. Parallel to my corporate career, I've been dancing for 26 years and professionally for 13 years, having danced for the WNBA team The Dream and the NBA G League, toured with artists like Drew Sidora and Donnell Jones, and performed with educational entertainment groups similar to Schoolhouse Rock and African and Caribbean dance companies. My most notable professional achievement was being a Fulbright Fellow, teaching English and dance in Malaysia, because that one opportunity for cultural immersion has trailblazed a path for me even until this day. I now serve as President of the Fulbright Association of Georgia, engaging our alumni and connecting them with powerful resources, because I see myself as a global citizen and believe in spreading that global perspective. I'm currently pursuing my MBA from Emory Goizueta Business School, expected to complete in May 2027, and serve as Vice President of the Black MBA Association at Goizueta. I'm also head of the dance ministry at Friendship Baptist Church, one of the oldest Baptist churches in Atlanta.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kristina
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my family. I have a big family, and of course, all of us are far from perfect, but the lessons that my family members have been able to teach me are something that you just can't buy, you can't get everywhere. I'm motivated by both the successes and failures of my loved ones and the people close to me, and how we get to share with one another. Shame is something, shame with failure is, I believe, something that we should not embrace. We should embrace sharing our failures with one another, being honest and open about them, in order for the future to be brighter and be better. So, I'm always looking for ways to share my experiences and talk to people coming up in the next generation, or even peers, so that they can learn something about themselves, learn something about what they want to do, learn something about how they can make the world a better place.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received came from my mentor, Tamika Curry-Smith, an amazing and outstanding HR and people professional, who instilled in me at an earlier internship I had with Mercedes-Benz USA in college that I can do whatever I want. And it sounds very cliche, but when you think about the time that you have on your hands and the amount of effort that you can put into something, the world can truly be your oyster. Being a young Black, lower-middle-class girl from Chicago, Illinois, so many doors and opportunities have opened for me just by opening my mouth and asking, can I? And most of the time, the answer becomes yes. And I put forth the effort and dedicate the time to bring it into reality. And that's even when it comes to almost a thousand dancers auditioning for the same role. How am I the person to be able to get it? Thousands and thousands of people apply to Emory. How am I able to bring that to life for myself? So, really, going after what you want is one of the biggest words of advice that really impacted my future.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
You are more than capable with the resources that are out here and your brain and your experience that you bring to the table. You are capable of being an influential leader. You are capable of bringing a change or initiative to life. You are capable of giving that talk to those rooms full of college graduates. And so, walk in that confidence, knowing that you are capable with the resources at your disposal and your experience that you bring to the table.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I would say one of the biggest challenges in the HR field, well, I really feel like it's any field at this point, is AI. You'll hear a lot about AI, but how do you make AI work for you? I've used AI to do everything from dance formations to helping me figure out the best communications plan for a change. And so, adding the human touch is, of course, what's needed. But I think AI, of course, is a disruptor, but also a big help. But with that, change fatigue happens. AI is evolving so much, which is making businesses evolve so much, and employees, people, and the communities are getting change fatigue based upon the evolution that is happening and how quickly it's happening.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values most important to me are flexibility, integrity, authenticity, and compassion. And I would also add growth. I think growth is a big part of that as well.
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