Lacey (MacIntyre) Kellenbenz, Ed.D.
Lacey is a senior communications and organizational transformation leader with more than a decade of experience helping global companies shape employee experience, culture, and internal storytelling. She currently serves as Senior Manager of Global Internal Communications at Sealed Air Corporation, where she leads enterprise-wide communication strategies, executive messaging, and initiatives designed to strengthen engagement and transparency across a global workforce. Her work focuses on translating complex organizational goals into clear, human-centered narratives that support alignment and change.
Across her career, Lacey has specialized in change management, employer branding, and culture transformation, with a strong track record of building programs that support leadership development, talent pipelines, and internal mobility. She previously held roles at ITT Inc., where she contributed to large-scale culture and communications strategy, including employer branding during a key organizational transition. Her approach blends storytelling, data-informed communication strategies, and a focus on improving how employees connect to their work and leadership.
Lacey holds a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Management, along with advanced training in organizational leadership and change management. She is also increasingly engaged in the intersection of communications and emerging technologies, including generative AI and responsible AI governance. Alongside her professional work, she often shares reflections on parenting, leadership, and work-life experience, reflecting a broader interest in how people grow through both personal and organizational change.
• Responsible AI Foundations Professional Certificate by All Tech Is Human
• Operationalizing AI Governance: Strategy and Foundations by All Tech Is Human
• Principles of Responsible AI: Identifying, Understanding, and Mitigating Risks by All Tech Is Human
• History of Responsible AI: From Principles to Professionalization by All Tech Is Human
• Governing Agentic AI Systems by All Tech Is Human
• Open AI Academy
• Manager as Coach
• Unconscious Bias
• PowerPoint Tips and Tricks
• PowerPoint Tips and Tricks for Business Presentations
• Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt
• Prosci Change Management Practitioner
• Crucial Conversations
• Capella University- Ed.D.
• Commonwealth University-Mansfield- M.A.
• Commonwealth University-Mansfield- B.A.
• ITT Way Awards Finalist
• Full-Year Scholarship from Capella University for Furthering Dr. Robert Ford's Mission
• President’s List
• Best Overall Actor/Actress
• Society of Working Moms
• Sealed Air
• Women in Manufacturing
• Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority
• Prostate Cancer Awareness
• Men's Health Awareness
• Suicide Awareness and Prevention
• United Way
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the women who came before me, the ones who left the door open behind them and helped other women like me through. One of my biggest, and hardest, realizations in my career has been that not all women champion other women, and not all women support other women. It's a very hard reality, but recognizing it and inspiring other women to celebrate one another has become a personal mission of mine. Because those who do will help grow the next generation of leaders and I can't think of a more meaningful legacy than that. When it's my time to move on, I want to leave that door open for those who are going to come next the way my mentors did for me.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is that vulnerability should not really be viewed as a weakness. Rather, it's an opportunity to really engage people. Being transparent and being vulnerable helps further inclusion, in my opinion, and I really take that advice to heart. That's where opening up and talking about the challenges of working motherhood really stemmed from. I realized you can build a really strong community of moms by opening up and speaking truth to the challenges that we face.
My mentor, Dr. Maravene Loeschke, who was president of Mansfield University and then went on to Towson University, was pivotal in teaching me to be genuinely happy for other women, to speak their name in rooms that they're not in. She was the true definition of a leader, celebrating others even when she had remarkable honors and accolades of her own to relish in. She will forever be one of the most humble and selfless people I've been blessed enough to learn from. I remember her legacy everyday and try to mirror those values in how I live, parent, and work.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Keep learning. Even when you finish your formal education, it can't be the end of your knowledge journey. This world has moved at a pace that I could have never anticipated. Every single day, my eyes are opening to new and different technologies, and it can either be used against us, or it can be an opportunity for us to be able to be part of this transformation and shift that we're all experiencing, especially when it comes to AI. The more that we are willing to learn, and the more that we're willing to step up and dig our heels into things like AI, digital transformation, and the like, the more that we're able to be part of what comes next. I think that's really important, especially for women, that we get a say and that we get an active leadership role in what this looks like, and also to help make sure that it's responsible for the next generation.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Many organizations are throwing AI tools at employees without proper communication, change management, strategy and context. This is a challenge because people don’t know how to actually use them in their jobs, leaders aren’t modeling behavior adoption and there's no narrative tying AI to “how we work together now." The biggest opportunity in my field right now is owning the intersection of AI, behavior change and internal storytelling because most companies are doing all three poorly or separately.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Authenticity and transparency are huge values for me. Being vulnerable helps further engagement, and I believe that's our most powerful superpower as professionals: the ability to connect and the ability to meaningfully interact. When you can engage people effectively, you really have an opportunity to further your career and to further your brand. In building a community on LinkedIn, for example, I have been able to build meaningful relationships with parents around the world because I dig deep within myself and speak truth to issues many working parents face but often don't speak openly about. It's opened doors, and most importantly it has helped people come together and have honest conversations that they weren't having before. That's where the true value comes alive, because that's when change starts to happen.