Her Story
About Makeba
Dr. Makeba Hill is a healthcare executive, organizational wellness strategist, author, speaker, and founder of Dr. Makeba & Friends, LLC, a holistic wellness company dedicated to helping individuals and organizations thrive through the integration of mind, body, and spirit. Her professional journey began in healthcare leadership in 1999 after realizing that her true calling was not in accounting, but in serving mission-driven organizations focused on healing and human impact. Over the course of more than twenty-five years, she built a distinguished career guiding healthcare systems, higher education institutions, and philanthropic organizations through strategic planning, leadership development, and organizational transformation. While successful by conventional standards, Dr. Makeba recognized that true fulfillment comes from living in alignment with purpose, a realization that ultimately inspired the next chapter of her life and work.
A transformative introduction to Reiki and energy healing became the catalyst for a profound personal and professional shift. What began as a search for relief from chronic back pain evolved into a deeper exploration of spiritual wellness, self-discovery, and holistic healing. Guided by these experiences, she opened a healing center, began teaching Reiki, facilitated sacred ceremonies and transformational retreats, and developed a framework for helping others reconnect with their authentic selves. In July 2022, she founded Dr. Makeba & Friends, LLC, bringing together her extensive executive leadership background with her passion for whole-person wellness. Through consulting, coaching, retreats, and leadership development programs, she helps individuals, caregivers, executives, and mission-driven organizations cultivate resilience, clarity, and sustainable success.
Dr. Makeba holds a Doctor of Education in Higher Education Administration from the University of Georgia and a Master of Health Services Administration from George Washington University. Throughout her career she has served in senior leadership roles with respected organizations including Piedmont Healthcare, Emory University, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and UPMC. Today, she is recognized for her work advancing conscious leadership, burnout prevention, organizational wellness, and human flourishing through her signature Soul Bloom Method™. Whether speaking on stages, leading retreats, writing bestselling books, or advising healthcare and nonprofit leaders, Dr. Makeba remains committed to one central mission: creating spaces where people can heal, grow, and lead from a place of strength, purpose, and love.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Makeba
01What do you attribute your success to?
I really think about my dad, and he is no longer with us on the Earthly plane. He was always pounding things into my head from very young, the intellectual stuff. He taught me a lot about my family, my worth, and all of those things. He was a smart guy who understood the challenges of being Black in America, but also a Black woman in America. He instilled a lot of pride in my family and who I am. We didn't have the best relationship - he had his own vices, and he and my mother were divorced, and I didn't see him as much as I would have liked to as I got older. But the conversations that we would have, the books he would tell me to read, it was all out of love. He was very encouraging, especially when it came to my academic pursuits. He helped me think about things differently, and I feel like that's helped me throughout my career and throughout my life, to always be asking questions, being curious, and not taking everything at face value. Understanding that there's a deeper level of understanding required to understand what is really going on. It's very layered. I think that really helped me become a good strategic planner in my corporate life, because you have to ask questions, and there's a lot of ambiguity. It's about really understanding your vision and working your way to it, despite all the other stuff. Just being curious and understanding that we're not in control, necessarily, but it doesn't mean that we're lost. We're here to ask questions. He was such a nerd, such a smart man. I really did not appreciate it until much later in life. I feel like it's the first time I've actually said that out loud. In terms of the mind, the life of the mind, I think it's really important in the work that I do - the connection between the heart and the mind. He helped me just to think bigger, think differently about a lot of things.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice is to stay grounded as much as you can. What I've seen over these past few years is that we can get so passionate about doing the work that we forget to do the work for ourselves, so making sure that as much as we want to help and heal others, that we continue to make time for ourselves to really appreciate this time that we have here on Earth, because it's limited, and that's one of those things that we can't get back. So, as much as you pour out to others in your work, and you want to do a great job, and working late and really enjoying it, you still need to make time to get out in nature, to connect with yourself, and to slow it down. One of the mistakes that healers make, or people in this field, is that we get really caught up in others. And that's okay, because we're caring, we're empathetic, and we're loving people, but we cannot pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself. How can you best advocate for others and their health if you don't know how to advocate for you first? We get caught up on being human doers, that we kind of forget that we are human beings.
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