I stopped doubting my expertise when I realized my lived experience wasn't a distraction from my professional training: it was the very thing that gave it meaning.
How She Learned to Trust Her Experience
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Influential Woman · Professional Services Business Consulting
Nashay Lowe, PhD
Conflict Transformation Scholar-Practitioner, Lowe Insights Consulting
Nashville, TN 37203
1Article published
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It wasn't a dramatic moment, just a slow unraveling of assumptions about success. The turning point was asking: what if the path itself needed to change, not me?
Nashay Lowe, PhD · In Her Own Words
From How She Did It
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I found meaning during difficult transitions by learning to sit with discomfort, choosing alignment over approval, and building resilience through patience.
How She Found Meaning In The Hardest Moments
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About Dr. Nashay
Dr. Nashay Lowe is a conflict transformation scholar-practitioner who approaches her work not just as a discipline, but as a lifelong practice shaped by curiosity, listening, and lived experience. She is dedicated to reimagining how we lead, relate, and resolve especially in moments of tension, difference, and change. As the founder of Lowe Insights Consulting and host of The Resolution Room podcast, she brings together scholarship, storytelling, and social impact to help individuals and organizations move from reaction to reflection, and from fragmentation toward understanding. She believes strong institutions and strong communities shape one another, and that meaningful change often begins with a single person choosing to engage differently.
Her work is grounded in a deep belief that dialogue, when practiced with intention, can shift not only conversations but cultures. Over time, she has come to see dialogue as both a personal compass and a professional tool: one that creates space for clarity, trust, and cross-cultural connection. This philosophy shapes her approach to leadership and organizational change, where she helps diverse teams build systems rooted in shared meaning, accountability, and humane communication.
Dr. Lowe has always been fascinated by the interconnected nature of the world. Accordingly, she holds a Ph.D. in International Conflict Management from Kennesaw State University and a Master’s in International Relations from Webster University. Her academic and professional journey spans across South Africa, Jordan, South Korea, Greece, Cuba, Switzerland, China, and Austria: experiences that deepened her understanding of how history, identity, and power shape the way people navigate conflict universally. Her work draws from fields including human rights, social justice, intergroup relations, allyship, and social movements, alongside applied expertise in consensus building, negotiation, and institutional leadership development.
Beyond credentials and frameworks, Dr. Lowe is deeply committed to fostering connection across difference. Through her podcast, public speaking, writing, and facilitation work, she invites people into honest, thoughtful conversations about communication, culture, and coexistence. She believes shared stories have the power to soften divides, surface understanding, and remind us of our shared humanity. At its core, her work is about helping people feel seen, heard, and equipped to grow (individually and collectively) through the very challenges that once felt like barriers.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Dr. Nashay
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to a combination of persistence, curiosity, and the people who have walked alongside me. I’ve learned that progress rarely happens in isolation. Mentors, collaborators, friends, and family have all played a role in challenging my thinking, encouraging me through uncertainty, and reminding me of my purpose when the path felt unclear. Their belief in me paired with my own commitment to keep learning, refining, and showing up with intention has made it possible to grow through both setbacks and successes.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I’ve ever received is to stay humble and let go of perfectionism. Early on, I learned that striving to appear flawless can quietly limit growth. It can make you hesitant to take risks, slow to share ideas, or overly hard on yourself when things don’t go as planned. Letting go of that pressure created space for curiosity, experimentation, and learning in real time.
Humility has also taught me to stay open to feedback and to recognize that meaningful work is almost always collaborative. When you release the need to have all the answers, you become more willing to listen, adapt, and evolve. This mindset has helped me build stronger partnerships, navigate uncertainty with more ease, and stay grounded in purpose rather than performance. In the long run, it’s allowed my work to grow in depth and impact, even when the path forward hasn’t been perfectly defined.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would encourage young women entering this field to trust both their intellect and their intuition. Your perspective matters, even when it doesn’t fit neatly into existing models or expectations. This work often asks you to sit with complexity, ambiguity, and emotion. Those are not weaknesses, but strengths when paired with rigor and care. Seek out mentors and collaborators who respect your voice, but also give yourself permission to grow in public and learn as you go. You don’t need to have everything figured out to contribute meaningfully. Stay curious, protect your values, and remember that impact is built over time through consistency, reflection, and relationships...not perfection.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges in the field of conflict transformation and organizational development is shifting mindsets from reactive to proactive. Many institutions across the world still wait until tensions escalate before they pay attention, often treating symptoms rather than addressing root causes. That makes sustainable change harder, because it means leaders are constantly firefighting instead of building the cultural and relational infrastructure that prevents conflict from becoming disruptive in the first place.
At the same time, that challenge is also a tremendous opportunity. Organizations today are increasingly aware that traditional approaches aren’t enough that lasting success depends on emotional intelligence, inclusive dialogue, and systems that honor diverse perspectives. There’s a growing appetite for tools that help people engage in difficult conversations without sacrificing connection or clarity.
This moment invites practitioners, leaders, and communities to reimagine what healthy conflict engagement looks like...not as a problem to eliminate, but as a source of insight and evolution. For those willing to lean into curiosity, collaboration, and intentional design, the opportunity to make meaningful, lasting impact has never been greater.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values that matter most to me both in my work and in my personal life, are integrity and honesty. For me, integrity means aligning my actions with my values even when it’s inconvenient or unseen, and being willing to take responsibility when I fall short. Honesty, in turn, is about telling the truth with care: naming what’s real while remaining respectful and humane. I try to approach every situation with transparency and accountability, not because it’s easy, but because trust is built through consistency over time. Whether I’m facilitating a conversation, leading a project, or navigating relationships in my own life, I believe meaningful connection depends on people feeling safe enough to be real. These values shape how I show up, how I collaborate, and how I define success...less as perfection, and more as integrity in action.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Dr. Nashay
Explore how intentional dialogue bridges divides, transforms conflict into understanding, and builds the trust necessary for more just and resilient communities in our polarized world.
Dialogue as a Bridge
How Intentional Dialogue Transforms Conflict into Connection and Builds More Resilient Communities
In a world shaped by rapid change, polarization, and cultural fragmentation, dialogue is more than a communication skill—it is a social necessity. Across communities, workplaces, and institutions, we encounter difference daily, yet often lack the tools to engage it thoughtfully. When practiced with intention, dialogue can not only reduce misunderstanding but transform how we relate to one another and envision what is possible together.
In my work across education, nonprofit leadership, and global contexts, I have seen dialogue act as a bridge between lived experience, objective events, and collective understanding. Each person carries stories shaped by history, culture, and power. When these stories remain unheard or misunderstood, tension accumulates. Creating space for people to speak and be met with curiosity rather than judgment allows individuals to see each other not as opposing positions, but as human beings navigating complex realities.
Dialogue is not about persuasion or winning an argument. It is about creating conditions for mutual understanding. This aligns with longstanding dialogic traditions emphasizing relationship, reciprocity, and meaning-making over dominance (Buber, 1958; Habermas, 1984; Isaacs, 1999). Too often, conversations across difference collapse into defensiveness, reinforcing divisions. Intentional dialogue slows the pace, invites reflection, and allows complexity to surface.
One of dialogue’s most powerful aspects is its ability to reveal what lies beneath conflict. Conflict itself is not inherently destructive; it conveys information about unmet needs, unresolved harm, and competing values (Lederach, 2003; Burton, 1990). Acknowledging these dynamics enables individuals to move from reaction to reflection, opening the door to thoughtful decision-making and sustainable solutions.
Cross-cultural dialogue is particularly vital in our globalized world. Misunderstandings often stem not from malice but from unspoken norms, historical memory, or differing communication styles. Research shows that meaningful, structured contact—grounded in equity, cooperation, and shared purpose—reduces prejudice and fosters understanding (Allport, 1954; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). Dialogue slows assumptions, replaces them with inquiry, and cultivates cultural humility—the recognition that learning across difference is ongoing and relational.
Traveling to more than 30 countries has reinforced that beneath visible differences, people share universal hopes for dignity, safety, belonging, and meaning. Yet even the most open-minded individuals can unconsciously let differences harden into assumptions. Meaningful dialogue challenges us to slow down, question reflexes, and listen beyond first impressions.
Dialogue is not passive. It requires intention, structure, and accountability. Effective dialogue relies on clear processes, skilled facilitation, and equitable participation (Isaacs, 1999; Pearce & Littlejohn, 1997). When supported in this way, dialogue becomes collective problem-solving, transforming talk into insight and insight into action. Over time, it builds trust—the quiet infrastructure enabling communities, organizations, and institutions to adapt and thrive.
Ultimately, conflict is not the enemy—avoidance is. Treating tension as information unlocks its potential to teach, connect, and renew. In an era of complexity, our greatest strength may not be the loudest voice, but the capacity to listen, reflect, and respond with intention. Practiced with care, dialogue becomes more than conversation; it becomes a bridge to more just, connected, and resilient societies.
To continue the conversation, listen to The Resolution Room for discussions on navigating conflict with clarity and care, or schedule a consultation to explore how Dr. Lowe’s RESOLVE Communication Workshop can help your team build trust, alignment, and effective engagement across differences.
References
Allport, G. W. (1954). The Nature of Prejudice. Addison-Wesley.
Buber, M. (1958). I and Thou. Scribner.
Burton, J. (1990). Conflict: Resolution and Provention. St. Martin’s Press.
Habermas, J. (1984). The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 1. Beacon Press.
Isaacs, W. (1999). Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together. Currency.
Lederach, J. P. (2003). The Little Book of Conflict Transformation. Good Books.
Pearce, W. B., & Littlejohn, S. W. (1997). Moral Conflict: When Social Worlds Collide. Sage.
Pettigrew, T. F., & Tropp, L. R. (2006). “A Meta-Analytic Test of Intergroup Contact Theory.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(5), 751–783.
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