Our people and purpose:
Michelle Helman Consulting, LLC is a woman-owned, full-service consulting firm. We design, facilitate, and evaluate processes that support people to work together across differences to co-create solutions and achieve results.
Michelle Helman, MA (she/her/ella)
Principal Consultant, CEO & Founder
Michelle brings over twenty years of global experience to her work as an advisor, facilitator, and evaluator at the forefront of peace, security, justice, public health, education, and environment initiatives. She is known for facilitating change, fostering leadership, and leading teams through change processes. Michelle is an Advanced Mediator, holds a BA in Anthropology and a MA in Peace & Conflict Studies as a Rotary Peace Fellow. She identifies as as a white, Slavic, first-generation immigrant with Jewish heritage. Michelle is Bilingual in English and Spanish, which she learned as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Perú, and has called Portland home since 2009. She loves to ride her bike and spend time with nature, practice applied improvisation, and play string instruments.
Principal Consultant, CEO & Founder
Michelle brings over twenty years of global experience to her work as an advisor, facilitator, and evaluator at the forefront of peace, security, justice, public health, education, and environment initiatives. She is known for facilitating change, fostering leadership, and leading teams through change processes. Michelle is an Advanced Mediator, holds a BA in Anthropology and a MA in Peace & Conflict Studies as a Rotary Peace Fellow. She identifies as as a white, Slavic, first-generation immigrant with Jewish heritage. Michelle is Bilingual in English and Spanish, which she learned as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Perú, and has called Portland home since 2009. She loves to ride her bike and spend time with nature, practice applied improvisation, and play string instruments.
APPROACH & VALUES
- Equity, Justice, and Healing. We believe change is possible and that conflict can be generative.
- We prioritize relationships and focus on connection & belonging. We de-center whiteness, make the invisible visible and visceral, ditch binaries, acknowledge power structures, and commit to ongoing learning and critical reflection.
- Drawing from lived experience and professional development, we are trauma-aware and trauma-informed, prioritize mental wellness, and embrace emotion. We use public health approaches to support change processes.
- We acknowledge the process is an outcome, that change can take time, and get creative to have fun along the way.
- We ask questions and trust you (or the community you are working with) have the answers - we help you find them!
- We offer all services in English and Spanish.
Perla Padilla, MA (she/her/ella)
Peace and Conflict Project Associate Perla supports with design, implementation, and evaluation of equity, community participation and dialogue initiatives. She was born in Honduras, and is Bilingual in English and Spanish. |
Sandra Jackson, (she/her)
Project Advisor & Co-Facilitator Sandra is a thought partner and facilitator on select projects. She is the Principal of Resolution Conversations where she provides mediation, facilitation, and training to support people to have open, honest and productive conversations. |
Zeinab Hachem, MA (she/her)
Research and Data Scientist Zeinab (Zay-nub) assists with data management by applying her background in analytic software and statistical analyses. She is a second-generation Lebanese-American currently pursuing her PhD in Applied Social Psychology, and is bilingual in English and Arabic. |
Our equity journey:
It is our responsibility and privilege to acknowledge and name the living descendants of many native Indigenous peoples including the Upper Chinook: Multnomah/Clackamas/Wasco, Chinook Nation, Clatstop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, amongst others who were forcibly removed from their traditional homelands and still live here - so we can call Portland, Oregon home. We also acknowledge that Portland has a large Urban Native American population with over 380 federally recognized Tribes in the Metropolitan area.
We recognize the predominantly Black and African slavery, labor and exploitation on which the United States has and continues to develop economic prosperity by perpetuating oppressive, inequitable systems dominated by white supremacist culture through racism, capitalism, and ableist cis-heteronormative patriarchy.
We commit to continued learning to live as anti-racist by dismantling and decolonizing internalized attitudes and beliefs which may result in disproportionate harm to Black, Indigenous, People of Color, including LGBTQ2S+ and communities farthest from justice.
We recognize the predominantly Black and African slavery, labor and exploitation on which the United States has and continues to develop economic prosperity by perpetuating oppressive, inequitable systems dominated by white supremacist culture through racism, capitalism, and ableist cis-heteronormative patriarchy.
We commit to continued learning to live as anti-racist by dismantling and decolonizing internalized attitudes and beliefs which may result in disproportionate harm to Black, Indigenous, People of Color, including LGBTQ2S+ and communities farthest from justice.
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We donate a % of proceeds to organizations working with communities to co-create reproductive health equity and eco-social justice. We prioritize purchasing at local, BIPOC owned businesses whenever possible.
State of Oregon COBID Certifications: Women-Owned, Emerging, and Disadvantaged Small Business {WSB, ESB, DBE - No. 13100} NAICS Codes: 611430, 541690, 541611 NIGP Code: 96105 |
