Michelle Carlstrom

Speaking Experience

Michelle has extensive speaking experience in employee sessions, leadership forums, and at national, regional, and local conferences. She has authored publications for print and online media and served as an interviewee, media contributor and subject matter expert on workplace culture, work/life topics, the impact of disruptive behavior at work, stress, resilience, crisis response, and grief. She has presented in a variety of organizations including higher education, academic medicine, government agencies, law firms, tech, non-profit organizations, and Fortune 500 companies.

Founder and Principal Consultant, Build A Better Culture

Michelle Carlstrom is the founder and principal consultant of Build a Better Culture. Drawing on 20 years of experience and expertise in employee assistance, work/life and workplace violence risk assessment, Michelle is an expert on the impact of workplace behaviors. She understands the very real challenges that prevent the culture changes you are trying to make. She brings highly relevant experience partnering with executives, deans, and HR leaders across a broad range of working environments to include higher education, academic healthcare, community hospitals, non-profit, local, State and Federal governments, law firms, corporations, and Fortune 500 company environments.

Executive Director, LifeWork Strategies, Adventist Healthcare

As the chief executive of an employee assistance program (EAP) and work/life organization in the Washington D.C. area for many years, Michelle understands the importance of research-based practice and data-driven decision making. Michelle’s areas of expertise include managing at-risk and complex people problems; managing disruptive behavior, workplace bullying, and threats of violence; coaching abrasive leaders; cultivating professionalism; fostering work/life culture; training executives on the power of strengths-based leadership, compassion, and emotional intelligence to mitigate burnout and build a culture where people feel valued and are engaged.

Senior Director, Safe at Hopkins & Work, Life and Engagement, Johns Hopkins University

In a similar role Michelle more recently spent 10 years as a senior director for the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Health System Corporation, where she led what became nationally recognized and award-winning programs, both in work/life, employee assistance, and disruptive behavior at work. Michelle created and co-developed Safe at Hopkins—a research-based professionalism program to address disruptive and bullying behaviors at work—and has spoken nationally on this topic. She continues to advise organizations on issues of disruptive behavior and their impact on a culture of safety and professionalism. She led the multi-disciplinary Threat Management Team covering incident management and violence risk assessments for Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Health System Corporation (~50,000 employees).

Certified Threat Manager (CTM)

Michelle was among the first 50 in the U.S. to achieve the prestigious Certified Threat Manager designation (CTM), signaling distinct knowledge, expertise and years of experience in workplace risk assessment and threat management. She focuses on managing disruptive behavior as an approach to preventing affective workplace violence.

Faculty, University of Maryland, School of Social Work

Michelle holds a Masters in Social Work (MSW), is a licensed mental health professional (LCSW-C), is a certified threat manager (CTM), is a Board-Certified Executive Coach (BCC), and is certified in Emotional Intelligence training and tools (EQi 2.0). She is currently on the faculty at University of Maryland School of Social Work and a guest lecturer at Johns Hopkins University.