Meet

KELLY HARKLESS

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Founder & Resilience Coach, The Resilience Path™

I understand the intersection of professional excellence and personal transition—because I’ve lived it.

The Journey to The Resilience Path™

With over a decade of experience leading learning technologies and organizational development strategies in the biopharma industry, I worked to create systems that supported life-saving cancer treatments. At the same time, I was quietly navigating profound personal challenges.

I signed medical directives for my grandmother between work calls. I wrote her obituary on my office computer. I carried fresh grief into a new role after relocating 50 miles. These moments revealed a truth I couldn’t ignore:

Our professional lives don’t pause for personal crises, yet traditional approaches ask us to compartmentalize our humanity.

This truth became the foundation for The Resilience Path™.

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A Different Approach to Resilience

The Resilience Path™ was born from the realization that professionals—especially minority professionals—deserve sacred spaces to process life’s hardest seasons while pursuing their highest goals.

My approach integrates both strategy and soul:

  • Systems Expertise – drawn from years designing enterprise learning platforms and organizational development strategies

  • Cultural Competency – informed by my lived experience as a minority professional in corporate spaces

  • Faith-Informed Principles – available when clients desire spiritual integration alongside professional ambition

  • Trauma-Informed Practices – honoring the way personal and professional challenges overlap

This isn’t about pushing through. It’s about creating permission to be whole.

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Beyond Traditional Coaching

Resilience isn’t about “bouncing back.” It’s about integrating forward.

I help clients build sustainable strategies for navigating uncertainty while staying true to their values, relationships, and well-being. True transformation happens when we stop trying to separate who we are at work from who we are at home.


Through The Resilience Path™, I serve individual clients navigating career transitions, identity shifts, and life changes. Through ResilienceWorks™, I partner with organizations committed to supporting their employees’ whole-person development.

When I’m Not Coaching

Resilience is also found in restoration.

For me, that means:

  • Taking long walks in nature and drawing parallels between seasons of growth in the natural world and in our lives

  • Traveling to explore new landscapes and historical wonders, always gaining fresh perspectives

  • Gathering around a table with friends and family, sharing great meals and even greater conversations

Some of life’s most profound insights happen in these simple, authentic spaces—where laughter and connection flow naturally.

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“I believe every professional deserves a space where they can be fully themselves while navigating life's inevitable transitions. My role is to create that sacred space and walk alongside you as you discover your own path to authentic resilience."

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