Keynotes + Speaking
Perspective shaped by real work, real people, and the systems we lead within, offering honest insight across teams and sectors because leadership is human work and the systems around it are never simple.
Ricka’ Berry, MBA delivers sharp, grounded, research-informed keynotes on modern leadership, strategy, culture, and the realities of building organizations in complex environments.
A former COO, Vice President, and Director of Program Evaluation & Research turned strategist and scholar-practitioner, she brings a cross-sector lens shaped by two decades across business, corporate environments, social impact systems, behavioral health, prevention, workforce analytics, and national program design.
Her talks blend executive strategy, lived leadership, whole-person insight, and culturally fluent analysis — speaking to both the head and the human.
Audiences walk away with language, frameworks, and perspectives they can use immediately.
Signature Topics
Whole-Person Leadership in High-Demand Roles
Leading effectively without losing yourself, grounded, human, executive-level insight for complex environments.
Practice is Part of the Game-Leadership Discipline + Decisions
A systems-level look at leadership discipline embedded in decisions, structures, and culture.
Women Who Lead: Power, Pressure, and What It Really Takes
A candid, culturally fluent talk on leading while carrying career, life, identity, and responsibility all at once.
Strategy Meets Humanity
How executives build organizations, deploy human capital, make decisions, and sustain performance in real life.
Culture, Systems, and Community-Behaviors, Building, and Growth
How culture is built through behavior, accountability, communication patterns, and decision-making.
Designing What’s Next: Innovation in Organizations
A keynote on innovation rooted in program architecture, implementation science, and people-centered systems.
Complexity is Overrated-How to Lead Through Anything
Frameworks for navigating cross-functional demands, ambiguity, change, and pressure with steadiness and structure.
Beyond the Model: How Programs Become Systems
How evidence-based models scale, sustain, and actually create impact.
Speaking Formats
Keynotes, panels, workshops, retreats, executive conversations, and podcasts are available, with each format shaped to match the depth, pace, and engagement an audience needs. Whether the goal is a compelling room-wide message or a focused, nuanced dialogue, the delivery is adapted to fit the moment and the people in it.
Past Stages
Previous engagements include national conferences, corporate leadership events, and sector-specific convenings, along with keynote and panel invitations from organizations such as the National Diversity Council’s Ohio Women’s Leadership Symposium, the National Organization on Disability, and Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, to name a few. These moments span audiences of parents, professionals, executives, and cross-sector teams, reflecting a wide range of rooms where thoughtful, grounded perspective is needed.
Bio + Booking
Ricka’ Berry, MBA, is a strategist, former Chief Operations Officer, Vice President, and Director of Program Evaluation & Research with more than twenty years of experience advising leaders and shaping organizations across business, social impact, and national brands. She blends strategy, systems design, human capital, culture, financial insight, and innovation — offering a rare, integrative perspective on the realities of modern leadership.
Her background includes designing CDC-recognized programs, building business and financial models for founders, leading culture and talent strategy, and advising executives navigating complex growth, transformation, and organizational performance. Today, as the Founder of genius grace, she partners with leaders and organizations nationwide on strategy, innovation, whole-person leadership, and organizational design.
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