We explore how leaders' beliefs, behaviors, and choices shape workplace culture and organizational success.
Wednesday, October 7th, 2026
8:30am-5pm
The Columbus Museum of Art
480 E Broad St, Columbus, OH 43215
About the Brave Space Leadership Conference
We believe leadership becomes more effective, ethical, and inclusive when leaders have the courage to reflect on their experiences, assumptions, and decision-making patterns.
The Brave Space Leadership Conference exists to help leaders develop the self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and relational skills needed to build workplaces and communities where people feel respected, valued, and able to thrive.
We cultivate this kind of leadership by creating immersive learning experiences that combine:
- Arts-based reflection that slows thinking and surfaces hidden assumptions.
- Structured dialogue and storytelling that deepen empathy and understanding.
- Practical leadership tools that strengthen communication, trust, and accountability.
- Guided facilitation that helps participants translate personal insight into professional action.
Through this process, leaders learn how to move from automatic reactions to intentional leadership.
The Brave Space Leadership Conference is a one-day immersive professional development experience where leaders will:
- Engage in interactive workshops and facilitated dialogue.
- Explore art as a catalyst for reflection and leadership insight.
- Learn strategies for navigating conflict, bias, and complex workplace dynamics.
- Strengthen communication and decision-making skills that build trust and inclusion.
About the host, Dr. Melissa Crum
Dr. Melissa Crum is a certified executive coach and award-winning diversity and inclusion strategist who helps leaders and teams create workplaces where everyone thrives. She earned her PhD in Art Administration, Education, and Policy from The Ohio State University, where her early work focused on supporting museum educators and cultural leaders as they examined the choices they make with visitors, peers, and the stories they tell through art.
Grounded in the belief that reflection drives better decision-making, Dr. Crum’s work bridges the arts and leadership development. Dr. Crum is a Cornell University Certified Diversity and Inclusion Professional. She is also certified through the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and UC Berkeley’s Executive Coaching Program, combining rigorous coaching practice with arts-based methods that deepen self-awareness, communication, and accountability. She has published several academic articles and book chapters and has facilitated global projects exploring culture, leadership, and learning through the arts.
As founder of Mosaic Education Network, Dr. Crum leads workshops and shares keynotes across the United States on arts-based reflection as a tool for leadership growth. Drawing on her experience teaching at Columbia University and The Ohio State University, she translates complex ideas into practical, reflective practices that help leaders slow down, examine patterns, and make values-aligned choices that create lasting, inclusive impact.
AGENDA
Healed Leadership: Courage, Wholeness, and the Art of Belonging
Breakfast & Check-In
Start the day with a shared breakfast and informal check-in time designed to help participants arrive fully, connect with others, and transition from daily demands into a reflective learning space.
Welcome
The Welcome formally opens the Brave Space Leadership Conference by setting intentions, outlining the day’s flow, and establishing shared community agreements. Participants will be introduced to the Brave Space framework and invited into a learning environment rooted in courage, care, reflection, and collective responsibility.
Opening Keynote:
Strengthening Your Voice Without
Self-Abandonment
Dr. Melissa Crum connects emotional validation to workplace culture transformation. Through personal stories, she shows how self-abandonment begins early—and follows us into leadership. At work, it appears as people-pleasing, weak boundaries, silence in the face of misalignment, and chasing approval over purpose. Cultures built on self-abandonment cannot sustain trust or equity. When leaders stop self-abandoning, they stop modeling it—and culture change becomes possible.
From Verse to Vision: Turning Music into Leadership Insight
This interactive, arts-based session invites participants to explore leadership through music, storytelling, and collective reflection. In this 30-minute workshop, local hip-hop artist Chris Hearns performs an original song centered on bravery, resilience, and overcoming challenges. Participants receive the song’s lyrics and engage in guided table conversations, identifying lines that resonate with their personal leadership journeys. Together, groups unpack themes of courage, rejection, identity, and perseverance—connecting the emotional truths in the music to real workplace dynamics.
Lunch + Panel Discussion
Table facilitators lead small group conversations leadership goals over lunch.
The Art of Leadership: Healing Workplace Systems Through Brave Leadership
This workshop invites leaders into the galleries to examine how identity, assumptions, and everyday leadership practices shape workplace systems and culture. Grounded in Brave Space principles and critical reflection, participants will explore how power, race, gender, and unexamined beliefs become embedded in policies, norms, and behaviors. Leaders will work in small groups with an art educator, using select artworks in the galleries as reflective tools to surface insight, practice accountability, and clarify impact versus intent.
Keynote: The Gift of Rejection—From Wound to Wisdom
In this powerful keynote, Nona Jones invites leaders to reconsider rejection not as a setback, but as a profound teacher. Drawing from her personal journey, Nona shares how moments that could have derailed her instead became catalysts for purpose, resilience, and leadership clarity. The session will conclude with a live Q&A, offering participants space to engage, reflect, and connect the message to their own leadership journeys.
Book Signing & Closing
The conference concludes with a reflective closing and book signing, offering participants space to integrate the day’s insights and honor the collective journey.
ABOUT THE KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Nona Jones is a rare combination of Bible teacher, business executive, bestselling author, global speaker, and entrepreneur.
As a certified Trauma-Informed Coach and Counselor, she is CEO of Inside Out Leadership, where her team builds resilient leaders who change the world.
Nona has held multiple senior executive roles, including Chief Content & Partnerships Officer at YouVersion, Head of Global Faith Partnerships at Meta, and Chief External Affairs Officer for PACE Center for Girls. She is the bestselling author of The Gift of Rejection, Killing Comparison, and Success from the Inside Out.
Nona is a sought after speaker on the topics of emotional resilience, leadership, and hope in uncertainty who has delivered standing ovation keynotes for Global Leadership Summit, Black Enterprise Magazine, US Bank, the United Nations, the United States Attorney General, and more. Nona has been profiled by ESSENCE Magazine as an “Under 40 Woman to Watch” and Florida Trend Magazine as one of Florida’s “30-Something All Stars.” She has been featured on Good Morning America, the Tamron Hall Show, and is a regular co-host of Better Together on TBN.
She is a graduate of Leadership Florida and the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program, a joint initiative of President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton. She serves on the boards of Gloo (NSDQ: GLOO), Christianity Today Magazine, Salvation Army of North America, and Holy Post Media Company.
She holds a Bachelor of Communication and Master of Business Administration from the University of Florida where she has been recognized as an Outstanding Young Alumnus. She has completed executive studies at the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation.
Pre-Order: The Gift of Rejection by Nona Jones
Greatness and mediocrity are separated by how you respond to rejection. In The Gift of Rejection, Nona Jones reframes rejection as a catalyst for growth and fulfillment, drawing from her personal journey through family, career, and infertility challenges.
Pre-order your copy to pick up at the conference and get it signed by Nona Jones.
*Requires conference registration.
OUR PARTNERS
Cultivating Change Together
The partners investing in courageous leadership, reflective practice, and workplace transformation.
Individual Brave Space Experience
Conference programming, conference bag + swag, curated breakfast, and lunch.
Collective Brave Space
Experience
Conference programming, conference bag + swag, curated breakfast, and lunch.
SAVINGS of over $350
*After purchase, you will share a form to be completed by attendees.
FAQs
The Brave Space Leadership Conference is intentionally different. This FAQ is designed to help you understand the experience, expectations, and logistics so you can decide if this brave, reflective space is right for you.
What do you mean by a “Brave Space”?
A Brave Space is a learning environment that prioritizes courage over comfort. Participants are invited to engage in honest dialogue, self-reflection, and critical thinking while practicing empathy, accountability, and respect.
Brave Spaces acknowledge that growth often includes discomfort—and provide the structure and care needed to move through it productively.
Click here to download your FREE Brave Space guide.
What is the Brave Space Leadership Conference?
The Brave Space Leadership Conference is a one-day, immersive leadership experience for people ready to move beyond inspiration and into practice. Grounded in arts-based reflection, storytelling, and critical inquiry, the conference invites participants to examine how their beliefs, behaviors, and choices shape workplace culture and organizational outcomes.
This is not a traditional leadership conference. It is reflective, interactive, and intentionally designed to support personal transformation as a pathway to organizational change.
Who should attend?
The conference is designed for anyone responsible for shaping culture, people, or systems:
- Executives and senior leaders
- Mid-level and emerging leaders
- Educators and administrators
- Nonprofit, government, and mission-driven professionals
If you are ready to ask hard questions, reflect honestly, and strengthen your leadership practice, this space is for you.
What will I experience at the conference?
Participants can expect:
- A powerful keynote experience
- Interactive sessions grounded in research and lived experience
- Arts-based reflection and guided dialogue
- Practical tools for leadership, communication, and culture change
- Time for individual reflection and collective learning
- Community with leaders across sectors
- Conference registration includes breakfast and lunch. Dietary accommodations will be available.
You will leave with both insight and actionable strategies you can apply immediately.
Is this conference suitable for teams or organizations?
Absolutely. Organizations are encouraged to attend together. Table purchases are available and offer a shared learning experience that supports collective reflection, language-building, and aligned leadership practice.
How do I become a sponsor?
I would love to have you!
Click here to learn about the partnership opportunities.
Join us in supporting immersive learning that translates values into everyday leadership practice, creating lasting impact beyond the conference.
What is your refund or transfer policy?
All registrations are non-refundable. However, tickets may be transferred to another attendee up to three weeks prior to the conference. Please contact Melissa Crum for transfer requests at MelissaCrum@MosaicEducationNetwork.com
Join us!
Be a part of an immersive experience for leaders who are ready to move beyond inspiration and into practice.