emerge/flourish

Imagining, designing, and tending our emergent future.

About

emerge/flourish is the lived practice and world making project of Mitzi Melaine (she/they). Mitzi is a dynamic leader with 20+ years of experience in the legal, nonprofit, and philanthropic sectors.  Mitzi applies her embodied practice as a strategic advisor, coach, writer, and interdisciplinary artist in support of grassroots and front-line groups.

Mitzi’s lineage with embodied practices begins with their ancestors who engaged quietude, rest, dance, song, and play to remember the truth of their dignity, divinity, and worth.  They are in regular practice with practitioners trained in politicized somatics and have completed in depth studies in embodiment with a focus on imaging and co-creating new futures.  She has deepened her transformative leadership coaching practice by integrating focusing, internal family systems (IFS), and developmental theory. Mitzi is currently developing liberative embodiment frameworks grounded in queer Black feminism, emergence, and poetics to support leaders in sustaining their imagination to vision otherwise.

Mitzi is a natural problem-solver that inspires groups to shift the-way-things-have-been-done. Mitzi has a passion for designing and facilitating experiences that improve individual leadership, group cohesion, and that create space for creative ideas to emerge. She has a love for leadership development and organizational change and is skilled at conflict transformation. Mitzi has an innate ability to help people and teams feel at ease in reflecting on where they are and energized about visioning where they are headed — as she deeply believes in the power of inspired minds and engaged hearts.

Mitzi is from the Midwest and currently resides in North Carolina with respect for and acknowledgement of the ancestral land of the Lumbee, Skaruhreh/Tuscarora, and Occaneechi people. They are grateful to be in the fold of a community of beloveds, including her partner and kid. Mitzi’s offerings are an extension of a rooted and bouyant love (like a cypress in the bayou).

“the seeds are in the compost

the ancestors are in the soil

our love is older than any wall

the roots break through”

— Alexis Pauline Gumbs (Forward to Practicing New Worlds by Andrea J. Ritchie, Emergent Strategy Series)

How to connect

I typically consider new organizational projects in the Fall/early Winter. I am most responsive to organizational inquiries during these times. Beginning in the Summer of 2025, I am expanding my individual coaching practice. I currently have 2-3 openings for individual coaching. You can reach out at any time following the instructions in the form below.

Hello! Thank you for your interest in connecting.

The offerings I share are relationship-centered. Tell me about yourself or organization. Why are you interested in connecting with emerge/flourish? What seems most aligned? What are you curious about? Is there anything else you would like to share?

I will respond to inquires where there is mutual interest.

Have you worked with me and want to share feedback or a testimonial?

You are welcome to do so through this form.

What people are saying . . .

  • “I just wanted to make sure I sent you a personal note of thanks for the fabulous job you did today - you’re really good at what you do! I’m very hopeful that lots of good things will emerge from the process you’ve helped us initiate.”

    -S.O.

  • “It’s been nearly one month since our closing session. I am still appreciating those times together and all it cultivated. I’m feeling gratitude, fullness, and love. Thank you for your beingness!"

    -L.H.

  • “Mitzi! Your words were palpable, you could see their impact spread across all the faces/bodies in the call. You spoke with clarity & gravity, and it was so wonderful to see empathy and recognition spread through the group in the chat & in the shares of others.”

    -S.S.

  • “I write to share the news that we continue to build on the foundation established at the retreat you facilitated.”

    -R.T.