NSB Logo Kristen Worley Kristen Worley

Kristen Worley

Speaker Exclusive

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Human-centered design advocate & diversity policy development advisor

Kristen Worley’s presentations provide real frameworks to implement change towards building diverse and inclusive workplaces.  She inspires resilient, sustainable and integrated ecosystems with a human-centered design approach while harnessing the power of design. 

Performance & Productivity Business & Workplace Health Bestselling Authors & Celebrity Human Rights & Social Change Sports & Adventurers Event Theme Ideas Motivation & Inspiration More Themes

In the News

Kristen Worley in the media January 1, 2022
Globe | Kristen Worley blazes own trail as voice for gender diversity in sport April 19, 2019
Macleans | Two Canadian trans authors share their stories of struggle and triumph April 8, 2019

Keynote Speeches

What can happen when we Reimagine | A Vision for Design Excellence

As one of the leading designers on human-centered design, Kristen Worley provides leading brands and industries with guidance and the framework to reimagine their business, while utilizing diversity and the power of design. She provides key insights and innovative solutions on how to pivot and implement change management concepts while building diverse and integrated ecosystems.

Kristen has combined her passionate presentation style with her lived experience, and her generational design experience in the world of architecture, to envision and focus on how to provoke more thought and discussion, raising complex social issues through the human design centered lens, on how to elevate industry leaders to play a stewardship role across all touch points of their business and clientele, be it locally, nationally or globally.

 

On Diversity & Inclusion Implementation

Many organizations state they’re aware of the positive impact embracing diversity and inclusion can have for their teams both personally and professionally. And they have good intentions and have begun efforts but aren’t sure what a true diversity and inclusion program could look like at the next level.  Worley notes it’s time to move beyond awareness and initial efforts, and go deep to reflect the diverse population of your organization’s team, clients and supporters. 

 

How to Create Change While Staying True to Yourself

One person can make a significant difference.  Worley’s efforts to create change in the world of sports and human rights took her case all the way to the international level, where her voice was heard and policies changed. She saw the power of making herself an equal, of partnering, and focusing on the universal impact.   She shares her struggles, her passion and her road to success.

Healthcare & Science

Kristen Worley was subjected to gender testing, psychological testing, and having her most private medical documentation shared with panels of men outside the medical field to make personal judgments on her status and if she ‘was woman enough.’ In order to meet certain protocols required by sport, she underwent medical procedures which resulted in complete hormone deprivation, removing her body’s day to day ability to regulate itself. Hear her surprising story through the sporting healthcare system and her advice to doctors, hospitals and healthcare workers.

Platform Plus Presentations

Unique formats and ways to connect with audiences.
Workshop | Advocating for Policies based on Scientific Fact Based Decisions
What if you were invasively investigated not based on proof or fact-based evidence, but just on suspicion that you’re not who you say you are? Worley encourages organizations to review their policies and how decisions are made. Elements can include: * Reviewing communications & revising internal policies to embrace human rights; * Launching awareness and education related to diversity; * Advocating for the establishment of standards and guidelines based in objective scientific research

Audience reviews:

  • Anyone who meets Kristen, realises in seconds that she is not only a passionate advocate about these issues - but a knowledgeable one. While there is, of course, emotion and a very human element in the case, Kristen has kept focussed on science and the law, and ensured that her arguments are evidence-based. Kristen is singlehandedly redefining gender recognition in world sport.

    - Jaimie Fuller, SKINS Chairman
  • Engaging, humbling and powerful keynote from ⁦‪Kristen Worley‬⁩ at the ⁦‪Alberta Sport leadership conference. Sport should be universally accessible! - Attendee, Alberta Sport Leadership Conference
  • Your story during the Opening Keynote was so inspirational and thought-provoking for everyone that was in attendance.* It was an absolute pleasure to have you address the sports leaders of Alberta!

    - Consultant, Sport Development Alberta Sport Connection
  • The policy changes and advocacy initiatives agreed upon in her case may force the IOC and WADA to finally abandon dated thinking on sex and gender issues and look to 21st-century science to bring about fairness for XY women in sport.

    - NOW Magazine
  • She's undertaken an unrelenting advocacy to raise complex issues in the international and national arena that intersect sport, science, gender and human rights.

    - Brenda Culbert, Lawyer, Human Rights Legal Support Centre

Speaker Books

Woman Enough How a Boy Became a Woman...

Speaker Biography

The Worley Principles encourage companies and their directors and officers to become better stewards of their industry, by harnessing and harmonizing the enormity of our human diversity.  Agency change in human behaviour helps us become better leaders. These principles reimagine the impact of our brand and industry on individual lives, enabling cities and communities to thrive worldwide.

Kristen is in great demand as a speaker and a leading authority on human-centered design, and how reimagining your business model through the design lens can create an integrated, resilient and sustainable business ecosystem, which celebrates diversity and seeks to leave no one behind.

Kristen Worley is a leading human-centred designer in the field of architecture, who has combined her lived and industry experiences to elevate and influence industries and policymakers through collaborative engagement and learning, on how we think about diversity while ensuring integrated industry best practice and guidelines through every business touch point.

She’s been at the forefront internationally for more than two decades, as a global pollinator sharing her knowledge and experience working as a designer, educator and adviser to help guide and synthesize individual corporations from their brand development, workplace ecosystem, built environment, product development and innovation, supply chain due diligence and the connection to community, as they are intrinsically connected as a circular relationship.

She’s since founded The Inclusion Design Foundation, sharing a vision of an inclusive world. The design of the foundation is prefaced on the history of architecture, and its influence and impact on all persons within cities and communities seen through the design lens of ‘accommodation’, and the consequential impact and limitations design decisions can have on individual lives and broader social disconnection.

The Foundation, by utilizing the UN Guiding Principles (UNGPs), helps to create a starting point to reimagine and collaborate to remove diversity and inclusion barriers and the labels created historically over time based on centuries of industry and social development that is being tasked to answer 21st century issues it was never designed to do, creating human and environmental harm either in the workplace or community.

The UNGPs provide a framework for an industry pivot, from a place of ‘accommodation’ to an ‘integrated’ approach to occur, allowing for all persons and voices to be heard. Through the lens of human centred design, companies are encouraged to relook at their business model, creating a ‘whole society approach’ which brings together collaborative expertise and knowledge sharing, developing innovative insights, toolsets and guides to filling critical knowledge gaps within their company and industry and the broader ecosystem, aimed at elevating individuals lives and communities.

Worley shines a spotlight on the need for policies to be backed by evidence, research and integrated framework, on the role and power of diversity and inclusion at every decision point.

She’ll challenge your assumptions, as industries are being tasked more and more to be socially integrated and being more environmentally resilient and sustainable, while consumers and governments are demanding businesses to become more responsible and influential through their networks.

She’s now speaking in Canada and globally to share her personal story and industry expertise. She’s been featured across global industries, NGOs, federal and local governments and within the architectural and design community.

 

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