Nashay Lowe, PhD

I attribute my success to a combination of persistence, curiosity, and the people who have walked alongside me. I’ve learned that progress rarely happens in isolation. Mentors, collaborators, friends, and family have all played a role in challenging my thinking, encouraging me through uncertainty, and reminding me of my purpose when the path felt unclear. Their belief in me paired with my own commitment to keep learning, refining, and showing up with intention has made it possible to grow through both setbacks and successes.

The best career advice I’ve ever received is to stay humble and let go of perfectionism. Early on, I learned that striving to appear flawless can quietly limit growth. It can make you hesitant to take risks, slow to share ideas, or overly hard on yourself when things don’t go as planned. Letting go of that pressure created space for curiosity, experimentation, and learning in real time.

Humility has also taught me to stay open to feedback and to recognize that meaningful work is almost always collaborative. When you release the need to have all the answers, you become more willing to listen, adapt, and evolve. This mindset has helped me build stronger partnerships, navigate uncertainty with more ease, and stay grounded in purpose rather than performance. In the long run, it’s allowed my work to grow in depth and impact, even when the path forward hasn’t been perfectly defined.

I would encourage young women entering this field to trust both their intellect and their intuition. Your perspective matters, even when it doesn’t fit neatly into existing models or expectations. This work often asks you to sit with complexity, ambiguity, and emotion. Those are not weaknesses, but strengths when paired with rigor and care. Seek out mentors and collaborators who respect your voice, but also give yourself permission to grow in public and learn as you go. You don’t need to have everything figured out to contribute meaningfully. Stay curious, protect your values, and remember that impact is built over time through consistency, reflection, and relationships...not perfection.

One of the biggest challenges in the field of conflict transformation and organizational development is shifting mindsets from reactive to proactive. Many institutions across the world still wait until tensions escalate before they pay attention, often treating symptoms rather than addressing root causes. That makes sustainable change harder, because it means leaders are constantly firefighting instead of building the cultural and relational infrastructure that prevents conflict from becoming disruptive in the first place.

At the same time, that challenge is also a tremendous opportunity. Organizations today are increasingly aware that traditional approaches aren’t enough that lasting success depends on emotional intelligence, inclusive dialogue, and systems that honor diverse perspectives. There’s a growing appetite for tools that help people engage in difficult conversations without sacrificing connection or clarity.

This moment invites practitioners, leaders, and communities to reimagine what healthy conflict engagement looks like...not as a problem to eliminate, but as a source of insight and evolution. For those willing to lean into curiosity, collaboration, and intentional design, the opportunity to make meaningful, lasting impact has never been greater.

The values that matter most to me both in my work and in my personal life, are integrity and honesty. For me, integrity means aligning my actions with my values even when it’s inconvenient or unseen, and being willing to take responsibility when I fall short. Honesty, in turn, is about telling the truth with care: naming what’s real while remaining respectful and humane. I try to approach every situation with transparency and accountability, not because it’s easy, but because trust is built through consistency over time. Whether I’m facilitating a conversation, leading a project, or navigating relationships in my own life, I believe meaningful connection depends on people feeling safe enough to be real. These values shape how I show up, how I collaborate, and how I define success...less as perfection, and more as integrity in action.