Consulting & Speaking — Heather Ashley Hayes, PhD

The difference between surviving and thriving isn't luck.

It's how people connect.

We feel it in the meetings that drain rather than energize. In the faculty, employees, and staff who are burned out. In the strategic plans that may look right on paper but never seem to land, in practice. In the distance between what an institution says it values and what the people inside it experience every day.

Whether we lead a university, a nonprofit, a government agency, a corporation, or a school — that gap is one of the most exhausting places to work.

The problem is almost never a lack of resources, intelligence, or will. It is almost always a breakdown in communication — in how we understand one another, build trust, and create the conditions where real connection, and inspired work, can happen.

That is the work Dr. Heather Ashley Hayes has spent more than two decades studying, teaching, and doing.

Drawing from communication science, neurorhetorics, organizational theory, and community engagement, Dr. Hayes brings a rigorous, research-backed framework to some of the most complex challenges any campus or organization faces: culture change, leadership communication, institutional transformation, and building environments where people don't just perform — they contribute, connect, imagine, and thrive.

Her approach starts with an idea that most consultants won't tell you: the answers you need are already inside your organization. The people, relationships, and untapped capacity are there. What's missing is the infrastructure — the habits, practices, and communication systems — to make them visible and put them to work. And when outside resources, expertise, or partners are needed, identifying and integrating them is part of the work too.

The process is not prescriptive. It is collaborative, rigorous, and built around people. Dr. Hayes listens before she speaks, diagnoses before she prescribes, and builds with you rather than for you. Every engagement is designed to produce not just a plan, but a lasting shift in how your organization communicates, learns, and moves forward together.

We don't thrive by working harder. We thrive by learning to work differently — imagining and building something worth belonging to, together.

That work starts here.

“What if you already have all the resources you need to address any challenge you face? Then, we can imagine new possibilities. We can imagine a new way.”

Our approaches are unique and cutting edge, based on current, data-driven understandings of growth and success, participatory listening, communicative innovations, information systems assessment, accessibility analysis, and universal design. They draw on decades of experience in strategic communication, multimodal media design, varied learning approaches, and people-centered community. As both a communication scholar and a scholar of neuroscience, Dr. Hayes brings experience that makes her uniquely positioned to support communities as they think about cultural competency, communication and information fluency, and growth toward their goals. As a lifelong learner & researcher, award-winning educator and professional speaker, and a nonprofit founder and director, her dynamic style captivates audiences from the page to the stage. As a successful consultant and organizer, her work is sought after for its innovative and client-centered approaches as well as her tireless commitment to developing strategies unique to her client’s community and needs.

Finally, as a brain tumor survivor, Dr. Hayes knows what it means to think about belonging, growth, and success not as buzzwords. Growth and achievement, based on goals we set, are part of who we are, both as individuals and as part of a community. Her inspiring story of recovering from a deadly prognosis is part of what informs her relationships with her clients as well as her approaches to motivation, to inspiration, and to thinking about what’s possible.

What Heather Does

Workshops

Organizations around the world have benefited from Dr. Hayes’ knowledge and experience in a number of curated workshops, designed to meet the needs of schools, workplaces, and clients of all backgrounds.
Attendees leave with key takeaways from communicative and reflective opportunities throughout workshop that they take back into their organizations. Through joyful activities and meaningful interactions, attendees also are invited to forge new connections with their peers.
Keynotes & Speaking

In 2019, Dr. Hayes was at the height of an award-winning career as an educator, a communication researcher, and a community organizer. She was finishing her second book on public discourse & social change, while mentoring hundreds of students around the globe.
Then one day at a routine eye exam, she was diagnosed with a baseball sized brain tumor that threatened her life. What followed is a life-changing story of resilience and recovery.
After relearning to walk and adapting to life without sight in one eye, Heather extended her research on how what we know about our brain helps us think about communication, building community, and creating change. She now shares her unique knowledge and experience with audiences around the world as a highly sought after speaker on knowing our brain, inclusion and accessibility, improving communication, and building community.
Coaching & Consulting

Sometimes individuals, organizations, or schools have highly specialized goals and needs that invite a unique approach. Dr. Hayes works with organizations and individuals one-on-one to develop a specific plan that imagines what’s possible for their future.
Whether preparing for a major stage event or restructuring an organization to inspire a team with new strategic goals, Heather tailors approaches for each client that make sense to achieve their immediate and long-term goals.

Get in Touch with heather

In Their Own Words.

“Dr. Hayes is the most impressive person I have met in my life. She has taught me to no longer build walls to protect what I believe but instead, I engage with those around me in an open and confident way. With the children I work with, I no longer hesitate to point out the injustices that surround us and challenge my own students with how we can do better as a society. I mimic Dr. Hayes’ pedagogy and allow an open space for young people to think critically, ask questions, disagree, and challenge. Dr. Hayes is creating a ripple effect. She is teaching us how to understand the past in order to change the future. I do not write this flippantly: meeting Dr. Hayes and the work we do…has changed my life, and thus, the lives around me.”

— Susan Bell, Co-Owner, Fairy Camps Los Angeles

“[Dr. Hayes’ solo talk] was the best session I attended at SXSW EDU 2023! I cried, I laughed, I learned, I loved it!”

— Dayamudra Dennehy, Ed.D., City College of San Francisco & Social Entrepreneur

“A phenomenal keynote speaker! Dr. Hayes was such a dynamic workshop leader who seamlessly combined concepts and packaged them together into teachable and usable tools for our workplace culture as well as our own personal life. It was just an exceptional experience to work with her!”

— Anonymous attendee evaluation, American Massage Therapy Association Schools Summit, February 2024

Curated Workshops & Experiences

In Heather’s work, every approach she designs is specific to the goals and aspirations of the individual, school, or organization with whom she’s working. She has offered curated workshops and experiences all rooted in the founding mission at Hayes and Associates: support people in being able to show up, with all their talents and creativity, at work, at school, or in everyday life so that they can imagine the best ways to achieve the goals they set for themselves and for their communities.

Scroll below to see a few of Dr. Hayes’ recent workshop experiences.

Speak With Confidence

Fear of presentations, or speaking in front of others, impacts more than 200 million Americans, alone. 43% of those report it hindering their ability to apply for jobs, receive promotions, or pursue career and personal opportunities. This workshop facilitates a space for attendees to come together, acknowledging their fears, and engage in activities to mindfully develop new tools for communicative approaches in high impact & everyday settings. In all of Heather’s consultancy work, students and clients often refer back to their experiences in these workshops as pivotal for their next steps toward future success. As one client put it, “it feels so small at first; ‘a workshop about getting over being afraid of talking to groups,’ I almost didn’t go to my first one. I did, and it forever changed my work and my life. I not only am much more confident and skilled, which has led to major successes in my career, but Heather’s approach and supportive guidance was transformational for me.”
Communication & Cultural Competence

We live in an "always on" digital, multimodal world. We work from home, live at work, and our social lives span from the kitchen table to our media feeds. This workshop introduces the most cutting edge research on communicative fluency in the current digital landscape. Attendees learn about strategic communication from our media feeds to the water cooler and how we build diverse, belonging-based communicative spaces for innovation, community, and everyday interaction. By the end of our time together, attendees will not only have a set of habits, activities, and approaches to communication in their everyday lives but also leave with some key takeaways from direct coaching during communicative and reflective opportunities throughout the workshop.
Verse & Vine

Imagine a book club, in person, with a small group of your friends, colleagues, or fellow community members. Now, imagine you have the benefit of arranging the book selection with an award-winning educator and researcher who brings along additional resources, guides, and facilitates conversation around the key themes and ideas. She additionally curates the event with a selection of wines from vineyards around the world, with an emphasis on the West coast of the US. (Zero proof drink selections included!) It’s a social conversation hour, a book club, and an inclusive happy hour, all rooted in the foundations of belonging, community, & learning. A team-building experience in guided discussion, a laid-back evening of conversation for friends or colleagues, or a joyful way to study your next exciting read, Verse & Vine events are among the most sought-after in Heather’s work since she developed the first one as part of a charity event in 2016. NOTE: Verse & Vine bookings are limited to six per year, so these go fast!
Belonging and Equity in a Post-Pandemic World

We live in a post-pandemic, digitally connected, “always on” world. We work from home, live from work, and now more than ever, are recognizing that traditional public, work, and learning spaces aren’t always built for the lives we live across our communities. As more than 1/3 of the American population reports planning a major career change and Americans between the age of 18-24 are pursuing independent work at a higher rate than ever before, our understandings of community are now more diverse than ever. In this interactive keynote and workshop, Dr. Hayes maps some fundamentals of equity and inclusion as well as belonging-based community, workplace, and educational approaches that serve all public spaces. Drawn from innovative approaches to accessibility and experience, Dr. Hayes opens the aperture for how we think about what community means and how we expand the idea what’s possible in our spaces of work, learning, and community.