Title: The Leadership Lesson Nobody Taught Us: Start Before You’re Ready
Description: In every high-stakes industry—decisions often have to be made before perfect clarity arrives.
Leadership doesn’t wait for certainty. It happens in the moment we choose to act anyway. In this keynote, I share the unexpected story of how one small act of service grew into Days for Girls International, a global movement that has reached more than 3.9 million women and girls in 145 countries through thousands of volunteers and local leaders. But this is not a story about nonprofit work. It is a story about how leadership actually begins under pressure, uncertainty, and imperfect conditions.
Bio: Celeste Mergens is a bestselling author and founder of the global award-winning organization Days for Girls, which has reached more than 4 million women and girls in 145 countries, shattering stigma, shame, and taboos and turning periods into pathways of healing, new growth, and opportunity. She has been featured in Oprah’s O Magazine, Forbes, and Stanford Social Innovation Review. She was awarded the AARP Purpose Prize, Conscious Company Global Impact Entrepreneur Top Ten Women, and Women’s Economic Forum’s Woman of the Decade. She is a sought-after speaker and business consultant and is happily married to her best friend of over 40 years, Don Mergens. They have six children and live in the Pacific Northwest.