speaking
the stories we share have the power to change the stories we live
The conversations we need to be having the most in our workplaces are the ones we aren’t having at all.
The ones that talk about root issues, duty of care, and human-centered leadership. The ones that name the realities of serving others that go beyond burnout, like moral injury, vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, collective grief.
I create space for those conversations through keynote talks, facilitated workshops, podcasts, and panel discussions. Not as an outside observer, but as someone who spent nearly two decades inside these systems — who knows what it feels like to believe in a mission and also to have that mission fail you — and who has spent the years since building language for what that experience leaves behind.
I view my speaking work as a form of moral cartography in practice: helping audiences name the terrain we are living and working inside, trace the fault lines between stated values and lived realities, and create pathways back to conscience, care, and more humane ways to lead, serve, grieve, and repair.
My work is trauma-informed, grounded in lived experience, and oriented toward both honest accountability and forward possibility. I help audiences tell a more truthful story about what they are navigating so they can begin reclaiming their humanity, practicing collective care, and making sustainable service possible.
signature talks
Signature talks range in duration from 20 minutes to 3 hours and are a great format for introducing new subjects and ways of thinking to a large group.
Talks are interactive, practical, experiential, and thought-provoking.
I have several signature talks, and I also partner with clients to design customized talks, either independently or as a part of a long-term engagement, including workshops, training programs, retreats, and webinars.
topics: moral cartography · collective imagination · regenerative leadership · story-healing · collective moral injury · institutional betrayal · trauma-informed leadership · moral reclamation · collective care · collective grief · spiritual ecology · duty of care · challenging the narrative of service before self
formats: keynotes · workshops · facilitated sessions · fireside chats · panel discussions · retreat facilitation · podcast appearances
audiences: mission-driven leaders · government and civil service · humanitarian and nonprofit sectors · legal and social justice · healthcare and social work · education · women's leadership
international experience: recent and upcoming engagements in the United Kingdom, Qatar, Switzerland, and across North America
dimple’s signature talks
integrity in practice — mapping pathways to values-based leadership in an era of polycrisis: This 90-minute interactive talk explores the intersection of moral injury, institutional betrayal, and the polycrisis. Offering practical, rooted approaches for navigating cascading challenges amid interconnected global crises, this workshop provides leaders with pathways back to conscience, care, and sustainable service.
widen your window — practical strategies for navigating, stress, trauma and grief : This 90-minute interactive talk is designed to help participants understand the basics of stress, crisis and trauma, and provide practical information and tools for building resilience and supporting yourself and others through uncertainty and stress. Resilience is not something that we have or don’t have - it’s something we can train in our minds and bodies by learning to widen our window of stress tolerance through repeated choices that help our neurobiology to recover so that we have more capacity during times of adversity, uncertainty and trauma.
challenge the narrative — rewriting the stories that shape how we serve: This 90-minute introductory talk draws on the five-stage story-healing arc from Dimple Dhabalia's award-winning book, Tell Me My Story: Challenging the Narrative of Service Before Self. Moving through each stage — shaping, surviving, seeing, shifting, and sharing — participants will begin to explore the stories that first drew them to service, the survival strategies they've developed to keep going, and what becomes possible when they start to rewrite those stories with more clarity and compassion.
panel discussions
Dimple has served as a speaker on a number of panels ranging from local organizational meetings to national conferences. She can speak to a variety of topics.
If you have a conference, convening, or meeting and are interested in having me serve on a panel.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE INCLUDE
moral cartography for conscientious leadership
moral injury
institutional betrayal
collective imagination
collective grief
vicarious trauma
story-healing
organizational trauma + healing
trust and psychological safety
duty of care in mission driven sectors
podcast appearances
Since 2024, Dimple has been a guest on more than thirty podcasts — spanning leadership, nonprofit management, humanitarian operations, legal practice, somatic healing, and trauma-informed care — bringing the conversation about moral injury, institutional betrayal, and sustainable service to audiences across sectors and around the world.
She’s also the creator and host of two podcasts and understands what makes a conversation land: specificity over generality, lived experience over abstraction, and the kind of honesty that gives listeners something to carry with them after the episode ends.
If your audience includes people doing mission-driven work — in any sector — the best place to start is with a conversation.
For a full list of my past features check out the media + features page.
full list of speaking engagements
2026
From Restoration to Regeneration - Spiritual Ecology and Collective Care as Response to Collective Moral Injury and Institutional Betrayal – Durham University, International Centre for Moral Injury | Durham, United Kingdom
Holding Pain and Possibility Together - Simple Grief Rituals for Collective Care in Fractured Times – Yale Women’s Mental Health Conference | New Haven, CT, USA
Challenging the Narrative of Service Before Self – Beyond Aid Summit - The Women Behind the Work | Virtual
Navigating the Client Relationship: How do we serve our clients while not losing ourselves? Panel Discussion– The Law Society of Ontario Mental Health Summit for Legal Professionals | Virtual
Integrity in Practice - Courage + Defiance in the Face of Moral Injury and Institutional Betrayal– Vermont Asylum Assistance Project | Virtual
previous speaking engagements
2025
Step Out of Line - Understanding the Neurobiology of Defiance + Moral Courage– 92NY Women InPower Summit | New York, USA
Integrity in Practice - Rooted Leadership in the Face of Moral Injury + Institutional Betrayal – International Humanitarian Leadership Conference | Doha, Qatar
Circles of Solidarity - Tools for Transformative Leadership in the Polycrisis – International Humanitarian Leadership Conference | Doha, Qatar
Featured Speaker – SOAR South Asian 2025 National Summit: Together We Dream, Together We Build | Virtual
Trauma, Burnout, and Boundaries - Sustainable Advocacy and Justice Work in the Polycrisis – Acacia Center for Justice | Virtual
2024
Widen Your Window - Practical Strategies for Navigating Through Stress and Trauma – Acacia Center for Justice | Virtual
Beyond Burnout: Reimagining Well-Being in Humanitarian Work - A Conversation with Gemma Houldey | London, United Kington
Beyond Burnout - Taking A Human-Centered Approach to Attracting, Retaining, and Supporting Staff in Government and Humanitarian Sectors – Intergovernmental Consultations on Asylum, Refugees, and Migration | Geneva, Switzerland
Widen Your Window - Using Awareness and Compassion to Challenge Our Narratives and Thrive in Life and Leadership – Lancaster Speakers Series, Ohio University | Athens, OH, USA
From Stigma to Support - A Conversation with Anthony Sartori, Evolving Minds | Virtual
Motivation, Performance + Mental Health - Using Awareness and Compassion to Challenge Our Narratives, Reset Our Nervous Systems, and Redefine Success – Transform Your Practice Retreat | Whistler, BC - Canada
Lead Like Lasso - 4 Keys to Building a Connected and Thriving Workplace Culture – Integrating Women's Leadership Conference | Indianapolis, IN, USA
Tell Me My Story Author Event – Alexandria Commission for Women | Alexandria, VA - USA
Widen Your Window - Using Awareness and Compassion to Challenge Our Narratives of Service Before Self – Colorado Women's Bar Association Convention | Vail, CO - USA
Healing Narratives - Unpacking the Intersection of Generational Trauma and Moral Injury in Palliative Care – Metro State University Palliative Care and Social Work Conference | Denver, CO - USA
2023
Mind + Heart Working Apart - Understanding and Healing the Impact of Moral Injury in Palliative Care | Social Work, Hospice and Palliative Care Network (SWHPN) Annual Conference | Denver, CO - USA
Widen Your Window - Understanding and Navigating Stress | Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast Annual Meeting | Houston, TX - USA
about dimple
Dimple Dhabalia, JD | CAPP | ICF ACC is a writer, speaker, coach, artist, and founder of Roots in the Clouds, a coaching and consulting practice supporting leaders and organizations in government, humanitarian, nonprofit, and mission-driven sectors to address root issues related to moral injury, institutional betrayal, systemic grief, and map pathways back to conscience, care, and sustainable service.
Drawing on nearly two decades of federal service, including work on some of the most complex human-centered challenges in global migration, asylum, and refugee operations, Dimple brings together lived experience, clinical grounding, contemplative practice, and creative inquiry in her work with leaders and organizations navigating an era of global polycrisis.
Dimple is an ICF-accredited executive coach, licensed attorney (J.D., University of Denver College of Law), writer, and public intellectual whose work has been featured in a number of media outlets including the Stanford Social Innovation Review,Fast Company, CEO World Magazine, and the Federal News Network.Her first book Tell Me My Story: Challenging the Narrative of Service Before Self (Ambika Media, 2024) was named a Distinguished Favorite by both the 2024 NYC Big Book Award and the 2025 Independent Press Award.
Dimple is also the creator of love in action empathy cards, and host of two podcasts, Service Without Sacrifice, a limited-series companion to her book, and What Would Ted Lasso Do?, exploring life and leadership through the lens of the beloved TV series.
connect with dimple @dimpstory on LI | IG |FB