Meet Dr. Gigi
I came to this work by living the cost of fragmentation and choosing a different way forward. For years I was doing the work of leadership without the language, confidence, or support to fully claim it, fumbling, succeeding, surviving, often in silence.
I had instinct and intuition, and I had theories too, but without the right guidance I struggled to weave them into the way I was leading. I said yes when I should have said no. I hired the wrong people. I poured energy into visions that were not mine. I built things that looked successful on the outside but left me depleted and disconnected on the inside. Some of my ventures failed. Some of my choices cost me dearly.
Each time I was reminded that performing strength while silencing myself was not the way. What I did not know then, but learned through failure and return, is that leadership is anchored in wholeness and shaped by presence, vitality, and pleasure.
Over time I realized I was not broken, I was silencing myself. Anger, grief, and truth were buried beneath performance, and it cost me my wellbeing. What looked like strength was often exhaustion. What looked like success was often disconnection.
Letting those truths surface changed everything. I stopped treating emotions as flaws to fix and began listening to them as wisdom. I began leading from my whole self, not from performance.
This path has been shaped by failure as much as by building. I have tried, stumbled, and tried again. I know what it is to lead teams, ventures, and communities through uncertainty, and I know what it is to lose my way in the process. Those experiences ground me in the work I do now.
I walk alongside entrepreneurial leaders building work rooted in their values.
I walk alongside organizational leaders navigating growth, culture, and change.
I walk alongside therapists, coaches, and consultants who hold space for others to heal, learn, and grow.
Together we honor what has already been built while creating new ways of leading that protect wholeness, deepen impact, and nurture visions that can survive grief, change, and transition.
That is why I am here. To remind you that success is not success if it costs you yourself. To walk with you as you lead from presence, vitality, and pleasure.
Every leader’s path has seasons. You may be in a season to restore, to align, or to reimagine, and you do not have to navigate it alone. Wherever you find yourself in your own season of leadership, know that you are not alone in the journey.
Official Bio
Dr. Gigi Burke is a Wellbeing Partner who walks alongside visionary Black and Brown women leaders. She defines leadership not by title but by influence, by the ability to help others heal, learn, and grow.
Through her Sacred, Tender & True mentorships, Gigi creates spaces where women can slow down, reconnect with themselves, and lead in ways that honor both their humanity and their vision. She believes sustainable leadership begins with wholeness as the foundation and takes shape through wellbeing as the strategy, guiding women to lead with presence, vitality, and pleasure.
Her path to this work has been shaped by a wide range of experiences in entrepreneurial leadership, organizational leadership, and healing. Through her own business she has created values rooted work, collaborated with organizational leaders navigating growth and culture, and partnered with therapists, coaches, and consultants who hold space for others to heal, learn, and grow.
She has also held counseling and leadership roles in higher education, consulted with nonprofits and corporate teams, and supported communities in sustainability and public health. Along the way, she has faced the costs of burnout, self silencing, and striving. These lessons ground her belief that leadership must never demand the abandonment of self.
Gigi holds a PhD in Adult Education and Organizational Development from the University of Georgia, graduate training in counseling, and a background in psychology. She is also a certified somatic practitioner who brings a healing informed, body centered approach into every space she enters. Drawing from her diverse background, she integrates strategy, systems thinking, and care to support women in leading from wholeness rather than performance.
Her wildest dream is to help shape and sustain nourishing environments for communities living and working on celestial bodies such as the Moon, Mars, Europa, or Titan.
When she is not working, you will likely find her exploring new worlds, savoring delicious food, and soaking in the quiet wonder of nature.