How do you turn a difficult personal season into lessons that strengthen the way you lead?
Drawing on more than 15 years of family caregiving and nearly three decades of education and executive leadership, Dr. Pearl L. Harmon shares how navigating care, loss, and uncertainty reshaped her understanding of leadership. Through personal storytelling, guided reflection, and practical strategies, she invites participants to recognize the strengths their own experiences have helped them develop.
This keynote explores how adversity can deepen empathy, clarify priorities, and strengthen boundaries when we have space and support to reflect. Participants will consider how to care about others while respecting their own capacity—and how to apply those lessons at university, at work, and through career transitions.
About the presenter:
Dr. Pearl L. Harmon is a leadership consultant, speaker, author, and founder of Leading & Learning Solutions and Aging Care Navigators™. She brings nearly three decades of experience in public education, including service as a teacher, principal, principal supervisor, and Director of Human Resources Operations & Staffing for Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland.
Alongside her professional responsibilities, Dr. Harmon spent more than 15 years helping care for her parents. That experience deepened her commitment to leadership that recognizes the whole person and makes room for both ambition and care.
A Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach and Certified Caregiver Coach, she helps individuals recognize their strengths, navigate transitions, and lead with greater clarity. She also works with organizations to strengthen leadership and support working caregivers. Her approach combines lived experience with practical tools for empathy, boundaries, and sustainable leadership.