What i’VE

BEEN up

to lately

Speaking & Appearances

  • May 2026 / ALI AI for Strategic Communications Workshop

    Ellen led “Communicating What You Don't Know: Leading Through AI Disruption by Anchoring in What Already Matters,” a 75-minute workshop at the ALI AI for Strategic Communications Conference. She guided internal communicators through a high-level overview of the neuroscience of uncertainty and research on how organizations navigated uncertainty in 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, and the pandemic. Then she introduced the Anchor framework with hands-on exercises focused on messaging for AI transformation.

  • March 2026 / Tell Me a Story Podcast

    Ellen joined Zane Ewton’s Tell Me a Story podcast and shared about her mental health journey and how it led her to found Equilibrious Communications. Along the way: A kitchen remodel during the pandemic; a call with a psychiatrist that changed her life; and the one person who helped her face the facts no one else could (spoiler: she was an astrologer with an MBA).

  • Ellen Griley and Mike Klein

    March 2026 / PRSA Internal Communications Certification course

    Ellen joined Mike Klein for a fireside chat as part of the Research & Data session for “Internal Communication: The Comms Superpower for the AI Age” certificate program. They discussed the role of research and listening in IC strategy, how to build audience understanding with limited resources, and why a trauma-informed approach to closing the feedback loop is essential for building trust in today’s workplace.

  • Logos for Advanced Learning Institute and Equilibrious Communications

    March 2026 / ALI Employee Experience Conference Workshop

    Ellen led “The Neuroscience of Employee Engagement: Designing Communications for Stressed Brains,” a 75-minute workshop at the ALI Employee Experience Conference. She guided internal communicators through a high-level overview of how trauma and chronic stress impact cognitive capacity. Then she introduced the Internal Calms framework with hands-on exercises focused on AI transformation, mergers & acquisition, return to office, and a restructuring.

  • Logos for ICology and Equilibrious Communications

    February 2026 / ICology WORKSHOP

    Ellen facilitated “Holding Space for Moral Injury, Collective Grief, and Everyday Coping,” a 60-minute peer support session facilitated for the internal communicator community ICology. She guided participants in navigating moral injury, institutional betrayal, and collective grief — offering frameworks, a values exercise, and small coping practices for staying rooted in a heavy moment.

Writing & Media

  • May 2026 / ICology Blog

    The Firm That Helped Cause the Opioid Crisis Would Like to Teach You About Trauma

    For the ICology blog, Ellen wrote about the loss she experienced due to opioid addiction, and why McKinsey — implicated in exacerbating the opioid crisis — is a surprising advocate for trauma-informed leadership.

  • A photo of a lion roaring.

    APRIL 2026 / PRO RHETORIC

    Exec Comms in the Era of 'Because I Said So'

    In her Pro Rhetoric debut, Ellen examines what happens to internal communications when the most visible executives in business model zero accountability — and makes the case, grounded in her own research and neuroscience, for why trust-building communications matter more, not less, in a “because I said so” moment.

  • March 2026 / PRSA Strategies & Tactics

    Ellen joins fellow communicators and members of the PRSA Employee Communications Section Executive Advisory Committee Sarah Laborde and Treshea N. Wade to discuss the future of employee communications. Ellen observes: “The tension is real: We're called to drive results and speak the language of revenue while honoring our employees’ full humanity. Smart practitioners will do both.”

  • Image of a Minneapolis metro train

    January 2026 / Strategic Magazine

    Our Playbooks Weren’t Built for this Moment

    In this Strategic Magazine article, Ellen makes the case for trauma-informed crisis communication as essential for internal communicators navigating overlapping crises like the 2026 ICE actions in Minneapolis.

Join Ellen’s Substack

Ellen brings the Internal Calms framework to stages, studios, and classrooms.

People leave with a new way of seeing what’s happening in their organizations — and the tools to actually do something about it.

If you’re looking for a speaker, workshop facilitator, podcast guest, or guest lecturer whose work is rooted in research and ready to use, reach out.

Contact Ellen

  • “The idea that past experiences directly inform the person who shows up in the workplace makes so much sense, but is routinely overlooked. The focus on addressing this, and even designing and supporting for it, was eye-opening for me.”

    Workshop attendee, “The Neuroscience of Employee Engagement: Designing Communications for Stressed Brains” | ALI Employee Experience Conference 2026

  • “This workshop made the heaviness lighter — by sharing the emotional burdens of the world and talking through our reactions to them, we can literally share the weight. It felt liberating.”

    Attendee, “Holding Space for Moral Injury, Collective Grief, and Everyday Coping” | ICology 2026

  • “Ellen helped me put words to what I've been struggling to name to myself as a communicator. I'm now able to share the message with colleagues and leadership. I needed to hear it this way!”

    Attendee, “More Than Words: Trauma-Informed Communications in Practice” | PRSA 2025