"Where connection becomes the strategy."
Architect of Connection-Centered Leadership and Developer of the
Integrative Transformation Blueprint™
Keynote Speaker | Author | Trauma-informed Coach | Researcher
WISDOM • TRANSFORMATION • KINDNESS • LEADERSHIP
About Melissa Swonger
Melissa is the developer of the Integrative Transformation BlueprintTM, which recognizes that radical kindness is a key driver of change. She is also the Founder of the Sage Hill Project, whose mission is to mobilize radical kindness. Standing at the intersection of her personal experience, faith, and education, Melissa’s work blends leadership, faith, and psychology, shaped by her studies at Adler University in Psychology (Ph.D. Candidate), Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (M.A. Leadership), Fielding University (Evidence-Based Coaching), and the University of Kansas (B.A. Journalism - Strategic Campaigns). She is a multi-category best-selling author. Her works and upcoming books include Herstory, The Rise of Her, Letters to Her, Empower Her: Women Rising to Shape the Future, and her solo project, Whom He Raised, Radical Kindness: The Catalyst to the Integrative Transformation Blueprint, and Architect of Connection-Centered Leader. Melissa is especially passionate about walking alongside those in pain, creating safe spaces for hope, healing, and renewal that translate into engaged, transformative cultures.
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She is married to her husband, Darin. They have four girls and two dogs. She believes being a mom is the best thing she will ever do.
The Sage Hill Project
A movement built on fierce love + radical kindness.
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Melissa speaks to all elements of transformation and this movement at events globally. The Sage Hill Project is a grassroots-to-boardroom movement that turns radical kindness, restraint, and patience into everyday practice. We help people, teams, and communities heal and thrive by combining trauma-informed coaching, leadership consulting, and research-backed tools that build psychological safety, belonging, and measurable impact. We are capturing the impact through qualitative research as the movement is magnified within communities, campuses, organizations, and society at large. Inspired by wise, courageous leadership (think “Hill of Deborah”), we translate science and story into simple rhythms—seeing, hearing, and valuing others—so connection becomes a norm, not a slogan. Whether you’re an individual recovering hope, a leader shaping culture, or a city launching a kindness campaign, Sage Hill equips you to start where you stand and lead with love that changes lives.
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Transformation
Using the Integrative Transformation BlueprintTM, developed by Melissa Swonger, we offer a proven framework that invites sustainable change
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Leadership
Empowering individuals to lead themselves and others well through strategy, connection, and intentionality.
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Coaching
trauma-informed, transformative, and leadership coaching that moves people past what keeps them stuck and utilizes a proven blueprint for realizing desired outcomes.
Spiritual Formation
Discover Biblical principles grounded in relationship over religion that create space to know God and love Him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Learn how He created you uniquely in ways that lead to appropriate self-love, which, out of the overflow, enables us to love others through radical kindness.
" I empower others not just to heal–but to lead themselves and others from a place of integration with integrity, purpose, and restored voice."
~ Melissa Swonger ~
With a unique blend of scholarship, faith, and personal experience, Melissa Swonger brings together psychology, theology, coaching, and storytelling to create spaces that are safe to be curious, connect, and construct. We are better together.
