Keynote Session: Harnessing Headwinds: Successfully Navigating Change and Adversity
Presenter: Col. Nicole Malachowski
Harnessing Headwinds: Successfully Navigating Change and Adversity
As a former fighter pilot and combat veteran, Nicole Malachowski uses the metaphor of headwinds to share inspiring stories and practical tools that ignite our ability to harness the challenges in our personal and professional lives.
In her keynote session, Conference attendees will be able to reflect and bolster their ability to: Overcome personal and professional failures; effectively navigate organizational and cultural change and get comfortable with risk, change, volatility and pressure; and build the resilience to recover, adapt and keep moving forward.
As a former Air Force fighter squadron commander, Malachowski was the first woman pilot on the Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Squadron, a White House Fellow and an inductee into both the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame. She even has a Star Trek Federation starship named in her honor!
After 21 years in uniform, a misdiagnosed tick-borne illness abruptly ended Malachowski’s military career, forcing her into a fight she couldn’t outfly, outwork or outmaneuver. What followed was a hard-earned reinvention, one that reshaped how she understands resilience, and what it truly means to perform under pressure. Today, Malachowski speaks to leaders and organizations about navigating complexity, uncertainty and change. Drawing from both the cockpit and her personal battle, she delivers practical, experience-driven insights on trust, accountability, teamwork, execution, resilience and the courage to adapt when the mission changes.