Cathy-Mae Karelse, PhD

Cathy-Mae Karelse, PhD is an independent specialist in deep systems change and decolonisation with 20+ years’ expertise in social transformation. In the last decade, she has extended her work to social health policies and systems and is a recognized thought leader in diversity and inclusion.  

She designs and develops customised change-making strategies at multiple levels to shepherd meaningful transformation. Specialising in turning grand plans for the development of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into practical strategies and programmes that deliver results, Dr. Karelse has worked with corporates, governments, policy institutes, tertiary institutions, communities, and global programmes to establish policies, processes and social strategies of belonging, engagement, wellbeing, transformation, and growth. As author of Disrupting White Mindfulness: Race and Racism in the Wellbeing Industry and with a global network, her remit includes the support of global South leadership in sustainable transformation agendas. In addition to offering strategic thought leadership, she also personally operates as an educator, coach, and mentor. 

Active in nation-building in South Africa post-1994, Cathy-Mae participated in transformative institutional change across multiple institutions to herald in South Africa’s post-Apartheid dispensation. Under the rubric of the National Education and Policy Initiative, and then as Director of Infolit (a digital education project), she directed the strategic mobilization of resources and community engagement towards nation-building and a new socio-political landscape.  

Her areas of engagement, then and now, included women’s empowerment in finance, digital economies, education, and health. Key to her approach is a Leadership, Values and Wellness model that emphasises embodied liberation. The model prioritises values-alignment within organisations and leverages difference to create ongoing transformation across sectors, institutions, and societies. By working with multiple, diverse stakeholders, she mobilises community and/or company values, knowledges, and talents for collective wellness, innovation and thriving in people and organisations. She has worked in ‘snowy peak’ contexts and addressed hard issues of disruption and belonging in ways that build forward-facing institutions that lead in areas of anti-discrimination, innovation, and building inclusive futures.  

Cathy-Mae draws on expertise in facilitating programme and people development, research, internal and external stakeholder engagement, networking, coaching, programme design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. She currently works as the DEI Lead at The Mindfulness Initiative to address social change policy more holistically by shifting mental models as part of systemic change. She has worked via Resilience Capital Ventures (RCV), and as an independent consultant with PolicyLink in the United States (US) to map the foundations and prospects for corporate racial equity in the US and world economies. She has also worked with the AACSB International (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) on transforming Business School curricula. In addition, Dr Karelse heads a Leadership Programme, AWESOME, in South Africa that trains leaders from economically deprived communities and townships. Her work in the health sector embeds DEI in institutional ethos, strategic vision, and practice. With a background in academia at the University of Cape Town, she has delivered innovative programmes at Hamilton College in the US and lectured at Middlesex University in the UK. As part of a global team in the African Information Society Gender Working Group (AISGWG), she worked to critically guide ICT participation for women and girls, and within the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Gender Caucus, advocated on gender and racial justice in ICTs across four continents. Her cross-disciplinary doctoral thesis focused on critical social change, and the need for diversity-rich, accountable strategies that foster embodied liberation. Working closely on dismantling divisive social norms via embodied justice, Dr Karelse improves awareness of and action around internal, external, and interstitial liberation. 

Dr Karelse completed her doctoral studies at SOAS with a cross-disciplinary focus on critical social change. She also holds an MA from the University of Cape Town and an MSc from the University of Middlesex.