Michelle Kristel

Michelle leads McCormack + Kristel with 25 years of executive search and nonprofit expertise and a passion for matching exceptional talent to mission-driven organizations. The incisive insights and wise counsel she brings to each client and candidate relationship are informed by decades of nonprofit board and executive leadership experience with human service, social justice, and arts organizations.

With an unwavering commitment to mitigating bias in candidate evaluation and selection processes, Michelle is proud to continue the firm’s pioneering mission to center diverse, equitable, and inclusive hiring practices in every engagement.

The firm’s best practices are shaped by her knowledge of diverse candidate sourcing, DEI environmental assessments, and inclusive decision-making. The M+K team reflects and shares the firm’s core values, rooted in the conviction that diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential for healthy organizations and dynamic teams.

Michelle believes in the exponential power of collective wisdom, and she has a long record of success supporting chief executives to structure, build, and expand transformational leadership teams. As a search consultant, board member and former executive director, she understands the immense responsibility and consequential impact of appointing a new chief executive. She enjoys partnering with search committees to define the ideal candidate and to select the right leader to drive impact.

On a deeply personal level, Michelle understands the importance of community centers in providing refuge, connection, and vital services to marginalized communities. Currently, she cochairs the board of CenterLink, the national association of LGBTQ+ community centers, an organization she has volunteered with since 2013. She is a longtime member of the Network of Nonprofit Search Consultants and has served in various leadership roles on the program and executive committees.

With the idea that helping people find solutions to pressing issues would make for an interesting and gratifying profession, Michelle earned a BS in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Reflecting a love of culture and an enduring interest in ideas, she received an MA in Humanities from New York University.