Real stories. Honest talks. Lasting impact.

Amanda Aronson speaks and facilitates for organizations, communities, and events that want to move people, not just inform them.

Amanda draws from real life: A career encompassing organizational and community leadership, strategic planning, social change, and field research across four continents. Her talks are known for being honest, unexpected, and genuinely moving — the kind people reference long after the event is over.

Whether you're planning a keynote, a leadership retreat, or a full-day workshop, Amanda will work with you to shape an experience that fits your audience and your goals.

RECENT ENGAGEMENT

Featured Plenary Speaker Women's Empowerment Congress Kerala, India | March 2026

Amanda was invited by Kudumbashree to speak at a statewide, international strategic-planning conference in Kerala, India in honor of International Women's Day.

The invitation followed her 15-day research visit across three regions of Kerala and time spent with nearly 1,000 women as part of StoryB’s Women's Work project. Kudumbashree is the world's largest program dedicated to eradicating extreme poverty among women.

Selected Keynote Topics

Women’s Work Keynotes: Talks drawn from a year of international field research exploring women's collective economic power

Women’s Work: What one woman found across four continents, a year in the field, and why collective action changes everything

Amanda spent a year with one question in mind: how does collective action enable women's economic independence — and what happens to communities when it does? Traveling solo across six sites on four continents, filming and interviewing, she spent time with over 1,000 women. What she found challenges assumptions about what women's work looks like, where women lead, and what communities gain when they do.

Signature Experience

  • The dominant strategy for women's economic progress focuses on the individual. Women's Work documents what happens when women choose a different one.

    Across four continents, Amanda found versions of the same thing: when women act collectively, the outcomes multiply in ways individual action cannot produce.

    The argument isn't that women are better together. It's that collective action is a fundamentally different strategy, and one that generates real economic power, political voice, and cultural change.

    This talk draws from the research directly and asks what it means for the organizations, funders, and leaders in the room.

WOMEN, WORK & COLLECTIVE POWER

WOMEN ARE INFRASTRUCTURE

  • Every research site Amanda examined — whether it was a producer group in India, a weaving cooperative in Peru, or an urban cooperative in Spain — was a collective effort led by women and part of a larger economic system.

    Those systems were powered by a care economy: the unpaid and undervalued work of keeping communities alive.

    Women have never been considered infrastructure; yet, they have always functioned as infrastructure.

    This talk draws from Women's Work research across four continents.

WHEN EVERYTHING CHANGES

  • Two places. Two kinds of upheaval.

    In Barcelona, overtourism has reshaped daily life — straining housing, pushing residents out, transforming the streets.

    Women's collectives there are responding through feminist urbanism: using theories of how women actually experience cities to redesign infrastructure around safety, care, and daily life. What they're building works better for everyone.

    In West Virginia, as industries have shifted and economic uncertainty has set in, women are entering the trades — and what that means for their communities turns out to be bigger than anyone originally anticipated.

    This talk draws from Women's Work field research in both places and asks what it looks like when women refuse to be written out of a changing world.

Custom talks can be developed for specific audiences. All can be paired with facilitated workshops.

KEYNOTES FROM A LIFE IN PROGRESS: Story-driven talks on leadership, courage, and what it takes to keep growing

  • The hardest leadership moments aren't the ones where you're in charge and the path is clear. They're the ones where the room is divided, the stakes are real, and doing the right thing means paying a price.

    Amanda has been in both kinds of rooms. As an elected official who served on a school board through one of the most contested periods in recent public life, she learned what it takes for a leadership team to hold together when everything is pulling it apart.

    And as a organizational leader who faced a period where staying silent would have cost more than speaking up, she learned that courage doesn't happen in isolation. Who you have around you matters as much as what you decide to do.

    This talk is for anyone who has ever needed to act with courage and wondered if they had what it takes — and for the people who make it possible when they do.

WHEN THE STAKES ARE REAL

  • In the communities Amanda studied for her international research project Women's Work, women had hard lives — but they had each other. When communal support increased, so did their capacity to lead, to take risks, to do more. The support wasn't a bonus. It was what made everything else possible.

    We don't have that here. Women are managing work, family, and community largely in isolation — without the structural support that makes sustained performance possible.

    They're picking up whatever helps them cope and wondering why they're still exhausted. The problem isn't what they're doing. It's what's missing.

    When you can't wait for the collective infrastructure to be built, you have to start building something yourself. Amanda did — her own experience showed her directly how personal infrastructure expands leadership capacity. In her leadership-development work, she kept finding women discovering the same thing.

    This talk makes the case that building personal infrastructure isn't a wellness project. It's how women grow their leadership capacity until the larger system catches up.

WHERE LEADERSHIP ACTUALLY STARTS

"Amanda Aronson is the kind of speaker who changes the energy of a room the moment she begins. Her ability to blend personal storytelling with a genuine call to life's engagement is extraordinary. She inspired reflection and called on those in attendance to examine their senses of purpose and define structures and environments to help them navigate their journey. Perhaps best of all, clients continued to talk about their experience weeks later — reflective of the impact she made. If you're looking for a speaker who will leave your people with something that stays with them long after the day is over, Amanda is that person."

Emily Wood, CFP — Partner, Chief Client Officer, Connecticut Wealth Management, LLC

This was spring 2021. Covid. Political discourse. Social-justice movements. What should I say?

“I’ve done a lot of public speaking, but this is the speech I’m most proud of. It’s also the one grateful parents thank me for 5 years later. “ — Amanda

“Mobilizing communities is both an art and a science, and Amanda Aronson has mastered it.”

Roszena Haskins, EdD, Deputy Superintendent, West Hartford Public Schools

Workshops & Facilitation

Keynotes can be paired with workshops. This gives participants dedicated time to work with ideas, not just receive them. Standalone facilitation is also available for retreats, strategic planning, and leadership development.

  • Most organizations are having more impact than they realize. They just aren't capturing it yet. Grounded in research from six sites around the world, this workshop helps teams find the evidence they're sitting on and use it where it matters most.

    Pairs well with: Women, Work & Collective Power

  • Designed for leaders who want more than coping strategies, this workshop helps participants create the personal infrastructure that will expand their capacity to work and lead.

    Pairs well with: Where Leadership Actually Starts

  • Designed for teams operating under real pressure, this workshop builds the practical skills for leading through disagreement, making hard calls, and moving forward in a way people can respect.

    Pairs well with: When the Stakes Are Real

  • Built around a practical exercise used with individuals, leaders, and teams, this workshop helps participants identify the gap between their stated values and how their time is actually spent and then examine how to close it.

    Stand-alone facilitated workshop

BOOK AMANDA

Speaking fees apply and vary by event, audience size, and organization type. Nonprofit and mission-driven rates are available.

START THE CONVERSATION

IN YOUR INQUIRY, PLEASE INCLUDE:

  • Event name, date, and location

  • Audience size and description

  • Whether you're looking for a keynote, workshop, or both

  • Any themes or goals you'd like to discuss

EMAIL: amanda@storyb.co‍ ‍WhatsApp: 860.306.4352