Sandy Hudson
Co-Founder, Black Lives Matter Canada | Political Activist | Podcaster
Hire Gayathri Shukla, Leadership Speaker
About This Speaker
Gayathri Shukla, P.Eng., MBA, is a human connection and inclusive leadership expert, award-winning storyteller, and bestselling author. She helps organizations build cultures where people feel seen, valued, and able to contribute — especially during times of change, uncertainty, and technological disruption.
A former engineering and digital transformation leader, Gayathri brings over 20 years of experience across energy, mining, entrepreneurship, and community storytelling. As the founder of Campfire Kinship, she has supported corporate, nonprofit, academic, and public-sector audiences through keynotes, advisory, and story-based learning experiences that strengthen cultures of trust, belonging, and human connection.
Gayathri Shukla is the bestselling author and editor of Landed, Transformative Stories of Canadian Immigrant Women and The Fires We Lit, Illustrated Stories of Women Reimagining the Rules. She is also the host of Hearth 2 Heart, a radio-podcast at CJSW 90.9 exploring stories of purpose and belonging. Her work has been featured at TEDx, CBC, Global News and other media conversations on storytelling and leadership.
A recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal and SAIA Outstanding Business Award, Gayathri is currently pursuing doctoral research in transdisciplinary approaches to inclusive leadership and ethical AI innovation. Her keynotes are thoughtful, practical, and deeply human — helping audiences reconnect with trust, courage, agency, and what it means to stay human in a rapidly changing world.
Contact an agent to get Gayathri's availability and ratesSpeaking Topics: Gayathri Shukla
Human Connection in the Age of AI 
As artificial intelligence transforms how we work, communicate, and make decisions, organizations face a deeper question: what remains distinctly human? In this timely keynote, Gayathri Shukla explores why empathy, storytelling, discernment, and trust are not “soft skills,” but essential human capacities in an AI-enabled future.
Drawing from her TEDx talk, engineering and digital transformation background, and current doctoral research on ethical AI innovation, Gayathri helps audiences consider how leaders can use technology without losing sight of the people affected by it. This session is ideal for organizations navigating digital transformation, future of work conversations, leadership development, and employee engagement in times of rapid change.
Audience Takeaways
- Understand the common but less visible leadership pitfalls in an AI-enabled workplace.
- Identify practical ways to strengthen trust, reflection, and ethical decision-making.
- Explore how personal story can become a leadership skill to build connection.
Drawing from her TEDx talk, engineering and digital transformation background, and current doctoral research on ethical AI innovation, Gayathri helps audiences consider how leaders can use technology without losing sight of the people affected by it. This session is ideal for organizations navigating digital transformation, future of work conversations, leadership development, and employee engagement in times of rapid change.
Audience Takeaways
- Understand the common but less visible leadership pitfalls in an AI-enabled workplace.
- Identify practical ways to strengthen trust, reflection, and ethical decision-making.
- Explore how personal story can become a leadership skill to build connection.
The Art of Inclusive Leadership
Trust is at the heart of leadership. But trust is not built because a team is “nice.” It is built when people believe they can tell the truth about what is actually happening without being penalized for it.
In this keynote, Gayathri explores belonging as an everyday leadership practice to build trust across difference. Drawing on her signature approach to storytelling and inclusive leadership, Gayathri helps leaders move beyond good intentions toward the daily actions that create cultures where people feel seen, valued, and able to contribute.
Audience Takeaways
- Recognize how everyday workplace moments can reveal what a culture rewards, discourages, excuses, or overlooks.
- Learn how storytelling can help leaders surface what people are really experiencing.
- Identify practical and authentic ways to build cultures of belonging and trust.
In this keynote, Gayathri explores belonging as an everyday leadership practice to build trust across difference. Drawing on her signature approach to storytelling and inclusive leadership, Gayathri helps leaders move beyond good intentions toward the daily actions that create cultures where people feel seen, valued, and able to contribute.
Audience Takeaways
- Recognize how everyday workplace moments can reveal what a culture rewards, discourages, excuses, or overlooks.
- Learn how storytelling can help leaders surface what people are really experiencing.
- Identify practical and authentic ways to build cultures of belonging and trust.
Leading through Change with Storytelling
Change is often described through strategy, timelines, and milestones. But for the people living through it, change is also a story: about identity, loss, courage, uncertainty, belonging, and becoming.
In this keynote, Gayathri explores how stories help people make meaning during seasons of transition. Drawing from her journey from engineering leader to entrepreneur and author, as well as her work amplifying the stories of women through Landed: Transformative Stories of Immigrant Women and The Fires We Lit: Illustrated Stories of Women Reimagining the Rules, Gayathri invites audiences to see storytelling as more than just a communication tool. It is also a resilience practice: a way to reconnect with meaning, strengthen agency, and move through change with greater clarity and courage.
Audience Takeaways
- Use a systems-thinking lens to notice the patterns, pressures, and assumptions shaping people’s experience of change.
- Apply human-centered reflection to better understand what people need in order to move from uncertainty to agency.
- Identify one story that may be ready to be reclaimed, reframed, or carried differently.
In this keynote, Gayathri explores how stories help people make meaning during seasons of transition. Drawing from her journey from engineering leader to entrepreneur and author, as well as her work amplifying the stories of women through Landed: Transformative Stories of Immigrant Women and The Fires We Lit: Illustrated Stories of Women Reimagining the Rules, Gayathri invites audiences to see storytelling as more than just a communication tool. It is also a resilience practice: a way to reconnect with meaning, strengthen agency, and move through change with greater clarity and courage.
Audience Takeaways
- Use a systems-thinking lens to notice the patterns, pressures, and assumptions shaping people’s experience of change.
- Apply human-centered reflection to better understand what people need in order to move from uncertainty to agency.
- Identify one story that may be ready to be reclaimed, reframed, or carried differently.
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