Dr. Michaela O’Donnell is the executive director of the Max De Pree Center for Leadership where she oversees the center’s vision, strategy, program, and team, all with the goal of helping leaders like you respond faithfully to God in all seasons of your life and leadership.
Michaela is the author of Make Work Matter: Your Guide to Meaningful Work in a Changing World. It’s gotten rave reviews from folks such as Dave Evans, Mark Labberton, Missy Wallace, Luke Bobo, Dee Ann Tuner, Kara Powell, and more. This book is a reflection of Michaela’s heart as both an entrepreneur and a practical theologian. Drawn to the real life working out of big issues, it is a how to for anyone walking the road of calling in a changing world.
Click here to view Michaela's profile.
Giving Tuesday 2023
This year, I am struck by the hard questions you’ve brought to us. Whether it’s the emerging leader who asked me, “How do you know what to do when you don’t know what to do?” Or the team leader who told us, “I’ve got to let go of half my team because my boss wouldn’t deal with reality.
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Being Shaped by Gratitude
When I was a kid, my mom used to take me aside before big events like Christmas or a birthday and coach me, telling me that when I received a gift from someone, I needed to look them in the eye and say thank you.
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Leading Through Anxiety
In an age where change is constant, and anxiety is on the rise, we need leaders who are awake to what’s going on, and able to hold space for people when things are uncertain.
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Reassessing Our Relationship with Work and Rest
The other night, when the sky was dark and all was quiet in the house, and when I was fast asleep, I found myself startled awake by the abrupt opening of my bedroom door.
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A Note of Gratitude from De Pree
I want to express my sincere gratitude for your support of Fuller’s Max De Pree Center for Leadership and your heart for marketplace leaders. Here’s a snapshot of how God has recently worked through your donations.
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The Benefit (and Risk) of Leading with Care
For the last 18 months, I’ve been enamored by the question: What does it look like to lead in a distinctively Christian way? I’m curious partly because of my work at the De Pree Center. Partly because I believe that faith ought to play out in an embodied way in my own work.
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Giving Tuesday
In November, I traveled to four different cities to meet with folks across industries who are uniquely positioned to be agents of God’s redemption in the face of the world’s most pressing questions.
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What To Do with Burnout
It’s then that we start talking about what’s really going on and just how hard work and life really are. Some talk about their bosses. Others want to quit. More and more use the B-word.
Burnout.
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Ongoing Mission and Transitions at De Pree Center
Wayne Park has become promoted to Chancellor of Fuller Texas! W. Ryan Gutierrez has joined us in the role of Program Specialist. Meryl Herr, our Senior Researcher, has transitioned from part-time to full-time work at De Pree Center.
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Giving Day – 2022
One of my favorite parts about my job as executive director of the Max De Pree Center is that people regularly invite me into…
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Make Work Matter Book Club
Is there a way to get beyond “diversity training” that isn’t merely driven by liability or political correctness, but instead seeks to get at the heart of the matter?
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What Did God Birth in You This Year?
In December 2020, Michaela O’Donnell wrote an article called: What is God Birthing in You? in which she wondered about what the unusual year of 2020 was readying us for in 2021. In this article, she helps us consider what birthing might look like in our work and leadership as well as gives us an exercise to reflect on this as we head into a new year.
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Ask “What If?”
Part of work in a changing world is to think outside the box and to take seriously God’s invitation to imagine what is possible.
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Practice Empathy Along the Way
Much of the meaningful work we desire to do can be traced back to empathy.
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