Kalissa (Kali) Hendrickson is Executive Director of Aspen Leadership Seminars at the Aspen Institute, where she leads the strategy, growth, partnerships, and programmatic direction of one of the Institute’s flagship leadership programs. In this role, she brings leaders together to explore the enduring questions, tensions, and responsibilities of leadership through dialogue grounded in classical and contemporary works across the humanities. Guided by the conviction that dialogue and the humanities remain powerful tools for lifelong learning, her work cultivates the judgment and perspective that strengthen leaders, organizations, and society.
During Kalissa’s tenure, Aspen Leadership Seminars has expanded its reach and impact through new organizational partnerships and a broader portfolio of seminars. Leading a multidisciplinary team responsible for the growth and delivery of the Institute’s open-enrollment and organizational leadership seminars, and overseeing the department’s educational portfolio and moderator community. She works closely with senior leaders across the corporate, public, higher education, and nonprofit sectors to develop leadership seminars and programs that address their leadership and organizational challenges. Alongside her executive responsibilities, Kalissa serves as the department’s external spokesperson for its humanities-based dialogue approach to leadership formation and regularly moderates both bespoke leadership seminars and the Institute’s flagship Aspen Executive Seminar on Leadership, Values, and the Good Society.
Before being named Executive Director, Kalissa served in a series of progressively senior roles within the Institute. She earned a Ph.D. in English literature from Arizona State University, specializing in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century drama while also teaching literature and composition. She also holds a Bachelor of Music in performance from Northwestern University.
