Deborah Nystrom

Deborah Nystrom is a change facilitator and strategist as well as an executive and team systems coach with an organization development (OD) specialty. Nystrom honed her systemic consulting approach based on 20 years of change and strategy work at the University of Michigan as well as 11 years with her own firm, REVELN Consulting.  She connects easily with executives, deans, faculty and leadership teams as well as staff and union groups as she assists them with projects, problem solving and initiatives within a decentralized, higher education and corporate settings.

Nystrom started her career as an internal multi-unit consultant and intrapreneur in the 80′s working with many change projects and initiatives at the University of Michigan.  She became the OD practice lead in 2005.  She has facilitated over 100 retreats & executive meetings focused on business goal outcomes, using techniques including Preferred Futuring, Appreciative Inquiry and Open Space Technology.  She’s worked successfully with bus drivers as well as a consortium of university presidents. She also advocated successfully for the “Flexibility/Adaptability to Change” addition to the top seven leadership competencies used as a university-wide guide for leadership development.  Her consultant role included ongoing work in convening design teams, focus-group design, interviewing, report development, presentations to senior staff and large groups, and following-through to galvanize change for her clients.

Nystrom was invited to present on adaptive change at the 2014 Knowledge Management Solutions Showcase™ Conference in Arlington, Virginia.  She also served on a panel and facilitated large Open Space discussion at the global Association for Change Management Professionals 2012 conferenceNystrom was also invited to speak locally on entrepreneurship at the Women’s Leadership Day at the Ross Business School, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in June 2014 by the American Business Women’s Association, the MAIA Chapter.  You can also experience Nystrom’s versatility when viewing her business storytelling “rap” for Entre-Slam where she placed as one of the top three winners in 2013.  Nystrom also founded the Social Media Learning Lab, a digital online workshop series, in 2010, at the request of peer coaches and consultants, to help them better understand the work of online marketing and community outreach. 

 Nystrom lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband, and often talks with her adult children IRL (In Real Life) and via text, Facebook, Skype and sometimes using a phone.