is an educator & strategic impact consultant who has spent more than 25 years educating & empowering high impact innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders. She helps students develop the skills to become innovative entrepreneurs, strategic problem-solvers, and high impact leaders in business and beyond.
Dr. Kristin Joys is on faculty at the University of Florida, where since 2005, she has led initiatives focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, impact, and leadership within the the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Center and the Department of Management in the Warrington College of Business. She creates opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to explore high-impact entrepreneurship, impact-driven innovation, strategic impact, and leadership. Her work focuses on equipping future business and community leaders with the skills, competencies, and tools to drive resilient growth and lasting success. She has devoted her career to empowering students to become high-impact entrepreneurs and innovative business & community leaders.
From 2007 - 2016 Kristin founded & directed the Young Entrepreneurs for Leadership & Sustainability High School Summer Program at UF, the only summer program in the US where college bound high school students learned and practiced the skills of successful business and community leaders. In January 2016 the program received the United States Association of Small Business & Entrepreneurship Education (USASBE) Specialty Entrepreneurship Education Program Award, the highest honor for an entrepreneurship education program and a once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment for the impacts created by the program over it’s 10 year run.
Kristin also runs a boutique consulting business, Do Good Well Consulting, where since 2002, she has helped individuals and ventures to leverage their time, talent, and resources to create meaningful, strategic impact. Since 2012, her work has focused on empowering businesses, organizations, and individuals to create strategic value (strategic venture plans & impact business models, strategic giving plans & high impact philanthropy, leadership consulting & coaching). She particularly enjoys working with high-impact entrepreneurs launching innovative ventures that bridge for-profit and nonprofit models (aka “designed to give” hybrid sibling ventures); she also loves helping folks find and create high impact ventures, careers, and leadership opportunities.
Kristin is also a certified Yoga Teacher who nearly lost her right leg & life in 2015-2016 due to a battle with pyoderma gangrenosa that became infected with MRSA. After recovering, she was determined to learn how to float & fly. Since August 2018 she has successfully done press handstands nearly every day as they fill her with both gratitude & joy-- for life, for health, for strength, and for courage. She realized she wanted to give others the same transformative experience and empowering feeling that she gets when she’s on her mat, flowing, and moving -- learning and doing things she never imagined possible... then taking that sense of purpose & meaning off the mat & into the world… She loves to create opportunities and make space for students to feel safe in their bodies, to try new ways of moving (and thinking) and realize they can do hard things — and discover that courage & truth are already there, inside their hearts, and they've been there all along.
Kristin delights in living in a historic home built in 1912. She finds joy in collecting & sharing information & resources, supporting local farmers; practicing floating, flying, finding her edge (and falling) on & off her yoga mat, biking around her neighborhood while listening to podcasts; reading The Sun Magazine; learning to climb trees & standup paddle board; reading The Sun Magazine, and collecting quotable cards.
One of her many favorite quotes (she has hundreds) is this line from Maya Angelou, “Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can’t be consistently fair or kind or generous or forgiving any of those without courage.” An understanding from Erik Erikson, that “humans need a sense of belonging, identity, purpose, and meaning” has been central to her understanding of the world. She most resonates with the daily practices of courage & kindness, hope & gratitude, curiosity & wisdom, grace & joy, belonging & connection, and compassion & generosity.
... Oh, and in case you're curious, “do good well consulting” is inspired by these words from Minor Myers, Jr: "Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good," as seen on this quotable card.
Please note: Kristin is not a licensed mental health professional, psychologist, therapist, or counselor. Her consulting & coaching is in no way to be construed as a substitute for psychological counseling, psychotherapy, mental health counseling, or any other type of psychotherapy or medical advice. She gladly refers folks to respected credentialed mental health professionals.