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Michelle Nel

Management Consultant; Circle Facilitator; Leadership Coach

Portrait of Michelle Nel
“I hope to weave together systems thinking, community wisdom, and global partnerships to reimagine what’s possible — not just for surviving, but for thriving in harmony with each other and the Earth. For too long, land has been used to divide and dispossess. Through this journey, I hope to work with the land as a healer — to reconnect, to regenerate, and to unite communities across difference.”
In Michelle’s words
The person behind the perspective

Meet Michelle.

Michelle is a strategic partnership facilitator and community ecosystem designer working at the intersection of regenerative food systems, youth empowerment, and green enterprise in South African township contexts. Her background in leading high-performing corporate teams now informs her grassroots work co-developing food forests, ecology learning hubs, and agri-entrepreneurship pathways.

She specialises in weaving design thinking, systems transformation, and intergenerational knowledge sharing to support low-income communities in reclaiming agency, restoring dignity, and building ethical, sustainable livelihoods. Her approach draws on the wisdom of land-based cultures, nutrition justice, and the medicinal role of food, positioning local people not as beneficiaries, but as innovators and stewards of living systems.

In their own words 1:58
In Michelle’s voice

Building a Regenerative Campus

Michelle’s August invitation to plant a food forest also offered a way to dedicate a tree in someone’s memory. Historical invitation for the 29 August planting.

More voices from ICH