Elbert Innovative Solutions, LLC

Big news from Elbert Innovative Solutions, LLC! 🎉

We are proud to partner with Addiction Professionals of North Carolina (APNC) on the APNC Emerging Leaders Institute (ELI) 2026 — a 10-week hybrid leadership experience built for North Carolina's substance use prevention workforce.

If you're a NC graduate student or early-career prevention professional (1–5 years in the field), we want to meet you.

📌 Applications are open NOW and close June 13.
📍 North Carolina applicants only.
👉 Apply at apnc.org/eli

Tag a NC colleague who needs this!

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Supported in part through funding from the NC DMH/DD/SAS via the SUBG at SAMHSA. Grant No. 00049660 — NC DHHS, Substance Use Services Treatment, Recovery, Prevention Services. Contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NC DHHS or any federal agency.

The future of nonprofit funding is changing — and it’s not just about who can write the best grant. Learn why funding strategists will lead the next decade and how your organization can adapt to win sustained support. Read more: https://wix.to/Q7nRToN

The Next Decade Will Belong to Funding Strategists, Not Just Grant Writers The Future of Grant Funding Is Not Grant WritingFor decades, the nonprofit and public sector funding model has centered on one question:“Who can write the grant?”Organizations have searched for skilled writers to craft compelling narratives, assemble budgets, and submit proposals in hopes of sec...

New on our blog: "The Mask Was Never the Problem: Emotional Intelligence, Before It Had a Name." Discover why what looks like a mask is often discernment, protection, and survival—and how emotional intelligence has always been at work, even without the label. Read the full post: https://wix.to/IayTSuA

The Mask Was Never the Problem: Emotional Intelligence, Before It Had a Name Worn With Intention — Part II was in the middle of a training when someone paused and said they couldn’t find the emotional intelligence section of the curriculum.I opened the materials and walked them through it. The content was there—it just didn’t announce itself the way they expected.The...

New on the blog: “Worn With Intention: Armor, Agency, and the Art of Discernment” — a four-part emotional intelligence reflection series for Black History Month rooted in lived experience, survival, and choice. Read part one and reflect with Dr. Shawnte Elbert on how we protect ourselves, claim agency, and choose with intention. Read now: https://wix.to/O0SYHpk

Worn With Intention: Armor, Agency, and the Art of Discernment I’ll be honest—I’m a few days into February, and I’m just now pressing publish.Not because the reflections weren’t ready. But because this kind of writing deserves intention, not urgency.This Black History Month, I’m sharing a four-part reflection series titled: “Worn With Intention: A...

Leadership isn’t a position you stumble into — it’s a craft you must intentionally develop. At Elbert Innovative Solutions, we believe leadership is a sacred covenant, demanding clarity, courage, and compassion. Our latest insights explore how leadership development training transforms your strategy, sharpens your purpose, and restores your soul. Ready to lead with integrity and build a legacy rooted in people-first culture? Discover how intentional growth in leadership skills can change your organization and community. Let’s break the silence on what leadership truly requires and embrace the path of lasting impact. Read more and start your leadership journey today! 🌟💼

Mastering Leadership with Training for Leadership Skills Leadership is not a title you inherit or a position you stumble into. It is a craft you develop, a calling you answer, and a legacy you build. If you want to lead with clarity, courage, and compassion, you must commit to mastering leadership through intentional training for leadership skills. This i...

When elevation feels limited, silence is not your indictment—it’s a positioning. You may be doing the deepest work beneath the surface: refining discernment, expanding capacity, and clarifying what actually matters. Stop treating the pause as punishment and start treating it as strategy.

Try this: 1) Record what you’ve already navigated. 2) Choose one small, sustainable step this week. 3) Rest without guilt. These practices honor alignment before action.

If you lead teams or organizations, use the pause to strengthen culture and systems so you’re ready when momentum returns. Excellence shows up in preparation, not only in headlines.

Read the full reflection and reflection prompts — trust the season, steward the work. https://wix.to/Ys2GlBY

What’s one small step you’ll take this week to steward your pause? Let’s talk below.

Navigating Silent Moments When Elevation Feels Limited Perfectly Positioned, Even in the PauseLife rarely moves in a straight, upward line. Instead, it unfolds in waves—moments of visible growth followed by stretches that feel quiet, paused, or strangely still. I’ve learned that when elevation feels limited, when nothing seems to be happening on the...

Life doesn’t climb in a straight line — sometimes growth is quiet. New on the blog: “Navigating Silent Moments When Elevation Feels Limited” — reflections on sitting in the pause, leaning into the unseen progress, and asking better questions when nothing seems to be happening. Read more: https://wix.to/MfURVER

Navigating Silent Moments When Elevation Feels Limited Perfectly Positioned, Even in the PauseLife rarely moves in a straight, upward line. Instead, it unfolds in waves—moments of visible growth followed by stretches that feel quiet, paused, or strangely still. I’ve learned that when elevation feels limited, when nothing seems to be happening on the...

Here's my 2025 LinkedIn Rewind, by Coauthor.studio:

2025 asked me to let go of what I thought leadership looked like — and say yes to what I couldn't yet see.

Seminary wasn't on my vision board. Walking away from a title wasn't part of the plan. But when God redirects, you pivot. 🙏🏽

Here's what this year held:

📚 Published my chapter "Inhale Faith, Exhale Fear" in Brave Women at Work: Lessons in Letting Go — and watched the e-book hit Amazon Bestseller status. Contributed to two more books, including a book chapter for “Well-being Leadership in Higher Education” with my twin sister Sherrá Watkins PhD, LCMHC-S, LCAS, CRC, CCS.

🎓 Said yes to seminary. I enrolled in the Master of Arts in Public Theology at Methodist Theological School in Ohio — a decision I once swore I'd never make again. Yet here I am, studying faith and justice to deepen the work.

🎤 Facilitated sessions NASPA - Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Strategies Conference in Boston and co-led spaces for health and well-being professionals of color. And I’ll be back in Chicago for January’s conference!!

📣 Spoke out when the DOE reclassification threatened access to graduate education for public health, mental health, and allied professionals. That post became my most-engaged of the year — because policy decisions have human consequences.

🌱 Concluded my role as Regional Director at Growth & Empowerment Mental Healthcare Services.

What 2025 reinforced:
✨ Healing sometimes looks and feels like shrinking, but whew it’s soooo much more!
✨ Self-care will never fix what bad leadership breaks — systems matter
✨ Pruning isn't punishment — it's preparation
✨ Creative work and faith can propel each other forward

My most-read posts this year:

On the DOE reclassification: https://lnkd.in/g3F8A5Ga

Whole People Don't Fit in Broken Systems: https://lnkd.in/grN4qJyd

Healing doesn't always look like progress: https://lnkd.in/gQCWfiVv

What's next? Seminary continues. Consulting through Elbert Innovative Solutions grows. And I'm still booking speaking and coaching engagements for organizations ready to lead with purpose and design systems that sustain and build people.

If you're navigating your own season of transition or re-rooting: you're not late, misaligned, or broken. You're still becoming.

What did 2025 ask of you? 💬

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Get your 2025 LinkedIn Rewind! Go to rewind.coauthor.studio

"I'm Still Here, Scars and All" 🌟 Healing is about embracing joy and resilience. Read about Dr. Elbert’s empowering journey and how she turned her scars into strength. Dive deeper into her inspiring story here: https://wix.to/gZjEgTX

I’m Still Here, Scars and All“ What Healing Has Taught Me... Healing doesn’t erase the evidence, it transforms the meaning.” Still Here: What Healing Has Taught Me About Scars, Soil & Sacred Shrinking. Healing, for me, has meant walking away from people & positions that once felt permanent. It has meant releasing titles that once defined me, rebuilding pu...

You don’t have to carry Monday’s chaos into your leadership. I invite you to a Sunday Renewal: a practice of gratitude and alignment that clears the fog and centers your purpose before decisions land. Pause, breathe, name one intention for the week, and hold it like a covenant. Ready to lead with clarity and rest as strategy? Visit https://wix.to/NYDe9aw to learn more. What intention will you set for the week? ✨🙏