Who We Are
At Kindred, we are a team of dedicated professionals who firmly believe in the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ). Our belief in repairing harm, promoting equity, and creating inclusive spaces drives our work and shapes our approach.
By partnering with Kindred for your speaking, coaching and consulting needs, you gain access to our deep understanding of these concepts and our commitment to guiding you toward meaningful change. Our expertise allows us to facilitate hard discussions, redefine approaches, and develop tailored strategies that empower individuals and organizations.
Together, we can create a more just, inclusive, and equitable future.
Meet Christian Harris
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• 34 Strong Gallup Clifton Strengths Coach• 2019
• Race Forward- Building Racial Equity• 2020
• Race Forward- Racial Equity in Libraries•2018
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Christian Harris is a dynamic speaker, coach and consultant with a wide range of professional experiences that allow him to meet clients where they are . After graduating from Bradley University with a B.S. in Business Management and a focus in Entrepreneurship, he started his professional career as an entrepreneur. Christian opened MS Clean and Sons LLC, a residential and commercial cleaning service servicing the Chicagoland area in 2013 and sold his stake in 2023. In the first few years, the company grew to over 10 staff, 2 managers and servicing over 150 people per month. A few years after opening his first business, he opened a limo service that was to put it lightly, a roller coaster ride and “one of the best learning experiences of my life”. Aside from opening and operating businesses, Christian has volunteered and worked on many political campaigns including his own successful campaign for the Oak Park Public Library Board (Finance Officer, 2017-2021) and an unsuccessful campaign for Oak Park Village Board in 2019. On the library board Christian served as Finance Officer overseeing an 10 million dollar budget, instituting the library's first anti-racism strategic plan and advocating for equitable pay for all staff. Most recently Christian was West Side Regional Field Organizing Director on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s winning campaign. Other roles include Director of DEI and Operations for marketing firm DM Burton LLC.
Christian began coaching friends, family and business school students in 2015. Although he didn’t call it coaching at the time, he was just being helpful. In 2019 he joined the team of OVP Management Consulting Group as a consultant and resilience coach working with organizations like the California Department of Public Health and the Delaware Department of Labor. In this role he coaches clients from a variety of backgrounds through leadership challenges, hiring, interview prep, discrimination in life and the workplace, how to implement DEIJ and more. “Of all the things I’ve gotten paid to do, Coaching is the most fulfilling” In addition, in this role and independently he’s consulted organizations on a variety of issues including management, employee engagement and scaling for growth.
Christian has been captivating audiences since he was 9 years old when he was selected to speak at his school's Martin Luther King Jr assembly. Since then he’s been asked to speak at events like the Oak Park Public Library Kwanzaa Celebration, the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago’s Black history month program, Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly’s annual dinner and more. “Speaking in front of people gives me so much energy and hope, whether it's 2 people or 2000, articulating feelings, difficult concepts and the realities we face ,while helping people learn is such an amazing feeling”.
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Christian also has a strong dedication to his community and admits that “community work has my heart”. He served on the Executive Board of the Oak Park River Forest Chamber of Commerce (2016-2021), The North Avenue District Board (2017-2023) and currently serves on the Housing Opportunities and Maintenance for the Elderly Board. In addition to Board Service Christian has participated in demonstrations with Black Youth Project 100, The People's Lobby , Oak Park Women Planned Parenthood march and more. In 2020 he co-founded the group Walk the Walk which focuses on Anti-gentrification, housing, community bridging and reparations. From this work Harris’ launched the Oak Park Reparations Task force in 2021. The task force has been the principal group moving the conversation on reparative justice forward in Oak Park and surrounding communities.
In 2023 Christian founded Kindred Keynotes and Coaching. KKC helps clients address personal and professional challenges with a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ). Through coaching, consulting, and keynote speaking, they create a supportive environment where individuals can learn, refine their talents, and discover their true purpose. With the overall goal of fostering healing and restoration within individuals and communities.
Christian is a proud resident of Chicago’s west side where he lives with his wife Richelle. They are eagerly awaiting the birth of their first child in 2024.
Meet Richelle Harris
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•The Allstate Foundation-Nonprofit Leadership Center Management Essentials Online Connection• 2022
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Richelle Harris is an operations and program professional with more than a decade of experience across nonprofit organizations, education, and community based work. She brings a thoughtful, systems oriented approach to her work, helping teams translate vision into clear structures, effective processes, and consistent execution. She believes that impact driven work is made sustainable through strong systems, clear processes, and shared accountability.
Richelle earned her Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Indiana University Bloomington. She began her career in the classroom, teaching for three years at Thea Bowman Leadership Academy, a public charter school in Gary, IN, where she developed a deep commitment to supporting young people and strengthening communities. She continued this work in Chicago, spending three years mentoring and teaching young girls through the Arise Creations program at New Life Centers, a nonprofit focused on youth development and empowerment.
Building on her experience in education and mentorship, Richelle transitioned into nonprofit operations at Lawndale Christian Development Corporation, where she served as Director of Operations. In this role, she led day to day operations and built systems that improved visibility, accountability, and on time delivery across projects. She is known for her ability to identify risks early, strengthen communication and ownership, and create processes that keep teams aligned and moving forward. Richelle also developed onboarding and offboarding systems, maintained internal documentation, and facilitated trainings to ensure clarity and consistency across the organization. Prior to this role, she served as Executive Assistant to the Deputy Director, where she managed executive priorities, tracked cross team deliverables, and supported organizational coordination.
Richelle plays a key role at Kindred Keynotes and Coaching, where she oversees internal operations, administration, and education consulting engagements. She also contributes to nonprofit consulting projects, supporting the design and delivery of client engagements while ensuring that internal systems and processes run smoothly.
Across her work, Richelle is recognized for her ability to step into complex environments, bring structure to ambiguity, and support teams in doing their best work. She combines strong operational thinking with a people centered approach, ensuring that systems not only function effectively but also support the individuals within them.
In addition to her professional work, Richelle is deeply committed to family and community. She and her husband, Christian Harris, are raising their daughter Ella while continuing to engage in work that centers care, connection, and collective wellbeing.