Contemplating Life’s Choices

Healing from burnout | Connecting with your inner wisdom

Media and Speaking

Heather has almost two decades of public speaking experience including live TV and radio, podcasts, workshops, panels, and keynotes. Her engagements are informed by lived experience driving enterprise transformation through learning strategy, employee engagement, and organizational change. Her breath of experience in non-profit, banking, and tech paired with consulting companies from startups to the Fortune Global 500 gives her perspectives and insights grounded in sustainable and scalable people-first practices.

Her portfolio includes Aflac, CLO, Grainger, Kroger, Lightspeed DMS, McDonald’s, Salt Lake SHRM, TeamHealth, Tech-Moms, University of Utah, Utah ATD, Women’s Leadership Institute, Zions Bancorporation, and more.

She specializes in shifting perspectives and creating action around women in leadership, leadership and career management in the age of AI, and cultivating a learning culture.

Her in-demand keynotes include:

  • The Resilience Trap: What Nobody Tells High-Achieving Women About Burnout, Recovery, and Choosing What’s Next
  • Future-proof: Building a Personal Learning Strategy to Move From Surviving to Thriving in the Age of AI
  • The Trust Architect: Storytelling with Data in a World of AI Noise
  • Cultivating a Learning Culture: The Human Centered Approach to Creating an Adaptable Workforce

Heather’s keynotes can also be provided in an interactive workshop format for in-person gatherings including ERG meetings, executive strategy sessions, leadership retreats, or community events.

Heather currently has limited availability for engagements in the second half of 2026 or book now for 2027.

Book Heather
  • Your talk was one of my top three of this entire cohort. I’ve been feeling stuck in my role and keep going back to your career path philosophy of, it doesn’t always have to just be “up”.
  • Your session yesterday was easily the best one I saw, and the others were good. You crushed it! Thank you for sharing what you know it was seriously awesome.
  • You did a wonderful job presenting today. It could have been the keynote speech!
  • Your webinar on How to Navigate Career Development in the Age of AI was great, you’re great. Thanks for the powerful tips and insights. Specifically, liked the bit about impostor syndrome. I’m really working on that and accepting that one may always feel it is so freeing!
  • Heather, your presentation was both inspiring and motivating and was truly a highlight of the event. Thank you very much for sharing your time and talent to help us on our journeys. Your timely and thought-provoking perspective on careers, continuous learning, and adaptability in the age of AI made a meaningful impact and will undoubtedly help drive great results.
  • Heather’s passion for people is clear. She has a solid understanding of high level strategy as well as the ‘in the trenches’ work and articulates her insights and wisdom clearly and in a way that has people engaged from start to finish.

Learn more about TribalHub

Learn more about Fairygodboss or check out their other podcast offerings.

Or find this Are We Well episode on Spotify or Apple Podcast

Or find Queens of Tech Episode 82 on Spotify or Apple Podcast

Or find The Slog Pod Episode 12 on Spotify or Apple Podcast

Elevate Podcast also on Apple Podcast or Spotify
Podcast available on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
Giga Om – The Good, The Bad, & The Techy Podcast
Guest on Tech-Moms Better Way Thursday
Featured by Utah Valley Business Q
Host of Pluralsight Expert Access with Jillian Kaplan
Panelist discussing AI, workplace culture, and change management
Guest on the Tiaras & Tech Podcast
Guest on the top attended webinar at the time with over 3.3k views

Speaker Portfolio

  • Building Your Future-Ready Learning Strategy | Aflac 2026 Pluralsight Learning Celebration: Digital Services L&D | Keynote | April 22, 2026
  • How to Navigate Career Development in the Age of AI | Pluralsight | Elevate & Innovate Webinar | December 11, 2025
  • The Tech Leader’s Blueprint: Actionable strategies for driving tech skills growth | TribalHub | Webinar | December 11, 2025
  • Building a Learning Ecosystem: Integrating formal, informal, and experiential learning | Pluralsight Shift | Conference Workshop | October 28, 2025
  • The Culture Blueprint: Aligning change, communication, and leadership | Utah ATD | Conference Workshop | October 9, 2025
  • Finding Your Next Move: Strategies for a Successful Career Pivot | Fairygodboss | Webinar | October 8, 2025
  • Skill Building & You: Continuous skill building for career development | Lightspeed Innovation Week | Keynote | September 16, 2025
  • The Learning Stack: How to Build, Maintain, and Scale Your Own Growth | Grainger GTG Tech Conference | Keynote | September 10, 2025
  • Tech Fluency for Career Development | Zions Bancorporation | September Women in Tech Webinar | September 5, 2025
  • Pluralsight and Women in Tech | McDonalds Global Women in Tech Conference | Webinar | August 7, 2025
  • Listening Inward: Heather MacDonald on Inner Wisdom & Choosing Yourself | Are We Well Podcast with Neelam Chand | August 5, 2025
  • Feedback that Works: A deep dive into understanding feedback as a meaningful practice for growth | TeamHealth Business Support Services Employee Onsite | In-person Workshop | July 15, 2025
  • Zions Innovation Week | Zions Bancorporation | Hybrid Workshop, presented in-person | June 23, 2025
  • Embrace Change Collective | Embrace Change | Online Workshop | June 12, 2025
  • Mind the Gap Fest | Mind the Gap | In-person Panel | March 8, 2025
  • You Are Enough: Tapping into Your Inner Wisdom to Navigate All of Life’s Choices | Salt Lake SHRM | Online Workshop | November 13, 2024
  • Networking for Those Who’d Rather Not | Venture Anyway | Online Workshop | November 6, 2024
  • Networking for Those Who’d Rather Not | Silicon Slopes Women in Leadership | In-Person Workshop | November 1, 2024
  • 100 Voices of Impact | Representation Matters | Queens of Tech | Podcast Guest | September 27, 2024 | Tech Queen: Heather MacDonald, Founder of Contemplating Life’s Choices and Principal Consultant at Pluralsight
  • The Slog Pod : Workplace Mental Health | The Slog Pod | Podcast Guest |September 26, 2024 | Episode 12: A new perspective on workplace mental health
  • Structured Networking for Women of Color | Embrace Change | Virtual Networking Event | September 25, 2024 | Co-host and presenter on networking tips
  • KonnectED | Kroger | In-Person 5-Sessions | August 27-28, 2024 | Skill Building and You
  • Now – New York | Pluralsight | In-Person Session | June 6, 2024 | Talent Mobility: What’s Missing and What to Do About It
  • Rising Leaders Series | Women’s Leadership Institute | In-Person Session | April 11, 2024 | Change & You: Three Critical Capabilities Every Leader Needs to Navigate Change,  Move From Silos to Consensus, and Practice Meaningful Self Care
  • 2024 Utah Tech Week | Utah Tech Week | In-Person Workshop | January 24, 2024 | Level Up – Behavioral Interviewing 
  • Tech-Moms In Color | Tech-Moms | In-Person Session | November 4, 2023 | Tech Professional Guest Speaker
  • Tech Moms | Tech-Moms | In-Person Session | September 23, 2023 | Tech Professional Guest Speaker
  • AI & the Future of HR Summit | MegastarHR | Virtual Session Speaker | November 8, 2023 | AI & Beyond: How to Future-proof Your Workforce
  • Navigate: Refactor the Future | Pluralsight | In-Person Workshop | October 19, 2023 | Using Neuroscience to Create a High Performing Culture
  • Chief Learning Officer Webinars | CLO Magazine | Virtual Panel | September 12, 2023 (Live) and October 11, 2023 (Replay) | Using Neuroscience to Cultivate a High Performing Culture
  • Tech-Moms Better Way Thursday Panel Discussion | Tech-Moms | Virtual Panel | May 9, 2023 | Job Crafting: Turning the job you have into the job you want
  • Pluralsight Expert Access | Pluralsight | Virtual Fireside Chat | April 27, 2023 | Pluralsight Expert Access: Jillian Kaplan on why talent needs time to upskill and work-life harmony
  • World Innovation & Change Management Institute Technology & Data Webinar | WICMI | Virtual Panelist | November 22, 2022 | AI, Innovation, and Change Management
  • Pluralsight Webinar | Pluralsight | Virtual Expert Guest | November 02, 2022 | Organizational Barriers to Talent Mobility
  • Tiaras and Tech Podcast Season 1 | Tiaras and Tech | Virtual Expert Guest | April 20, 2022 | Being a Lifelong Learner
  • Pluralsight Webinar | Pluralsight | Virtual Expert Guest | January 14, 2021 | Moving from Individual Contributor to Technology Leader
  • U Career Success – Career Fest 2021 | University of Utah & the Utah Black Chamber | Virtual Panelist | September 27, 2021 | Diversity in the Workplace
  • Women’s Leadership Certification Program – Utah Valley University | Executive Education at UVU | Virtual Expert Guest | 2020 | Unleash Your Leadership: Learn, Lead, and Lift

My Bio

Heather Motogawa-MacDonald (she/her)

Heather MacDonald is the Founder of Contemplating Life’s Choices, a coaching, consulting, and yoga practice focused on mid/senior career women, mothers, and diverse folks who are battling over-thinking, people pleasing, and perfectionism while navigating life/career transitions and burnout. 

Heather combines her strategic leadership and tech consulting experience along with yoga and coaching to provide a safe space for women to build a contemplation practice that calibrates their inner wisdom into the compass that enables them to navigate all of life’s choices. Her work supports women in becoming high-impact leaders capable of guiding themselves, and their teams, through change and transformation. 

Additionally, Heather is a global speaker, panelist, and workshop host on leadership development, organizational change, workplace culture, talent mobility, community building, and lifelong learning.

She is currently a founding member of the Technology and Data Committee for the World Innovation and Change Management Institute and an Inaugural Board Member for the Women’s Wellness Summit.

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