Work With Elaine
Keynotes & Training
Elaine delivers keynote talks on leadership, Indigenous governance, and systems change, grounded in lived experience and real-world application. Her work shifts how audiences understand leadership, entrepreneurship, governance, and relationships as human infrastructure.
She offers non-conventional governance training for Chief and Councils, boards, and leadership teams seeking to move beyond compliance-driven models and build governance that is accountable, relational, and able to hold under pressure. This includes Indigenous governance training and leadership development for organizations working in complex, high-stakes environments.
Using the Cultivating Safe Spaces (CSS) framework, these sessions focus on real-time leadership practice, and how decisions are made, how conflict is handled, and how responsibility is carried within governance systems.
These keynote and governance training engagements are selective and designed to complement her primary work, not replace it. They are intended for leadership teams prepared to examine how they operate and make practical shifts in how they lead and work together.
A limited number of governance sessions are offered each year, with priority given to weekend governance retreats held in the Okanagan, British Columbia.
Cultivating Safe Spaces (CSS)
Cultivating Safe Spaces (CSS) is the framework that underpins Elaine’s approach to leadership, governance, and systems change. It is a structured practice that builds the ability to self-regulate, listen differently, and take responsibility in real time.
Through CSS, leaders, teams, and partners develop the capacity required to function effectively in complex, high-stakes environments and to sustain alignment over time.
Learn more about Cultivating Safe Spaces (CSS) →
Naqsmist Storytellers Inc.
Naqsmist Storytellers Inc., founded by Elaine Alec, continues to deliver Indigenous governance, strategic planning, and community engagement work under the leadership of Kyle Alec and Sierra Alec.
The work strengthens relational accountability across leadership, staff, and community so decisions can hold over time. While Elaine is no longer leading operations, the approach remains grounded in the Cultivating Safe Spaces (CSS) framework she developed.