About
Mile High Emergent Consulting builds foundations to reach intentional, expedient, and inclusive solutions to organizational and interpersonal challenges.
Who We Are
Since 2010, Mile High Emergent Consulting has provided a creative and intentional approach to building organizational culture, proactively addressing internal conflict, and rebuilding existing stagnant systems.
We use Restorative Practice, Emergent Strategy and Intersectionality* lenses along with effective communication and active listening skills to design a recommended future “to be” for organizations, people and projects and guide them toward their goals.
Mile High Emergent Consulting prioritizes work with organizations and projects working with diverse and marginalized populations believing this approach is pivotal to addressing the inherent imbalance in our society based on institutionalized and systems-based racism and power imbalances.
*Based on the works of Adrienne Maree Brown and Kimberlé Crenshaw respectively.
What We Do
Our services include, but are not limited to:
Intentional Organizational Culture development
Workshops designed for small business and startups for conflict transformation and culture rebuilding
Nonprofit, small business and learning institution Restorative Practices training
Strategic systems examination, disruption, and rebuilding consulting
Flat, fluid organizational set up
Restorative Mediation and Facilitation
Executive and personal coaching
Meet Our Founder
“Moving away from top-down social structures, we can activate paradigm shifts to create sustainable systems to address social and personal challenges.”
— Jessica Sherwood, founder and principal of Mile High Emergent Consulting
Jessica Sherwood (she/her) is a long-time social justice and community activist based in Denver for over 25 years. As principal of Mile High Emergent Consulting, Jessica has remained deeply committed to intersectionality, interconnectedness and social justice in community activism and in creating intentional workplace cultures. She has consulted for organizations as varied as local unions and management, school administrations and staff, communities in conflict, and nonprofits resetting and restructuring. From Director of Restorative Justice for the Conflict Center to founding the educational environment and community outreach non-profit, Feet First, Jessica centers community engagement and authentic relationship building in all of her work.
Mile High Emergent Consulting prioritizes outreach to organizations and projects working with diverse and marginalized populations believing this approach is pivotal to addressing the inherent imbalance in our society based on institutionalized and systems-based oppression. Jessica is particularly adept at strategic, big picture thinking, and motivating and encouraging action in others. She has facilitated numerous professional development trainings exploring Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion to ensure the internal culture shift necessary to impart the same to the organizations with which she works.
Jessica holds an MSW from Case Western Reserve University, is an adjunct professor in the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work, is Mediation Certified through International Advanced Dispute Resolution, and is trained in High Impact Victim Offender Dialogue and Restorative Justice Community Group Conferencing. Jessica finds joy in social and environmental activism, animal welfare (and all things animal-related) and time spent with her two adult daughters.
"Jessica knew what we needed better than we did. Her expertise was invaluable in identifying the processes and topics that would best meet our needs, and then delivering incredibly effective sessions. Even my most skeptical staff remarked on the excellence of her facilitation and the value of the discussions"
"I've worked with dozens of facilitators over my career and Jessica stands apart. She was able to bring clear guidance on best practices while also meeting us where we were in our organizational process. We all walked away from the series of facilitations in awe of how much we accomplished and grew as a team in just a few short sessions."
— Sarah Lake, Executive Director at Madre