Oak Arias is a Crisis Resilience Strategist, author, speaker, and founder of Navigating Resilience Co., where they advise leaders and organizations navigating high-stakes disruption, sustained uncertainty, and complex human impact.

Oak’s work focuses on operational continuity, leadership credibility, and human performance under pressure—particularly in environments where crisis exposes inequities of impact and the limits of traditional leadership models. Drawing on systems thinking and trauma-informed practice, they help leaders stabilize decision-making, reduce error under stress, and design responses to disruption that do not externalize harm onto individuals or communities.

With a background spanning political science, international relations, management information systems, and data analytics, Oak brings analytical rigor to deeply human problems. Their training as a Nationally Registered EMT and extensive experience in crisis mitigation, de-escalation, suicide prevention, and Psychological First Aid inform a grounded, practical approach to leadership under constraint—one that integrates ethics, accountability, and care without sacrificing performance.

Oak is the author of Healing Forward: The Power and Promise of Trauma Recovery Coaching and Restoring Signal: Healing the Nervous System After Medical Trauma. Their writing and speaking translate complex concepts into clear, actionable frameworks for leaders, practitioners, and institutions navigating recovery and change.

As a speaker, Oak is known for delivering disciplined, thought-provoking engagements that challenge performative resilience and surface-level solutions. Their talks equip audiences to understand crisis not only as an operational event, but as a human system stress test—one that demands clarity, structure, and equity of impact.

A ruptured cerebral aneurysm survivor and six-time National and International Olympic Weightlifting gold medalist, Oak brings lived understanding of recovery, endurance, and adaptation without centering personal narrative over professional insight. Their presence on stage reflects the same qualities that define their advisory work: steadiness, precision, and respect for the weight leaders carry.

Oak Arias speaks to executive, healthcare, public-sector, and mission-driven audiences seeking practical guidance for leading credibly and humanely through disruption.