Melinda McClimans
Hi! I’m Melinda, CEO of Archipelago Rising. My coaching focuses gender intelligence for professionals and leaders. As my coaching client you will gain powerful capacities for your success at any personal or professional endeavor. I will walk with you through your transformation as you gain a deeper understanding of human differences, begin practicing new habits, and create an action plan that will create the results you’re looking for. Common benefits include:
- Better self-awareness and communication across gender differences, even in teams with varied cultural perspectives and communication styles.
- Stepping into a new you with practices that restore energy and encourage wellbeing in your relationships.
- Leadership effectiveness equipped for today’s world, even with the complex challenges created by decentralized and AI-influenced workplaces.
- Greater clarity, confidence, and trusted support as you apply gender intelligence to real life situations.
Gender-neutral professional advice often misses hormonal causes of stress that are very different in men and women. If you are a professional woman, especially, resources, practices and guidance relevant to your needs can be hard to find. As a Mars Venus-certified coach, I provide proven gender-intelligent knowledge, resources and guidance for success in life and professional work.
My Story
I know from personal experience what happens when a woman spends years operating as the “man” in a relationship, the primary problem-solver, responsibility-taker, and crisis manager. And it’s not good. For me, it created health issues such as night sweats and heart palpitations – in my twenties! But worse than health issues was the fact that I was a miserable person.
Until I woke up and decided I didn’t want to be miserable anymore.
Finally one day, I decided to become a happy person. Like many people, my awakening came from a crisis. That crisis was my Dad’s stroke in 2008. It caused me to take an interest in brain science and make discoveries about the brain and physiology that also revealed significant sex differences. I call the crisis “the shift” in my memoir because it was a watershed moment. I laid aside beliefs about a certain way (read: masculine) to be successful professionally and I made my feminine side a priority.
This meant I had to live more authentically. For me that meant I needed to manage people completely differently, to teach differently, even to present myself to the world differently. I honestly didn’t know what I was doing. I used my intuition to make changes. It felt better to me to manage my team like we were a family. So that’s what I did and I became a better supervisor.
I embraced my teaching style and organized study tours I led by walking side-by-side with the participants (metaphorically and often literally). Magical experiences resulted. And I was able to witness relationship formations and learning in real time, and to make life-long bonds with my fellow educators and some of the participants.
I took time to think about my presentation to the world and what my personal and professional styles would look and feel like. To me that meant wearing dresses and skirts more because I felt better in them, and better able to find designs that expressed “me.” The change in my appearance felt like “coming out” as a feminine woman.
But this isn’t only a women’s issue. Men are not built to fill feminine roles long-term, just as women were not built to sustain masculine-mode demands exclusively. The difference is that women have historically adapted to masculine demands temporarily when circumstances required it. Asking men to do the reverse over the long haul does not lead to the kind of relationships anyone actually wants.”
The solution was never to make women more like men, or men more like women. It was to create conditions where both could be fully, authentically themselves — and to develop the relational and emotional intelligence to navigate the genuine differences between them.
Professional Background
Melinda McClimans is an educator, program builder, and cross-cultural connector with nearly 30 years of experience in international education and exchange. Her work centers on community building, creativity, and designing learning experiences that bridge classroom learning with real-world applications. She holds a PhD in Global and Multicultural Education and is currently focused on teaching and coaching for gender intelligence, complemented by Mars Venus Coaching certification. Her work includes:
- Gender Intelligent Workshops and Coaching — Supports individuals and teams in strengthening communication, understanding, and relational effectiveness through Gender Intelligent frameworks.
- Program design & facilitation — Creates immersive learning experiences for diverse audiences. Past programs have included the general public, military, educators, and youth.
- Intercultural pedagogy — Builds curriculum and learning opportunities that connect visible culture with the deeper values, beliefs, and practices shaping everyday life.
- Interdisciplinary partnerships — Collaborates across organizational silos to build pathways among colleagues, departments, and partner organizations.
- Writing & editing — Authors and edits research, commentary, and educational texts across disciplines.
- Grant development — Has written or co-written nine successful grant proposals totaling $4,012,601, funding educational programs, student scholarships, research projects, and public engagement initiatives.
Focus areas:
- Gender Intelligence for individuals, businesses, and organizations for effective self-care, relationship building, and market relevance
- Arts as a bridge across cultures, with particular experience in theatre — including commissioning and producing plays based on stories from Egypt and Afghanistan
- Foodways and cultural citizenship, introducing young people to Middle Eastern food as a pathway to social connection, economic and environmental responsibility, and cultural understanding
Melinda has served as Assistant Director of the Middle East Studies Center at The Ohio State University since 2003, raising awareness about the region’s diverse cultures through immersive learning experiences and partnerships that expand public engagement and impact.