Story, Dr. Tan Morales

Today

Transformation, embodied.

I serve as Chief Learning & Strategy Officer of the National Black MBA Association, the nation's largest Black professional association, directing a national conference of 10,000 attendees, 300 corporate partnerships, and an Institute serving 10,000 learners across four tracks.

Alongside it I hold the chair of Chief Data and Consulting Officer at CulTRUE, a workforce intelligence platform, and a seat on the National Advisory Board of Independent Sector's Center of Excellence on the Nonprofit Workforce. I also serve on the MBA Program Advisory Council at Western Governors University, where we are redesigning competency-based curriculum for 6,141 active students. As part-time faculty with The Executive Leadership Council I teach social identity and executive leadership, and I have graduated 700+ senior leaders from IBM, Deloitte, Merck, Capital One, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Accenture and others, at a 97 NPS.

And I run a practice: I build the functions organizations don't have yet, and I coach the leaders who are holding everything together while nobody asks how they're doing.

The track record

A builder by instinct and an operator by discipline: complex business needs turned into scalable systems that keep performing long after launch.

Advised C-suites and boards on succession, talent strategy, and operating
      models, recognized with Equifax's CEO Global Circle of Excellence Award.
Built enterprise talent architecture for 20,000 workers across 26 countries,
      improving first-year retention by 21%. Those products still run, and now reach a population of
      25,000+.
Led a decade of organizational effectiveness at Randstad, including a global
      assignment at world headquarters in the Netherlands, selected from 500 HR professionals.
Serving on the MBA Program Advisory Council at Western Governors
      University, invited from the Management Program seat to the full MBA council, competency-based
      curriculum redesign for 6,141 active students, ahead of accreditation review.
Career spanning accounting, finance, data, operations, change, innovation,
      consulting, higher education, and leadership development across seven industries.
Earned four degrees: a doctorate in organizational leadership, an MBA, a
      master's in career counseling, and a BBA in finance and accounting, plus a Lean Six Sigma green belt.
Keynote speaker, facilitator, executive coach, and currently authoring
      The Art of Flourishing.

The receipts

2024, Present

Chief Learning & Strategy Officer, NBMBAA

Chief Learning Officer, Apr 2024 – 2025

Nation's largest Black professional association, 10K-attendee conference, 300 corporate partners, an Institute serving 10,000 learners across four tracks, +40% member engagement.

2026, Present

Co-Founder & Chief Data and Consulting Officer, CulTRUE

Building the data, AI, and consulting function for a workforce intelligence platform, operating model, offerings, and delivery capability.

2026, Present

National Advisory Board, Center of Excellence on the Nonprofit Workforce

Independent Sector's Center is building the nation's first coordinated, equity-centered infrastructure for nonprofit workforce health, guiding research, policy, and national adoption across four pillars. Alongside the board seat, I designed and facilitate their Advocacy Activation Validation Series, running a validation cohort of 13 nonprofits before it scales digitally to the sector's 1.8 million organizations.

2021, Present

Part-time Faculty, The Executive Leadership Council

Teaching social identity and executive leadership. 700+ senior executives graduated from IBM, Deloitte, Merck, Capital One, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Accenture and others, 97 NPS.

2020 to 2024

VP, Global Talent Management, Equifax

Talent strategy for 20,000 workers across 26 countries. Built the EFX Leadership Institute, 2,000 leaders a year. Created myOnboarding, a new global program for 3,000 employees a year at 95% satisfaction. Still running, and now reaching a workforce grown past 25,000. CEO Global Circle of Excellence Award.

2010 to 2020

Director, Organizational Effectiveness, Randstad

A decade leading org design, analytics, and change across ten lines of business. $3M budget, team of thirteen. Global high-potential assignment at world headquarters in the Netherlands. $1.3M annual savings through the automation champion and peer-to-peer training strategy.

Earlier

Northeastern · Georgia State · Turner Broadcasting

Faculty in the MS Human Resource Management program at Northeastern. Career counselor in University Career Services and graduate teaching assistant in the College of Business at Georgia State, where the HR career began. Senior data and financial analyst at Turner, and senior staff accountant before that, where the career started in the numbers.

Education

Ed.D. · MBA · MS · BBA

Doctorate in Organizational Leadership, specializing in leading change and innovation (Northeastern) · MBA in HR & Organizational Change (Georgia State) · MS in Career Counseling (Georgia State) · BBA in Finance & Accounting (Cincinnati).

Honors

Recognized, repeatedly

OnCon Top 50 Global L&D Professionals, peer-voted · Marquis Who's Who in America and in Education · CEO Global Circle of Excellence · Brandon Hall Group Excellence in Onboarding · TALiNT Partners, finalist twice: Best Innovation, and Excellence in Onboarding · One Equifax Award, six times · Randstad Presidents' Club.

The story behind the résumé

My father was a brilliant immigrant with a photographic memory, living with schizophrenia.
I am the daughter of a single, emotionally immature mother.
I am a first-generation college graduate.
I am the mother of two small rainbow children: one medically fragile.
I am a divorcee.
I am a cancer survivor.

And yes, it has cost me.

I have struggled to balance and prioritize. I have accepted far less than what I've given to individuals and organizations. I have often felt alone and misunderstood, unseen, unheard, unwanted, and at times, discarded.

But today I stand tall. Proud. Grateful. Not because the road was perfect, it wasn't, and it wasn't easy, but because along the way I learned how to understand, lean into, and leverage my gifts, and my positive and negative experiences alike.

None of it happened instead of my career. It happened during it. I ran global talent strategy through the years my own life was on fire, and I put neither one down. Those things have never defined me, but they did teach me the method I now teach you.

If any of this resonates with you, I might be the coach for you. Let's talk.