Climate event: Navigating power dynamics and conflict in academia
Dr. Chrissy Stachl
Trauma-informed somatic empowerment coach and organizational change consultant
Oakland, CA
Unwritten rules, hidden costs: Navigating power dynamics and conflict in R1 academic environments
Academic departments run on unwritten rules—implicit norms about who speaks, who defers, how conflict gets handled, and who absorbs the cost when it isn’t—shaped by entrenched power dynamics. This session opens by grounding participants in what research actually tells us about hidden curricula and power dynamics in R1 environments, with particular attention to the implicit com- munication around accountability and what that means for graduate student professional development. We’ll also examine the neuroscientific impact of unresolved conflict—what happens in the nervous system when harm goes unnamed, and how that shapes long-term capacity for learning, leadership, and belonging.
From there, the session moves into practical, skill-based content: naming and practicing embodied tools for navigating conflict and accountability. Participants will work in small groups to practice staying regulated and rela- tional even when a conversation is uncomfortable. The goal is not a new behavioral framework to take home— it’s to gain a felt sense of how to navigate these dynamics with more steadiness and less reactivity.
This session is designed for faculty, staff, and graduate students navigating the everyday complexity of departmental life.
Chrissy Stachl
Dr. Chrissy Stachl is a trauma-informed somatic empowerment coach and organizational change consultant based in Oakland, CA. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from UC Berkeley, a background in neuroscience and medicine, and 600+ hours of somatic coaching training—a combination that lets her bridge intellectual rigor with body-based, emotionally attuned support for her clients in a unique way. Through her coaching practice, Chrissy works 1:1 with high-achieving adults who look successful on paper but feel quietly disconnected, overextended, or unfulfilled inside. Together with her clients, she unwinds patterns of over-functioning and self-abandonment, rebuilds the capacity to feel joy and desire, and supports a return to internal authority rather than external validation. Through Reflecting Equity, her organizational consulting practice, Chrissy supports STEM organizations in creating cultures that can actually hold the discomfort that real culture change requires—integrating nervous system literacy and relational safety into equity and culture work.
Dr. Stachl's talk is the latest installment in the Chemistry Climate Event Series, a semiannual workshop series that helps us foster a department that is even more diverse, creative, and successful in every aspect of our mission. Learn more about Chemistry Climate Events.
