Andee Harris

Crisis prevention starts long before a situation escalates. The safest organizations are the ones that intentionally build the skills, systems, and culture to support their teams in high-stress moments. Prevention isn’t a single training event, it’s something you design into how people lead and operate every day. At Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI), we partner with healthcare, education, and human services organizations to do exactly that. Through our train-the-trainer certification framework, we certify internal staff to become de-escalation leaders who teach and embed those skills across their organizations. The focus is protecting vulnerable populations by building in-house expertise that scales. I started my first business at 26 and have built and exited three companies. As a first-generation graduate of the University of Michigan, I’ve always been driven to build organizations that create meaningful, measurable impact. Today, as CEO of CPI, I concentrate on aligning mission, culture, and execution; because safety only works when it’s operationalized. The leaders we serve manage friction every day: behavioral escalation, workforce strain, operational complexity. My role is to ensure we create real value and make safety practical, measurable, and scalable. Over the course of my career, I’ve been recognized in Crain’s 50 in Tech and received the Woodmark Foundation Award for innovation in healthcare, presented by Michelle Obama, along with the YPO Athena Award for recruiting the largest percentage of women into YPO. I lead with a culture-driven, data-informed approach and a strong commitment to advancing women in leadership. Here, I share perspectives on crisis prevention, de-escalation, scaling workforce capability through certification models, and building resilient, accountable cultures. If you’re responsible for staff safety or leading teams in complex environments, I’d be glad to connect.