Dr. David Harkins is a social scientist who helps leaders make sense of culture and change across complex human systems.
My story.
I work at the intersection of people, culture, and systems, specifically helping leaders and organizations make sense of change when familiar frameworks no longer hold the same truths. My work focuses on how meaning, identity, and shared understanding shape what is possible in complex social systems, particularly in moments of uncertainty, transition, and fragmentation. I am especially interested in this moment in our history because inherited models of leadership, organization, and progress are increasingly mismatched with the complexity of the challenges we face.
I explore these questions through teaching, research, writing, and advisory work. I am an assistant professor of social entrepreneurship at Belmont University, where I teach social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship, systems-thinking approaches and other related topics. I’m also the founder and Managing Partner of David Harkins Company, my advisory practice where I help guide mission-driven and cross-sector leaders through sensemaking and strategic clarity around culture, complexity, and change.
My research and writing explore the human experience within systems and culture, whether in companies, institutions, or communities. I am particularly interested in organizational culture, collective empathy, entrepreneurial thinking, leadership for sustainable change, and creativity in complex problem-solving. Across these areas, my work examines why thoughtful change efforts often stall and what becomes possible when deeper human and cultural dynamics are brought into view.
At the core of my work is a belief that entrepreneurial thinking, which is understood not simply as venture creation, but as a way of seeing and acting, can unlock new possibilities for positive social impact. I am especially drawn to contexts where demographic shifts, cultural change, economic disruption, and access barriers challenge communities’ ability to adapt and thrive.
My academic training includes a Doctorate in Organization Development and Change from Bowling Green State University, a Master of Entrepreneurship from Western Carolina University, and a BBA in Entrepreneurial and Small Business Management from American Public University. I am also Certified Professional Coach.
Beyond formal roles and credentials, my work is shaped by both successes and failures. I bring a strong drive to create, a desire to build and nourish people and ideas, and a deep curiosity about what makes change possible when situations feel intractable. These experiences inform my conviction that perspective shapes outcomes, that possibility exists even in constraint, and that meaningful change begins with better sensemaking.
My background.
I was born in the capital city of West Virginia the year John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I cheered Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon, watched solar eclipses through a color film negative, and listened to music on 8-Track tapes. I watched President Nixon resign his office, owned a first edition Sony® Walkman, and remembered my latitude and longitude when Harry Chapin and John Lennon died.
I grew up in the “other Charleston,” where I spent more than my fair share of time grounded in my bedroom, where I used that time to engineer and flight-test the most incredible paper airplanes from my bedroom window. Each one, elaborately decorated and bearing the phrase, “Help!!! I’m being held captive by a wicked witch!” which, upon reflection, was unwise since they all landed in the backyard to be discovered by my captor, who sometimes went by the name of “mom.”
When I wasn’t held captive, I survived walks through protesting parents during the Kanawha County Textbook Controversy, was interested enough to learn New Math, rose many mornings at 5:00 AM to deliver newspapers, and learned how to march and play the trombone at the same time.
I set off for college to become a dentist, but organic chemistry got the better of me, and a wise Chemistry professor encouraged pursuing a different career. A more thoughtful English professor suggested I consider becoming a writer. Unfortunately, my parents had no room in the basement for me to make a home, so I chose life in marketing and advertising—the closest fields I could find to writing that paid enough to allow me to get my own place.
Once on my own, I fell into a successful career leading marketing and organizational change for companies both small and large. I even became a serial entrepreneur and helped grow many other first-stage start-up companies.
I have worked in many industries and been fortunate enough to have held senior positions with, or advised, many well-known organizations, including Alzheimer’s Association (National), American Bar Association (National), Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, Boy Scouts of America (National Council), Cargill Ag Horizons, Disabled American Veterans (National), Girl Scouts of the USA (National Council), Geneer, Microsoft, National FFA, and Nykamp Consulting Group to name just a few.
In the summer of 2012, I had what I can only describe as, "a blinding flash of the obvious," and took the initial steps on a new career journey to what I believe is my calling.