ABOUT
An evidence-based approach to leadership performance.
Grounded Gravitas was built on a simple observation:
Organizations spend enormous time evaluating performance outcomes, yet rarely examine how stress physiology, emotional regulation, nervous system state, and cognitive overload shape the people responsible for making decisions.
THE FOUNDATION
Most leadership challenges are treated as behavioral problems.
Many begin much earlier.
Traditional leadership models often focus on what’s visible - observable behaviors, competencies and performance outcomes.
But long before those patterns become visible externally, internal strain is often already shaping how leaders think, respond, communicate, and make decisions under pressure.
Grounded Gravitas focuses on the leader’s internal biology and how that influences decision-making, how they lead and the organizational impact of their biology.
MEET AMY PLACE
A different lens on leadership performance.
Amy Place brings a rare combination of scientific training, executive insight, and systems-level thinking to leadership advisory.
She holds a PhD in Health Sciences from Trident University International, an MBA from the University of Michigan - Dearborn, a MS from the University of Alabama and two bachelors degrees from Michigan State University. Amy is a prepared registered dietitian with additional training in breathwork, meditation, yoga, trauma-informed yoga, and leadership coaching.
Her perspective was shaped not only through academic and clinical training, but through firsthand experience observing how physiology, emotional regulation, stress response, and internal state quietly influence communication, leadership presence, decision-making, and trust in high-pressure environments. Amy’s leadership advisory compasses large, global pharmaceutical, and small, start-up biotech companies, across the U.S. and Europe.
That combination of scientific rigor and human observation became the foundation for Grounded Gravitas.
PHD HEALTH SCIENCES
MBA
REGISTERED DIETITIAN
LEADERSHIP COACHING
TRAUMA- INFORMED YOGA
WHY THIS WORK MATTERS
Leadership performance is shaped long before outcomes are measured.
Most organizations measure outcomes. They measure performance, engagement, operational risk, financial metrics, and strategic execution. What they rarely evaluate is the human system underneath those outcomes.
Leaders are expected to make high-quality decisions in increasingly complex environments, often without meaningful awareness of how physiology, emotional regulation, cognitive overload, and stress response may be shaping communication, judgment, and leadership behavior in real time.
THE PHILOSOPHY
The person behind the performance matters.
Leadership does not happen in a vacuum.
Every decision is shaped by physiology, stress response, emotional patterning, cognitive load, and internal state.
Grounded Gravitas approaches leadership as a human performance system — one that can be understood more clearly, supported more intentionally, and evaluated with greater precision.
When leaders better understand the internal systems shaping how they think, respond, and communicate, the quality of leadership that follows often changes dramatically.
Better leadership begins internally.
Grounded Gravitas helps leaders better understand the physiological and psychological patterns shaping how they think, communicate, and perform under pressure.