About

About Melissa McLaren, PhD | Transition Designs

At the intersection of strategic clarity and purposeful alignment, Melissa McLaren founded Transition Designs to help businesses, individuals, and teens navigate life’s most pivotal transitions. She supports others as they make bold changes in their lives and businesses with intention, courage, and surprisingly, peace.

With over two decades of experience in business strategy, improvement implementation, and change management, Melissa has worked with executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations to bring structure to ambiguity and focus to chaos. She holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering, an MBA, is certified in process improvement, and has been trained in executive coaching, transition management, and models for organizational excellence. Her work includes leading consulting initiatives across multiple industries such as agriculture, defense, education, and nonprofit.

Her journey includes navigating personal mountaintops, valleys and burnout—chapters that could have defined her. Instead, they refined her. Through God’s grace, she emerged not just as a strategist, but as a deeply integrated woman of faith, balance, and vision.

Today, Melissa blends hard skills with a soft heart. As a skilled leader and coach, she equips others with tools to make clear decisions and design their lives with purpose. She draws from her education, skills and experience to guide executives and leaders in identifying their unique path forward—one that reflects both their vision and values. Whether helping a CEO recalibrate for alignment or guiding someone in transition toward balance, she is known for listening deeply, simplifying complexity, and encouraging bold and sustainable change.

Melissa believes that each person has a unique calling that deserves both strategy and surrender. She created the Transition Designs Studio to provide resources, frameworks, and inspiration for people to step into the next chapter of their God-given design—whether they’re leading a company, navigating personal change, or just starting out.

Prior Clients