Mickey Fitch-Collins

Leadership development gains new meaning through experience across generations and industries. It spans classrooms and moments of profound change. Mickey Fitch-Collins, PhD, brings that perspective to her work helping people strengthen the human skills behind effective leadership.

Today, Mickey specializes in leadership development and human skills at Learnit, where she turns areas such as communication, empathy, resilience, and relationship-building into practical strategies people can apply at work. With a PhD in Leadership in Higher Education, her approach combines academic insight with lessons gained through decades of teaching, managing teams, facilitating learning, and navigating organizational change.

Her experience as a facilitator began long before the corporate classroom. At 14, Mickey became the youngest professional bass fisherman in the United States. As a young woman working in a male-dominated industry, she delivered fishing seminars and represented nearly 30 industry companies. Teaching audiences often several times her age gave her an early education in public speaking, adaptability, and connecting across generations.

Leadership took on deeper significance in September 2001. Just two weeks into her first student leadership role in college, the events of 9/11 transformed her understanding of responsibility, community, and supporting people through uncertainty.

Mickey went on to build a career in higher education administration, working from frontline roles to the C-suite. Throughout that journey, she focused on creating meaningful learning through personal connection, practical support, and academic rigor.

During the Great Resignation, Mickey entered what she calls her own "Great Discernment," leaving the higher education career she had always known to pursue learning and development. That transition reinforced a philosophy that continues to guide her work: helping people become better at what they do, one relationship at a time.

As host of The Learnit Lounge podcast, Mickey continues that conversation through thoughtful discussions about work and learning. Her workshops and speaking blend research, storytelling, humor, and real-world application, making leadership development practical, relatable, and distinctly human.