Building Team Resilience in Complex Systems: Strengthening Collective Capacity for Action
The Center for Health/Salud and Opportunity for Latines (Centro SOL) and the HEAL Refugee Health & Asylum Collaborative (HEAL) present the 2026 conference as a space to connect, reflect, and leverage our collective voices to advance health equity. The opening event, held on May 13, launches this effort with a leadership seminar titled Building Team Resilience in Complex Systems: Strengthening Collective Capacity for Action, setting the foundation for collaborative learning and action throughout the year.
Description
This interactive seminar will open with a keynote reflection by Arlenis Morel, Co-Executive Director of Make the Road New York, who will share how her lived experience as an immigrant has shaped her leadership journey and informed her work building collective power and resilience within communities.
The session will then continue with a workshop facilitated by Dr. Michelle Barton (Carey Business School), exploring team resilience as an active, collective practice essential for navigating complexity, uncertainty, and adversity. Drawing on research from high-performance teams, the workshop will examine how teams build resilience through shared mindsets, strong relationships, and adaptive strategies. Participants will engage in reflective exercises, storytelling, and group discussions to identify practical approaches for fostering resourcefulness, redistributing strain, and strengthening collaboration. The session emphasizes actionable principles that support resilient team cultures capable of sustaining impactful work in high-pressure environments.
Objectives
- Understand team resilience as a shared, dynamic process rather than an individual trait
- Identify strategies to navigate uncertainty, redistribute strain, and adapt to challenges within complex systems
- Apply key principles to foster resourceful, supportive, and collaborative team environments
- Learn how to translate resilience concepts into actionable practices within organizations
- Connect with like-minded professionals
Limited capacity, registration required.
News and updates
This event is supported by the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute.
Conference information
Date
Wednesday, May 13th, 2026
12:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Contact Questions and media inquiries can be directed to centrosol@jhmi.edu.
Location
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, Rm. N420
525 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD 21205
Limited capacity, registration required.
Speakers
Arlenis Morel, (she/her)
Former co-Executive Director of Make the Road New York (Make the Road NY) and currently, Senior Advisor for Make the Road NY and Make the Road States, where she helps co-lead operations across a multi-state network. With more than two decades of experience, she’s built the systems and helped develop the leaders that make large-scale community impact possible. She began her journey as a receptionist and grew into her role, bringing a deep commitment to advancing immigrant and working-class communities.
Michelle A. Barton, PhD (she/her)
Professor of Practice at Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins University with expertise in organizational and team resilience. Drawing from contexts such as wildland firefighting, high tech entrepreneurship, and adventure racing, her research considers how groups make sense of ambiguous situations, coordinate in the midst of confusion and mitigate and recover from adversity. Dr. Barton’s research has appeared in top practitioner and academic journals such as Harvard Business Review and she has presented her work at a wide range of professional venues including NASA’s Mission Control, the U.S. Army Medical Command, and the Children’s Hospital Association. In addition to her university teaching, Dr. Barton runs professional and Executive Education workshops on building team resilience and leading in uncertain times.
Seminar Components
Keynote
The seminar will open with a keynote reflection by Arlenis Morel, former co-Executive Director of Make the Road New York, drawing from her lived experience as an immigrant and her leadership trajectory, Arlenis will share how she has transformed personal and community challenges into a pathway for collective leadership and advocacy. Her remarks will ground the session in the realities of navigating complex systems while building power, resilience, and opportunity within immigrant communities.
Workshop
Following the keynote, Dr. Michelle Barton, Professor of Practice at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, will lead an interactive workshop on team resilience in complex systems. Her session will focus on resilience as a shared, actionable practice that teams can intentionally build through strong relationships, adaptive strategies, and collective responsibility. Participants will engage in guided reflection, small-group discussions, and applied exercises to explore how teams can navigate uncertainty, foster psychological safety, and translate resilience principles into everyday practice. The workshop will emphasize practical tools and frameworks that support sustainable, collaborative, and responsive team cultures.