Voices of leadership
Cultivating Resilience, Building Joy: Experiences That Move, Heal, and Connect
Q&A with Gillian Zettler
Being in big leadership roles at a young age, Gillian Zettler quickly learned the impact of both inspiring mentors and leaders she didn’t want to emulate. Those early experiences — seeing what she valued and what she didn’t — shaped her bold, compassionate approach to leadership, guiding how she builds and leads with intention today.
With a background that spans hospitality, wellness and nonprofit leadership, Zettler is dedicated to creating spaces that foster personal transformation.
“My personal mission statement is creating experiences and spaces that cultivate resilience and build joy.”
That same mission drives her work as co-founder of The Drop In, a wellness platform that curates pop-up experiences centered on music, movement and mindful connection. Designed to be accessible, immersive and deeply human, The Drop In is Zettler’s way of expanding wellness beyond traditional spaces.
Zettler served nearly a decade as the executive director of the Charleston Wine + Food Festival, where she led the development of hundreds of events that brought people together through food and culture. She is also the founder of the G. Zettler Collective, a leadership consulting group, and co-founder of Motivated to Move, a wellness initiative focused on physical and mental health.
At her core, Zettler is a community builder — curious, grounded and deeply committed to creating opportunities for people to come together in meaningful ways. She finds inspiration in conversation and invites others to step more fully into themselves.
Zettler is a Liberty Fellow, Class of 2025, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. We caught up with her at the 2025 Resnick Aspen Action Forum to talk about her commitment to the intersection of movement, health and music, and to learn some insights from her leadership journey.
Answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What’s the problem you’re committed to solving, and what action have you taken to address it?
Over the last few years, I’ve been very moved by the loneliness epidemic. My personal mission statement is creating experiences and spaces that cultivate resilience and build joy. That is a through line for how I want to impact every individual I come into contact with, but I think specifically for those who tend to be underserved – helping them learn how to cultivate resilience and build joy. Right now my impact journey looks like creating those experiences and working with intentionality and strategy to bring folks into those spaces who wouldn’t normally feel like it was a place for them.
When you hear the word leadership, what’s the first word or idea that comes to mind?
A word that has always stuck out to me in leadership is humility. I think that we always have to be in a place of a willingness to be wrong, to accept advice from anyone — the teams that I’ve been able to lead and the workplaces that I’ve been a part of — you’re trying to create the sort of energy and ambiance where anyone at any level feels comfortable giving and creating feedback loops and opportunities for growth and new ideas and not feeling siloed into the most senior positions on your team.
In moments of uncertainty or crisis, what personal values guide your decisions and help you move forward?
I’m a lead from the gut leader. I think that’s also why a movement and meditation practice is so important to me because it brings me back to that center space where I know sometimes things seem illogical, but I know in my gut and my heart space that it’s the right thing to do.
I think also being a leader at a really young age has really made me want to be connected to younger people and to shape young leaders journeys. I’ve been lucky enough to lead classes in my area of expertise and the best tools in my toolkit have come from being connected to young people.
I think we can all be leaders. But as we age, it’s always, always important to stay connected to younger generations of leaders because it allows for our viewpoints to stay malleable and our minds to stay flexible and to rethink the way that we do things boldly.
If you were to write a letter to your younger self, what would you say?
It’s okay to not know exactly where you’re going at all times. One of the pieces of leadership advice that I actually love is that progress is not in a straight line. And I think that oftentimes I forget that,
I’m a big planner and I like to look at very strategic steps from point A to point B. But I think looking back at my younger self, I’d remind that young woman that your journey is going to look much more like a hike up Maroon Bells than it is like the final 50 yard dash of a marathon.
About the Aspen Global Leadership Network
The Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN) is a dynamic, worldwide community of nearly 4,000 entrepreneurial leaders from over 60 countries. Spanning business, government, and the nonprofit sector, these leaders share a commitment to enlightened leadership and the drive to tackle the most pressing challenges of our times. Through transformative Fellowship programs and gatherings like the Resnick Aspen Action Forum, AGLN Fellows have the unique opportunity to connect, collaborate, and challenge each other to grow and commit to a lifelong journey of impact.
More from 2025 Resnick Aspen Action Forum
In July 2025, over 500 leaders across the Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN) community gathered for our largest Action Forum to date. Joined by nearly 100 young leaders, AGLN Fellows from more than 30 countries returned to the enduring questions first posed at at the founding of the Aspen Institute 75 years go: What does it mean to lead with purpose in times of profound uncertainty?
Explore more inspiring content on leadership and change-making from the 2025 Action Forum here.