Darby
Hobbs

Darby is instinctively an educator, a collaborator, and a mentor. She is an artist, never-ending in her own Magic. Imagination. Creativity. She brought this Magic into her career at every turn and now focuses her energy on expanding what she holds dear and sharing the prose with her readers and children of all ages.

Launching her own children’s books in 2019, illustrated by her very talented sister, Karen Kishibay, Darby embraces the nuances of human relationships that children and adults alike can understand. Her words and imagination spark the inner child in all of us.

She is completing a decade-long journey and project that includes two books: ValueSoul: Liberate Your Heart, Mind & Wallet and the accompanying children’s book, Color the World in Love, which showcases children’s illustrations answering the questions:

• What color is love?
• Where do you find love?
• What does love look like?

Darby has actually been teaching since the ripe old age of 7. Yes, that’s correct. In front of her imaginary students, she posed questions, wrote on a real college chalkboard mounted on the outside garage wall, and graded papers. Many of her students excelled!

Starting young was easy for Darby, as she comes from a legacy of educators. As a mentor, she serves as a compassionate ally, sharing new concepts and challenging existing norms. Darby’s mentoring skills went well beyond her corporate career. She applied the same enthusiasm to mentoring MBA and undergraduate students at many Boston-area academic institutions and developed and taught courses at Boston University on Social Entrepreneurship & Sustainable Impact and Impact Investing.

Darby connects well with her audience and encourages out-of-the-box thinking and a willingness to challenge the norm. Her mission is to engage her students to think and use life’s experiences to shape their responses, but mostly to be mindful of their surroundings. Thus, her approach is to help students connect their Heart to their Mind and ultimately to their own resources to do good.

In her recent book, ValueSoul: Liberate Your Heart, Mind & Wallet, Darby shares the essence of the ValueSoul Commitment, which she views as a guiding principle for all students, business leaders, and humanity.

Darby is a passionate, motivational mentor who presents with empathy and passion, empowering her audience to create and transform. Filled with an entrepreneurial spirit, Darby has always approached her endeavors by thinking beyond our constraints and making a difference. As a ‘Change Champion’ herself, she instills this mindset in everyone she comes into contact with, whether they are teams she has managed, senior executives seeking direction, or those in academia.

From her early days as a student teacher to her corporate career as a senior executive, she has not only presented at numerous conferences but also at a wide range of client conferences. Darby’s instinct for presenting and motivating her audience is second nature. Coupled with her strong educational skills, her ability to reach out and capture an audience’s attention is palpable. In her entrepreneurial venture, she created a conference and publishing company for the mutual fund industry, where she developed a series of publications, established a trade group, led and facilitated discussions and panels, and managed and facilitated main tent venues, coaching presenters and establishing forums for change.

Designs that emerge: 

• Realign systems with soul
• Build economies that regenerate
• Lead with heart
• Design with wisdom
• Live with intention