Dr. Max Klau
Dr. Max Klau is an author, coach, speaker, scholar, and leadership development consultant living in Boston.
He currently serves as a Senior Advisor at the New Politics Leadership Academy, a non-profit that is dedicated to recruiting and developing military veterans and alumni of national service programs to seek political office; he served as the Chief Program Officer there for seven years, from 2016-2024.
Before stepping into this role, he was the Vice President of Leadership Development at City Year, Inc., the national service program headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
Max received his doctorate of education (Ed.D.) from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2005; his studies focused on civic leadership education. Max is also a certified Integral Master Coach, trained in the integral coaching model developed by Integral Coaching Canada.
An alumnus of four service programs, he has completed two years of service in Israel and led service programs in Israel, Honduras, Ghana, and the Ukraine. He is on the board of the International Leadership Association, and his writing about leadership has appeared in Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, and the Huffington Post.
Max’s book, Race and Social Change: A Quest, A Study, A Call to Action, was published by Jossey Bass in 2017.
Max is also a musician and a singer/songwriter. Click here to check out his music.
Race and Social Change:
A QUest, A study, A Call To Action
At a moment when our nation is once again bitterly divided around matters at the heart of American civic life, Race and Social Change: A Quest, A Study, A Call to Action seeks to push our collective journey forward with insights that promise to promote insight, understanding, and healing.
The New Politics Leadership Academy is a non-partisan non-profit dedicated to recruiting and developing service program alumni--both military vets and alumni of civilian service programs like AmeriCorps or Peace Corps--to run for political office. We believe that these proven, experienced servant leaders are among the most effective problem solvers and change-makers in our nation; by encouraging more of them to pursue politics as the next step in their service journeys, we can fix our broken politics.
In 2022, Max completed the highest level of certification with Integral Coaching Canada to become an Integral Master Coach. The Integral Coaching model integrates a rigorous theory of human development with creative and intuitive relational awareness. Integral Coaching goes far beyond matters like goal setting and accountability to guide individuals through a process of shifting their entire current Way of Being towards a new Way of Being more aligned with one’s values and aspirations. It’s a powerful approach to human transformation, and the certification brings a new level of expertise to Max’s work with individuals around leadership development.
I proudly serveed as the host of the New Politics Podcast for 45 episodes. The podcast featured in-depth interviews with servant leaders—military vets and alumni of national service programs like AmeriCorps or Peace Corps—who have chosen to serve again through politics. On this show, we explored what we call the “inner journey”—the reasons why these individuals feel called to serve, and how they strive to lead with courage and integrity in the toxic space of American politics today. The show is available on Apple, Spotify, Google, and everywhere else where podcasts can be found.