CFAR - Key Persons
Annette Rubin, based in Boston, is a Certified Professional Coach and founder of Coaching to Potential. As a strategic partner, Annette is passionate about helping non-profit professionals create their own success, guide their own development, and become dynamic leaders.
With decades of experience in the non-profit sector, Annette has helped countless organizations and professionals address their challenges, strengthen their leadership and strategic skills, clarify values, create a vision for the future, and develop goals and action plans for change. She supports non-profit leaders, both staff and board, to enhance individual and team performance, improve working relationships and achieve success.
Annette's clients describe her as astute, thoughtful, and intuitive-a creative, seasoned leader and coach. Her coaching services have been a powerful professional development tool for staff and leadership and have led to positive culture change, enhanced productivity, improved management and more effective leadership. Annette has provided direction and motivation to clients, employees, partners, and colleagues and has increased the scope and impact of many organizations.
Annette's successful coaching techniques are based on more than 20 years of experience. She created and led the Cardiovascular Wellness Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital; developed Boston Children's Chorus from a start-up to an innovative, internationally renowned organization; led Executive Service Corps of New England through extensive growth and restructuring; directed organization expansion and new program development at Project Bread/The Walk for Hunger; and headed the Office of Community Economic Development for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Her coaching clients have included the Broad Institute, the Boston Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Cambridge Community Foundation, CJP, Jewish Family Services of Metro West, Mass Audubon Society, Edvestors, West End House, Italian Home for Children, Facing History, and others.
Annette is an IPEC-certified professional coach. She holds an MA in City and Regional Planning from Rutgers University Graduate School of Urban Planning and Policy Development, a BA from Clark University, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico. She speaks fluent Spanish.
Bill Carroll, based in Westminster, MA supports senior and mid-level managers seeking to overcome the challenges faced in their leadership positions. Bill helps leaders address these individual challenges, but the overarching emphasis of his coaching practice is aspirational - determining a fulfilling direction for the client's life, and discovering what may have previously been obscured from view. He believes that a new awareness will lead to jointly developed strategies for taking advantage of what has been discovered, as well as guiding the practical follow-through that fosters the client's goals.
Clients can expect to partner with their new chief ally and enjoy deep trust and confidentiality. Bill believes that a lack of clarity in relationships is often a common challenge in making our way forward in this world. He works with clients to minimize their obstruction, including the relationship with oneself.
Bill's capacity for supporting leaders stems from his deep experience as CEO for a mid-sized company, and having faced down a series of existential crises. A wide range of international experiences aids his ability to work comfortably with a diverse range of coaching clients. Bill is presently refining his frameworks for leadership development, as a doctoral student at the University of Southern Maine. He holds an M.A. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, as well as a B.A. with high honors in Economics. He is a graduate of the Newfield Network coaching school in Boulder, CO.
Bob Glover, based in Boston, is a media and presentation skills coach. He is a seasoned communicator with over thirty years' experience in broadcasting, marketing, and management. Bob is an Emmy-winning producer, manager, and on-air presenter of public affairs, entertainment, and children's programs, and is a firm believer in the power and ability of stories to create a context for better understanding.
Bob is a storyteller whose production credits include Frontline, Sesame Street, Zoom, Peter, Paul and Mommy Too!, Ready to Go!, Rebop, and The Mort Sahl Show, as well as numerous national and local public affairs and entertainment programs for WBZ-TV (Boston), WGBH-TV (Boston), and WNET-TV (New York), along with corporate education programs for Disney, US West, and Simon & Shuster. Bob's work has been recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the New England Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Action for Children's Television, the National Association of Broadcasters, the American Children's Television Festival, and the National Association of Television Program Executives.
He is also the recipient of the Parents Choice Award and the Award for Excellence in Children's Programming. Bob's management credits include Executive Director of the Boston Film/Video Foundation, Executive Vice President of BBK Communications/BBK Patient Recruitment, and an Executive Producer of the WGBH Educational Foundation.
Job Titles:
- Nancy Drozdow Founder and Principal
Job Titles:
- Coach
- Member at Tulane University
Caren Croland Yanis is an educator, coach, and advisor to professionals, athletes, celebrities, and family-based businesses on culture and purpose-based programming.
Caren guides leaders who find themselves at inflection points to build culture, process, and purpose. She uses executive coaching, meeting preparation and facilitation, and social asset mapping as tools to support individuals and groups in identifying opportunities for growth and being able to meet those opportunities head on.
"Begin with the end in mind," a Stephen Covey quote, is one of Caren's mantras when it comes to identifying success. Caren helps leaders sift through the noise to identify goals and create a path to get there. Results include improved internal communications and community engagement, development of thoughtfully designed and activated policies, and mindful preparation for future.
As the Executive Director of Oprah's Angel Network and the Oprah Winfrey Foundations, Caren was also part of the Harpo management team from 2000 to 2009. She went on to coach family and corporate leaders on structure and engagement.
Job Titles:
- Principal
- Fellow of the American College
- Principal Lead for Management
Carey H. Gallagher, Principal, is skilled at analyzing complex dilemmas and identifying levers that accelerate change within an organization's existing culture. Her work focuses on practical solutions, helping clients engage and unite diverse stakeholders in small shifts that measurably improve performance and productivity, and foster innovation.
Carey is an experienced speaker and author, and has presented to the executive track of the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association, the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) program, and to the Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers, among other audiences. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Healthcare Management, has co-authored several series in the Wharton Healthcare Quarterly, and has published a report on increasing the effectiveness of small-scale interventions in the Wallace Foundation's Knowledge Center.
Carey is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. She has been recognized with the Regent's Award for Early Career Healthcare Executive and is President-Elect of the Greater Philadelphia chapter of the Healthcare Leadership Network of the Delaware Valley. She also serves as an Advisor to the Management Consulting program of the Fox School of Business at Temple University. As Principal Lead for Management, Carey is accountable for firm infrastructure and processes, and plays a key role in talent development and supervision.
Carey earned a BA in English from Georgetown University, and holds MBA with a concentration in International Business from the Fox School at Temple University.
Chris Bernal, based in Houston, is a leadership and executive coach and organizational development consultant who works with senior leaders and business owners to help them reach the next level of their growth and development.
Chris' approach to coaching is built on the premise that trust is the essential factor found in all successful coaching engagements. He establishes an atmosphere of learning by doing that helps his clients increase their overall effectiveness by generating insights that lead to specific actions, with the aim of impacting key organization goals, results and culture.
Chris has a special interest in coaching clients who are looking for valuable insight into the forces that guide both individuals and companies, force that either propel them forward or cause them to fall back. He provides executive coaching from the systems perspective to help clients be effective and active agents of change within the broader scope of their organizations.
For the past 32 years, Chris has coached executives from many countries and cultures. Fully bi-cultural, he understands the dynamics at play when people from different countries work together in global organizations. Chris is an entrepreneur with ownership positions in several businesses in both the healthcare and restaurant industries.
Chris holds a MS (with honors) in Organization Development from the American University in Washington, D.C. in conjunction with National Training Laboratories. He is certified in Hogan, the Birkman Method©, and the Management feedback System© coaching process as well as several 360 multi-rater instruments including Lominger's 360. He holds a coaching certificate from CoachLab International. Chris is fluent in both English and Spanish.
David Coleman, M.D., is a Research Professor and Interim Director of the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation in New Haven, Connecticut. A leader in academic medicine, Dave particularly enjoys mentoring, advising, and sponsoring colleagues with high aspirations.
David Teutsch, based in Philadelphia, is a coach and non-profit consultant who helps with strategic planning, crisis management, and managing sexual or financial malfeasance and staff relationships.
David works closely with executives and board chairs to help them first identify and then proactively work to achieve their organizational goals. He is an experienced mentor and supervisor who bring systems theory and broad management experience to his engagements.
An experienced non-profit leader who was president of a seminary/divinity school for a decade, David has also been a consultant to congregations and other non-profits for over 40 years. An excellent listener, diagnostician, and strategist, David works to intentionally develop strong partnerships with those who engage him.
Much of his approach is rooted in what he learned studying social systems at Wharton, which was foundational in building his approach to strategic planning, organizational culture, the ethical strand in organizational life, and the function of organizations as systems-an approach he has refined over his decades of experience as an executive and consultant. Whether working with a congregation or a large non-profit, David focuses on the needs and intentions of leaders and organizations.
David holds a Ph.D. in social systems sciences from the Wharton School, an MA and MHL degrees from Hebrew Union College, and a BA with honors from Harvard University.
Debra Turner Bailey, based in North Carolina, is an executive coach and consultant who combines 20-plus years working with organizations and individuals to develop leaders in private corporations (supply chain, information technology and RDE), colleges and universities, family-owned businesses, and the non-profit sector. Debra's clients receive creative, people-oriented solutions to improve leadership effectiveness, achieve business results and build inclusive environments.
Her coaching clients successfully move into more responsible roles in their organizations through her insights and empowerment. Debra's approach to coaching is to highlight that every situation a leader faces is a choice point which has desired and undesired opportunities, risks and consequences. Using a decision analysis framework, Debra helps clients determine what they want and need from each situation and how best to achieve a desired outcome, manage risks, and minimize unintended consequences.
Denise Rosenblum, based in Boston, is the President and Founder of Dynamic Development, a training company that specializes in developing employees to become stronger communicators, managers, and leaders.
Denise has over 25 years of training, talent assessment, professional development, and marketing experience, having worked for numerous global companies, including McCann Erickson, Young and Rubicam and Hill Holliday. Denise is a seasoned trainer, executive coach, and expert in communication skills, managing and motivating people, client service, and leadership skills.
With keen insight into people's strengths and opportunities for growth, Denise believes that companies retain employees and build loyalty when they invest in their talent. Denise works with companies to create an environment where employees feel valued because of training, feedback, and coaching.
Prior to founding Dynamic Development in 2006, Denise worked at Arnold Worldwide as Senior Vice President, Director of Talent Development; in this role, she designed and executed training programs to meet the company's business objectives and employee's career development needs. Denise takes great interest in helping employees reach their fullest potential as managers and leaders. In her current role as President of Dynamic Development, Denise has an extensive track record of building successful managers and leaders and creating a motivational work environment.
Denise has a BA from Tufts University in Political Science and lives in Natick, MA with her husband Scot and sons, Matthew and Eric. In her free time, Denise exercises, listens to Audible books, travels, and loves to eat.
Donna Star, based in Boston, is an executive coach and corporate consultant who has helped countless leaders cultivate greater self-awareness, develop solid action plans, and ultimately achieve their goals, both inside and outside of the workplace. With a 30-year background in corporate America focused on providing talent acquisition marketing and software solutions to Fortune 500 companies, Donna draws upon her experience and deep understanding of how to navigate the corporate landscape to offer meaningful perspectives on all aspects of executive leadership. She is most motivated by helping her clients maximize their potential and effectiveness.
Through her coaching practice, Donna holds leaders accountable to making sustainable changes that will elevate themselves in both leadership and life. She is a seasoned business executive with expertise in sales, client, financial, and office management, as well as software sales and implementation, talent acquisition strategies, and mergers and acquisitions. Prior to becoming a full-time coach and consultant, Donna served as SVP at TMP Worldwide (now Radancy), where she was named "Best Client Relationship Manager" in the company.
Donna is a certified coach through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching, where she also earned her COR.E Dynamics Transitions and Leadership Specialist certifications. She is an Associate Certified Coach designated by the International Coaching Federation, a certified Predictive Index Talent Optimization Consultant, and an Energy Leadership Index practitioner. She holds a BBA in Marketing from University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Dorothy Hammett, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a certified life and executive coach supporting family-held companies with practical solutions to their unique daily and generational challenges. Dorothy has 20 years of C-Suite leadership role experience and extensive boardroom experience, both of which have primed her to strategically support C-Suite operational excellence. She has a practical approach to developing high-performing teams through communicating and understanding leadership and governance strategies.
Dorothy approaches C-Suite coaching with a real-world yet empathetic style. Above all, Dorothy helps her clients create calm, structured responses in times of change and ambiguity.
Dorothy's experience includes 30+ years at one of the oldest private family-held leading technology conglomerates in the Unites States, with leadership roles as Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, shareholder relations. She has also served in various corporate regulatory and HR roles and was president of the real estate division.
Dorothy holds a JD from Duquesne University School of Law, an MA in Industrial and Labor Relations and a BS in Industrial Safety Management, both from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She holds her coaching certification through Coach Training Alliance.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor
- Practice Founder
- Senior Advisor and Coaching Practice Founder
Dr. Richard Levin, Senior Advisor and Coaching Practice Founder, based in Boston, is widely recognized as one of the first executive coaches. He is one of a half-dozen global leaders who have created and shaped the coaching profession since its inception in the 1980's.
Richard is a leadership developer, trusted business advisor, television commentator, and newspaper columnist with a special knack for bringing successful people together.
As the founder and principal of Richard Levin & Associates (the first executive coaching firm, and the first network of independent executive coaches); as co-author of the popular and powerful book Shared Purpose: Working Together to Build Strong Families and High Performance Companies; and as a founder of Boston University's Center on Work and Family, Richard has stretched the boundaries of creativity, inclusiveness, and collaboration to build extraordinary organizations.
Richard's clients have included corporations, medical practices, family-owned businesses, law firms, accounting firms, and not-for-profit organizations. His clients have included Walmart, Fidelity, Gillette, Timberland, American Express, AT&T, State Street Bank, Biogen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Merck, BJ's Wholesale Club, and many, many others.
Richard has been interviewed by most major newspapers, radio stations, and television news programs. For 20 years he co-wrote a newspaper column, As We Live and Work, with one of his mentors, Dr. Barrie Sanford Greiff (published in the Boston Business Journal and syndicated widely), and for many years was a regular commentator on the PBS Nightly Business Report. In addition, Richard has written several publications on flexible benefits, work/life stress, and family businesses. His 1992 article, "The Family Circle: Psychological Issues and the Family Business," was selected by the Family Firm Institute as one of the ten best articles on family business, and was republished in the book The Best of Behavioral Science. His 2001 White Paper on Children's Reactions to Stress was distributed globally by the United Nations the day after the tragic events of 9/11.
Richard received his BA and MA from Brandeis University and his Ed.D. from Boston University. He is certified in the Hogan Personality Inventory.
Dwight Clarke, located in Boston Massachusetts, works with a range of professional clients, from emerging leaders to established C-suite executives. He specializes in identifying and coaching high-potential talent to help them to develop and hone their leadership skill.
With over 20 years of experience practicing the science of leadership and development in multiple settings, Dwight provides a holistic coaching experience. A typical engagement consists of a conducting a comprehensive 360 assessment, creating a detailed action plan based on the results, and subsequent coaching.
Described by his clients as energetic, strong, funny, innovative, and human, Dwight leverages his experience in working with every level of an organization-considering many vantage points and perspectives to deliver practical and motivational roadmaps for his clients to follow.
As a coach, facilitator, and HR leader, he has worked in settings including financial services, insurance, utilities, retail, and pharmaceuticals. This diversity of perspective allows Dwight to recognize and create solutions that are innovative and uniquely tailored to the situation.
Dwight holds a MS in Social Work from Columbia University and is an IPEC-certified Executive Coach.
Elene Cafasso, based in Chicago, is an executive coach and mentor whose work enables senior leaders to elevate their agility, navigate change, lead teams, and communicate effectively using emotional intelligence.
With over 20 years of leadership coaching experience, Elene has seen the need for the "master competency" of Leadership Agility increase exponentially. She helps her clients master the four critical types of agility, which enables them to successfully navigate whatever lies around the corner, even when they can't see it yet. Bringing best practices from other great leaders and other industries, she co-creates and executes with her clients the road maps that lead to their successful goal attainment.
Truly committed to her clients, Elene is a passionate advocate and truth-teller. Elene's clients appreciate that she was where they are now. She held Vice President and Executive-level marketing and sales channel strategy positions during her successful 15-year corporate career in the banking and telecommunications industries. Elene has lived through regulated industries, corporate politics, downsizings, rightsizings, reorgs, never-ending planning cycles, and budget cuts. She believes companies must be profitable to survive and that it can be done without destroying people or the environment. Elene is continuously inspired by how her work to elevate leaders creates positive impacts for their employees, vendors, other stakeholders and their families.
Elene holds an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Chicago Booth. She is one of only two thousand coaches globally to have earned the prestigious Master Certified Coach (MCC) designation from the International Coaching Federation. Her BS in finance was earned at DePaul University. Additionally, Elene is certified in Leadership Agility and has completed additional studies in Organizational & Relationship Systems, Neuropsychology, Team Coaching, and Board Readiness.
Her leadership insights appear frequently in the press. Elene has been featured on NBC 5 Chicago News, Money Magazine, Career Builder.com, The New York Daily News, and Crain's Chicago Business, among others.
Eliza Orleans, Senior Manager, draws on eight years of experience in nonprofit management, with expertise in strategy, meeting design and facilitation, operations, and governance.
Eliza works cross-functionally in each of CFAR's market areas, bringing curiosity, efficiency, and interdisciplinary thinking to each of her client engagements. An experienced writer and presenter, Eliza has spoken at the Family Firm Institute and Temple University. She also authored a case study for use at the Yale School of Management on leadership transition in the arts and cultural sector.
Prior to joining CFAR, she was Associate Managing Director of Yale Repertory Theatre, where her responsibilities included budgeting, contract negotiations, and scenario planning efforts.
Eliza currently serves on the Finance Committee of the Arden Theatre Company in Philadelphia. She holds a BA in Theater Studies from Ithaca College and an MFA in Theater Management from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University.
Eric Buehrens, is an executive coach and organizational consultant based in Boston who works with senior leaders in healthcare, higher education and industry to adapt to the challenges of changing business environments and changing roles.
Job Titles:
- Strategy - Development - and - Implementation Wharton - Healthcare - Quarterly
Job Titles:
- Leadership Change Strategist and Executive Coach
Hilary Potts is a leadership change strategist and executive coach who advises leaders to successfully execute business strategies, implement organizational change, and smoothly advance into new roles. She draws upon a strong foundation of practical business experience, extensive consulting expertise, and deep transformational practices. Hilary's passion is to bring out the best in people in order to achieve positive outcomes.
With over three decades of experience in leading and advising organizations, Hilary knows firsthand the importance of leadership in creating and implementing strategies to grow healthy organizations. Hilary serves as an advisor to some of the world's most prominent companies across numerous industries. She has worked with thousands of leaders-from established Fortune 500 businesses to early startups, spanning many geographies in the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Hilary advises leaders and organizations to implement strategies to fast-track into new roles and guides leaders in navigating the cultural aspects of strategic initiatives such as pre- and post-merger integrations and reorganizations.
Drawing on her expertise, Hilary is the author of The Executive Transition Playbook: Strategies for Starting Strong, Staying Focused, and Succeeding in Your New Leadership Role. The book offers senior leaders' powerful principles and practices to achieve a smarter, smoother transition during a leader's first 90 days and beyond. Hilary's second book, The Truth About Change: A Leader's Guide to Successfully Executing Change Initiatives, reveals the pitfalls leaders can encounter and lays out a clear path to leading change throughout an organization. Hilary's recent book, Change-Up: How Executives Lead Change and Deliver Results, provides practical strategies for leaders to execute the changes to accelerate and sustain results.
Over her career, Hilary served as CEO and President for a global leader in performance-based consulting. She spent the first part of her career at a Fortune 500 chemical company, where she held various sales and business management positions.
Whether she is working with an executive in a one-on-one setting or engaging with a leadership team, Hilary ensures that the leaders she works with develop clear direction and that their teams work together to make better decisions and execute plans more efficiently. Hilary is a trusted advisor and confidante to leaders seeking to navigate today's competitive business world with success. Hilary lives in Connecticut with her husband, Michael. When she isn't working with leaders, she enjoys being with family, playing golf, hiking, cycling, and traveling the world.
James (Jim) Desrosiers, M.M., based in Massachusetts, has been assisting organizations, executives, and young people with goals achievement for nearly 30 years. Through his hands-on coaching and developmental programs, Jim's clients master the skills of goal identification, goal setting, and time management, and enhance their personal productivity.
James Jandl, based in the Boston area, is a leadership consultant and executive coach whose career has been dedicated to the growth and development of leaders in a variety of industries and settings.
He brings a unique perspective to his work, having more than 35 years of international business experience in general management and HR, combined with his work as a clinical therapist. Across his work in a wide range of industries, James has focused on emerging, high-growth settings where the development of leaders is imperative for the future success of those organizations.
When working with individual leaders or leadership teams, James' experience as a therapist, business leader, and college professor allow him to see things from a number of different perspectives not often considered by others. Ultimately, James' focus is on the growth of the individual and the impact that can have on the organization as a whole.
His business experience has focused primarily on start-up, turn-around, and high-growth settings for organizations including ASGN/Oxford Global Resources, Iron Mountain Records Management, Sheraton Hotel Corporation, and Beacon Hotel Corporation. He served for many years as Executive Vice President for On Assignment's, Oxford Segment, an international provider of contract consulting and permanent placement services in the IT, software, engineering, life sciences, and digital and mobility sectors. He has extensive experience in all areas of HR and organizational development, with particular focus on management development and growth of the individual. James has also teaches at the Van Loan School of Graduate and Professional Studies and the Curtis L. Gerrish School of Business, both at Endicott College.
James has coaching certification from the Babson Executive Education Program. He holds a BA and a Masters in Psychology from the University of West Georgia and has attended law classes at Oral Roberts University.
Jennifer Feldman, based in Boston, is a leadership and executive coach who has helped numerous professionals position themselves so they can be more successful at work.
With over 20 years of experience in the healthcare technology and services industry, Jennifer has worked with multiple C-Suite executives from startups, growth stage and established companies. She has built marketing departments and worked with sales teams to develop corporate brands, messaging and positioning. Jennifer understands the importance of how companies and their leaders are perceived in the marketplace. Knowing how one is perceived is the key to understanding one's personal leadership style and is the impetus to driving change. Leaders shape the culture and set the tone of the organization and are often unaware of the impact they make.
Jennifer has a talent for helping leaders make their best impact on the organization. She understands the dynamics and challenges that business leaders face in motivating and retaining employees to improve operational and financial performance.
Over her career, Jennifer has had extensive business and leadership experience. In 2007, she became the first employee as Director of Marketing at Connance, a healthcare analytics and technology company. She assisted in the company's growth for 10 years and it was acquired in 2018 by Waystar. Prior to joining Connance, Jennifer ran her own independent healthcare consulting business for six years, where she worked closely with executives and CEOs of various companies, including Athenahealth and Sleep Health Centers. Previously, as a healthcare management consultant at Beacon Partners, Jennifer worked with hospital leaders nationwide in operational improvement.
Jennifer has a Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching from William James College. She has Masters in Public Administration in health finance and management from New York University, and a BA in economics from Simmons College.
Jennifer Tomasik, Vice President and Principal, is a second-generation owner of CFAR and serves as a member of the firm's Board of Directors. She is skilled at creating and directing processes that clarify strategy, solve complex organizational challenges, ensure sustainable implementation, and build effective leaders and teams. Her approach blends qualitative methods and quantitative analytics, with an emphasis on communication and collaboration, enabling people to discuss their most pressing issues in a safe and productive environment. She is a recognized expert at large group event design and facilitation.
While Jennifer leads CFAR's Healthcare practice, she has had the privilege of working with mission-oriented leaders across many industries for more than two decades. She is a deep believer in the power of systems-thinking and the role of active engagement of people across all levels of an organization to shape, own, and contribute to their strategic future. Jennifer is proficient at bringing stakeholders together in ways that bridge the organizational and professional boundaries that often impede productive dialogue and strategic change. She helps her clients move from ideas to action, whether that be through individual or team-based coaching or leading large-scale strategy and change work.
Jennifer is an experienced speaker and author, and has presented to numerous client audiences, including the American College of Healthcare Executives, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Hospital Association, and the American Organization of Nurse Executives, among others. Her published work has appeared in the Wharton Healthcare Quarterly, Healthcare Executive, the American Journal of Medicine and several books focused on population health and healthcare management. Her most recent publication, Lessons from the Field: Promising Interprofessional Collaboration Practices, was produced as the result of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project that she led to identify effective interprofessional collaboration practices that create a culture of health and improve patient-centered care.
Jennifer is deeply committed to improving healthcare, leadership and education in her home state of Rhode Island, where she resides with her husband and daughters. She is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), and was elected to represent the state on ACHE's national Board of Regents. In 2011, she won the Regent Award for Early Careerist from the American College of Healthcare Executives Rhode Island (ACHERI), where she serves as a member of the Board. She is the Immediate-Past President of the Board of Trustees of the French American School of Rhode Island, where she lead strategic planning, search, transition and governance efforts. Jennifer is a member of the Omicron II class of Leadership Rhode Island. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Tufts University, holds a Master of Science in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and is certified as a Predictive Index Practitioner.
Joanne Derr is an executive coach who works with senior leaders stepping up to a new level of leadership who need to think and act strategically in order to gain greater success for both themselves and their teams.
Joanne has a deep understanding of corporate culture, strategy, and operations, allowing her to naturally link clients' coaching goals to their business' success. Utilizing her signature coaching process and assessment tools, Joanne helps her clients to first become aware of their strengths and their obstacles to changing desired behaviors, and then to understand why and how those behaviors have impacted others. Only then does she move to action planning with her client. Through this process, clients report an experience that is exciting, powerful, honest, humorous, authentic, eye-opening, and action-oriented, facilitating behavioral changes that move them forward to achieve more than they ever expected.
Joanne's collaborative, direct, and results-oriented style supports her clients to create measurable, noticeable, and lasting change and success. Her clients have been promoted into C-suite and vice president roles, turned around challenging relationships, and improved their executive presence as measured by peers. For clients onboarding into new executive roles, Joanne has helped improve time productivity by 50%.
Joanne has over 25 years of executive and business experience in both the private and public sectors. She was previously Vice President of Human Resources at Care.com, the Neighborhood Health Plan, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School. At Bay Networks/Nortel Networks and at Digital Equipment Corporation, Joanne was a leader in mergers and acquisitions as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion. As an executive coach, Joanne's clients have included Johns Hopkins Medical School, Oxfam America, Jewish Vocational Services, Ginko Bioworks, Toast, Atrium Health, Basset Healthcare, and Babson College.
Joanne is an International Coaching Federation-Certified Professional Coach and has trained at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching. She holds her BS in Education and MS in Counseling, both from Boston University. She is also certified in several feedback tools including the Bates Executive Presence Indicator.
Laurie Sherman, based in Boston, began coaching and consulting full-time after 35 years of leadership and management roles. She has experience in public, corporate, and nonprofit settings, and values partnering with mid- and senior-level professionals looking to improve their performance, impact, and career satisfaction.
Laurie's coaching style employs a mix of dualities-head and heart, left-brain and right-brain. She challenges clients to build a toolkit that enables drawing answers from within themselves, exploring their vision, values, and impact. In the words of a client, "What I've found in Laurie is a coach who gets me, challenges me, and helps me keep a sense of humor as I do the hard work of innovating."
Laurie served in leadership positions ranging from leading organizations to serving as senior advisor to the mayor of Boston for 17 years. Also a mother of three young adults and an avid athlete, Laurie enjoys working with clients on moving past multitasking to finding a healthy and satisfying balance.
Laurie holds an undergraduate degree from Brown University, a MA in management from the Heller School at Brandeis, and a coaching certification from the Haas business school at UC Berkeley. She is currently adjunct faculty at Boston University's Questrom School of Business.
Leto Papadopoulos, based in Boston, is an ICF-certified coach and an organizational development consultant. She combines her corporate and consulting experience by identifying needs and opportunities to accelerate growth through individual coaching and programming.
As a coach, Leto has worked with high-potential professionals to help empower them to gain confidence and assertiveness in the workplace, improve team communication, as well as create and maintain a positive quality of life by helping them identify priorities and learning to say no, when necessary. She is also experienced in conducting 360 assessments and working with her clients to make positive and productive changes based on the feedback they receive.
In addition, Leto is skilled in facilitation and workshop design and delivery. She has facilitated many team meetings and brainstorming sessions, and especially likes creating and delivering workshops on topics such as career transition, branding, and networking.
Leto previously worked as an outplacement consultant, where she helped many individuals of all levels successfully transition into new roles, and many times into new fields. In this capacity, she gained an understanding of many industries, including non-profit, medical device, finance, high technology, and others. She finds that many of the same themes or issues arise in organizations, regardless of the industry.
Leto holds a BA in Psychology from Drew University, and an MA in Organizational Psychology from William James College. She earned her ICF certification through The Coaches Training Institute, and is certified in the MBTI.
Linda Brown, based in Cleveland, is an executive and team coach who brings her unique experience as a business leader to support her clients' development and goals. She works not only with senior executives, but also with high potential and early- and mid-career professionals who are motivated to learn how to lead a dynamic and thriving organization or team.
Her successful approach with her clients begins with their leadership and career aspirations, understanding the context of their work, and then inviting them to experiment with different leadership approaches that will help them reach their goals. Her clients say that she understands the challenges today's leaders face and is creative, yet practical, in their work together.
With Linda's coaching, her clients become more aware of how their behavior impacts others, and how to use both their strengths and even their "flat spots" to inspire and lead in different ways. She helps them develop the confidence and vision that allows them to navigate the ambiguities, complexities, and demands they face.
Linda's business experience and training informs her approach to executive development. She holds a strong belief in people's ability to grow and change, given good tools and support. Her clients include organizations in healthcare, aerospace, manufacturing, nonprofit, education, gas and oil, scientific research, public sector, financial and legal services, and family businesses among others.
Linda earned a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, BAs in Psychology and Sociology, some MBA coursework, and post-doc studies in Gestalt coaching. She enjoys an active lifestyle including skiing, hiking, music, and cooking.
Linda Cohan is an executive coach based in Boston. She engages with leaders at all levels to develop cultures that increase productivity, morale, and trust.
With over 25 years of combined experience in clinical social work, human resource consulting and executive coaching, Linda has worked with countless leaders across a number of diverse professions to create a climate that achieve results by inspiring others. Linda achieves this with her clients by developing competencies that impact leadership performance, including: inner focus for self-awareness and self-management, outer focus for empathy and interpersonal effectiveness, and systems focus for vision and purpose.
Linda serves on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Collaborative Law Council, and was part of the faculty team that led entry-level training programs for 90 attorneys and CEOs in Madrid Spain in 2013, in Bilbao Spain in 2015 and in Turin Italy in 2016. She has been a speaker at the Mass Bar Association and has presented at the International Association of Collaborative Professionals Forum in Washington, DC.
Linda holds a BA and MSW from Boston University, an advanced coaching certification through Success Unlimited Network, and certification through Lynne Learning Labs to train and use the Index for Emotional Intelligence assessment tool. She is also trained in mediation through the Worcester Community Action Council and is collaboratively trained though the International Association of Collaborative Professionals.
Malachi O'Connor, CFAR Principal, has worked for more than 20 years with senior executives in a broad range of for-profit and non-profit organizations. He works with leaders to implement systemic changes that strengthen cultural values while measurably improving performance and productivity. He has worked in many industries, including healthcare and life sciences, insurance and financial services, foundations and higher education, and has contributed significantly to the development of CFAR's change methodology.
Trained as an ethnographer, Mal helps organizations meet the challenges of changing behavior in the service of new strategic imperatives. This makes him particularly attuned to how people think-to why and how differences matter, and to the impact those differences have on achieving desired results. He works with clients to harness the often-tacit beliefs and assumptions of employees, managers and leaders, working with, rather than against resistance to generate improved performance. His work has included strategy and system-wide strategic change, board and executive development, team building, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, performance management and the business case for cultural diversity.
Mal is an experienced speaker and meeting facilitator. He has spoken to both large and small executive audiences in corporations, trade associations, executive education programs, and industry and other business groups. Some of these include The Conference Board, the American College of Healthcare Executives, ELAM, The Healthcare Business Women's Association, the National Center for State Courts, Yankee Alliance, the American Pediatrics Association, as well as the leadership teams of numerous CFAR clients.
Job Titles:
- Megan Helzner Senior Manager
Megan Helzner Senior Manager Tom Bonner Manager Family governance is an intricate tapestry, especially during generational or leadership transitions. The allure of familiar characteristics within the family can often influence leadership choices. We can all imagine...
Job Titles:
- Coach
- Executive
- Director of the Coaching Practice
Megan Laufman, Director of the Coaching Practice, oversees the executive coach network firmwide by helping to shape the future direction of the practice while cultivating and supporting the team of coaches. As a critical part of the firm's overall strategy and growth, she serves as a liaison between the consultants, clients and coaches to drive deep collaboration and to create a best in class client experience. Megan is an experienced coach herself, who has broad experience working with individuals across various levels, industries and functions. While focusing on increasing client awareness and accountability, she builds a trusted partnership with her clients that enables transformational growth. She brings strategic thinking, curiosity, empathy and warmth to guide clients in recognizing patterns and to ultimately help them lead more confidently.
Prior to becoming a coach, Megan was an executive search consultant with Heidrick & Struggles and Caldwell where she conducted C-level and senior-level searches for the Global Real Estate and Financial Services Practices. Megan has served hundreds of clients in their transformation and talent needs and has successfully placed senior-level executives in publicly held, PE-backed, family-run, and privately-owned companies.
Megan is ICF Certified and received her Executive Coach Certification from The Hudson Institute in Santa Barbara. She is also certified in Predictive Index. Megan holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
As an executive coach, Megan Laufman, partners with leaders to help them unlock their greatest potential. Utilizing an approach rooted in increasing awareness and accountability, she works with her clients to build a trusted partnership where transformational growth can happen. Together, they explore patterns within the systems and context they work. While offering perspective and insights, she supports them to navigate a renewed path forward. Megan has coached senior and mid-level professionals in transitioning to the next level of leadership, executive presence, navigating organizational politics, delegating, strengthening communication and reclaiming confidence.
Her passion for the people side of the business is matched by her business experience across various functions and industries. Earlier in her career, Megan was an executive search consultant with Heidrick & Struggles and Caldwell where she conducted C-level and senior level searches for the Global Real Estate, Financial Services, Private Equity and Venture Capital Practices. Megan has served hundreds of clients in their transformation and talent needs and has successfully placed senior-level executives in publicly-held, PE backed, family-run and privately-owned companies.
Megan is an ICF Certified Coach and received her Executive Coach Certification from The Hudson Institute in Santa Barbara. She is certified in Predictive Index. Megan holds a BA in Communications from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
Mike Nikitas advises and coaches leaders in all fields to better communicate internally and externally, whether in-person or remotely, with key stakeholders and the media. He specializes in media training, presentation and performance skills, and public speaking.
Mike coaches individuals and groups, one-time or ongoing, in positive, hands-on, participatory sessions. He works with clients to reduce fear and increase confidence in traditional news media interactions, Zoom/remote settings, speeches, expert panels, TED-style talks, and presentations.
He understands the critical value of successful communication for leaders in all fields. He focuses on the need to make technical messages broadly understandable-creating engagement and action.
Mike is an adjunct professor of "Media Strategy and Skills" at the graduate Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire, and also teaches at the Brandeis University Executive MBA for Physicians program.
His communications expertise is rooted in journalism. He is a former five-time Emmy nominee as Outstanding TV News Anchor in the Boston/New England region, and has been inducted into the prestigious Silver Circle of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He interviewed countless newsmakers in 36 years as a news and business journalist.
Mike holds a BA in Political Science from the University of New Hampshire, Durham, and a Masters in Communications with a Public Relations concentration from Southern New Hampshire University.
Monika Moss-Gransberry, based in Cleveland, works with C-suite leaders and their directors and managers. She has over 30 years of experience consulting and coaching across a diverse set of industries, including the non-profit and government sectors, arts, education, healthcare, and social service.
As a coach, Monika's intention is to support the leader in getting clear about the work they will do together and to set measurable goals. Her approach allows the leader to be held in a confidential relationship so that they can explore, together, issues and challenges, strengths, and opportunities in a safe place. She helps leaders explore choices and the impact of those choices-so that they are ready to address whatever is coming their way in a proactive and strategic fashion.
Monika's clients say that she provides support while challenging their thinking in ways that help them find clarity, make good choices, and gain powerful insights into their own thinking and the situations they face. As a coach, Monika's goal is always to move to new levels of self-mastery-so that leaders can play with all 52 cards in their deck.
Monika's decades of experience as a consultant, coach, entrepreneur, and organizational executive allows her to ground her coaching work in real world, practical ways. She is on the faculty of both the Goldman Sachs10K Small Business Program, where she teaches "You are the Leader" and "It's the People," as well as the Gestalt Organizational Systems Development (OSD) Center where she co-chairs the OSD Weekend Program and the Use of Self Program.
Monika holds a BFA from Howard University and an MFA from Columbia University. She is a Gestalt OSD Center-Certified Coach and Gestalt Practitioner, an Institute of Cultural Affairs-certified in ToP Facilitator, and has attended the National Coalition Building Institute's Diversity Leadership training program.
Morlie Levin, who divides her time between Israel and Massachusetts, is an executive coach who focuses on developing the leadership skills of early-stage executives to amplify the impact of both their team and the broader organization. She brings a unique set of analytical and professional skills to her clients and is known for working with high-potential organizations and executives to achieve their goals.
Morlie brings extensive executive experience to her coaching practice, affording her deep insight into politics and power, funder/investor relations, strategic story development, and pattern recognition. She helps shape strategy and evaluate alternatives, develop organizational capacity to achieve results, craft team cultures that foster professional development and growth, and fine-tune board and executive relations.
Morlie was most recently the CEO of NEXT, the alumni division of the Birthright Israel Foundation, and before that served as the National Executive Director of Hadassah developing sophisticated team-building policies and procedures and fine-tuning the strategic direction of each organization. She was also the Vice President of Strategic Planning and Donor Initiatives at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles where she launched LA's first Jewish Venture Philanthropy Fund.
Before entering the Jewish communal field, Morlie honed her unique skillset at the RAND Corporation where, among other activities, she developed strategic planning and survey methodologies for international clients in both the public and governmental sectors. She also ran her own consulting firm focusing on strategic planning and marketing for Fortune 100 companies.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Principal
- Nancy Drozdow Founder and Principal
Nancy Drozdow Founder and Principal Caleb E. White Principal We have found that great private company governance can be organized and grounded in these principals: purpose, people, practice, procedures, policies, and processes. At CFAR, we call these the Six Ps of...
Nancy Drozdow is one of CFAR's five founders and a member of the firm's Board of Directors. Nancy created CFAR's Family Enterprise and Owner-Led Business practice in the early 1980s at a time when the field was not yet fully formed. She has been instrumental in the development of CFAR's approach to strategy, which rests on the practical integration of both hard (e.g., metrics, analytics, etc.) and soft (e.g., relationships, group and pair dynamics, modes of enlisting support for action). Nancy is internationally known for her expertise as a thinking partner to leaders, successors, and successor candidates across the family enterprise. Nancy helps her clients creatively identify and test options, and then make hard choices, working through the structures, processes, people, and metrics that can enable or stand in the way of productive action. CFAR has effected its own succession process, with its second generation of principals in senior leadership and a third generation emerging.
Nancy is a founder of the Family Firm Institute (FFI), a global resource created to provide interdisciplinary intelligence, education, and professional development to educators and professionals serving the family business and family wealth fields. She is also an FFI Fellow and served on the organization's original board. She is past President of FFI's Mid-Atlantic chapter. Nancy won the 2012 Richard Beckhard Practice Award from the Family Firm Institute, which annually honors a founding member and distinguished practitioner in the family enterprise field, recognizing outstanding contributions to the field of family business practice. Nancy served as Mentor for FFI's next generation of practitioners, along with serving in various roles that have initiated ways to advance practice both inside CFAR and in the field. Most recently, this has included leading CFAR's effort to turn ideas into real innovations that can be applied to benefit CFAR clients.
Nancy has lectured widely on topics such as exit and continuity, governance, succession, including aligning interests across and within generations, leadership and organization development for both businesses and families, and competition and growth. Her work and ideas have been published in the business press, including Sloan Management Review, Business Week, CEO Magazine, Family Business Magazine, the Journal of Management Consulting, Family Business Review, the New York Times, and other publications. Nancy was named a Philadelphia Titan in 2023 and is listed in Who's Who in America.
Nancy holds an MBA in Strategy from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Nancy K. Kaufman, based in NYC, is a seasoned executive who focuses on working with women leaders to increase their effectiveness as senior managers and advance their careers.
Building on her many years working in the non-profit (secular and Jewish) and government sectors, Nancy brings extensive knowledge and keen insights on organizational culture to helping clients analyze and strategize ways to optimize their roles, improve their workplaces, and advance their own career paths.
Nancy has a gift for helping leaders become their best selves as they navigate challenging workplace situations and helping them stay focused on "doing what only they can do"-and doing it well.
As a breaker of many glass ceilings, Nancy is keenly aware of the particular challenges faced by women in the workplace. She first became a CEO at the age of 28 as the founding director of an anti-poverty agency north of Boston. Since that time she has held senior management positions in local and state government and has been the leader of two Jewish non-profit organizations, one local and one national. She also has served as a volunteer board leader and understands the intricacies and dynamics of boards.
Kaufman holds a BA from Brandeis University, an MSW in community organization and planning from Boston College, an MPA from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and an honorary doctorate in Public Service from Northeastern University. She has a certificate in coaching from Presence-Based Coaching as well as many professional awards and recognition.
Richard Dana, Ed.D., is a Boston-based leadership and executive coach with extensive experience as a business psychologist, consultant, and educator. Working with senior executives and management teams, Richard focuses on leadership and team development, communications, and successful execution of strategic initiatives
Richard's strength as a consultant lies in his unique ability to identify the cultural climate and business challenges of an organization, while understanding the dynamics and challenges that individual business leaders face. By resolving "people issues" and building strong teams, Richard helps clients improve their workplace environment and bottom-line results.
Richard's clients include start-ups, mid-phase and large corporations, closely-held businesses, family firms, secondary schools, and colleges. Richard's strong background in business, education and psychology differentiates his work in coaching, assessment and organizational consulting. This integrated skill set is particularly helpful for executives and teams in developing leadership competencies, bridging skill gaps, and building capabilities required for success.
Richard's coaching and business consulting emerged naturally from his leadership of the highly regarded Dana Group Associates (DGA), a multi-disciplinary human services organization that he founded, grew, and later sold. His experience leading DGA from start-up to mature business provides him a deep, first-hand understanding of the issues business leaders face in varying economic climates.
A Licensed Psychologist, Richard received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and his Ed.D. in Counseling Psychology from Boston University. He held an appointment as Instructor in Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard University Medical School for more than a decade and he is listed by the Council for the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology.
Richard (Rick) Koonce, based in Boston, is an accomplished leadership coach who has worked with executives and teams across five continents over the last 23 years. The co-author of six books on leadership, including Growing Leaders (ATD, 2001) he has coached executives at all levels, from the C-suite to high-potential new leaders, in a wide variety of industries including: biopharma, healthcare, aerospace, banking, professional services, financial services, creative services, family businesses, and manufacturing.
Sally Ourieff, MD, has over 25 years of experience as a physician, corporate and healthcare leader, and executive consultant and coach. She works with C-suite executives to ensure their leadership has impact and to help them align their team and systems to drive strategic and operational goals.
Sally brings deep expertise in organizational systems, change management, individual and team dynamics, and behavior change. She partners with executives seeking to expand their leadership impact, take on a new role, reshape unproductive management styles, or manage rapid growth or emerging risks and opportunities. She also works directly with teams to develop alignment, high performance, and productive team culture.
Her specific medical and science background allows her to help subject matter and technical experts rise up into executive positions.
Sally helps C-suite executives navigate the speed and complexity of their current world. As a coach, Sally helps leaders understand where they are, see clearly where they want to go, and understand how to get there.
Sally's clients range from start-ups to Fortune 25 companies in multiple industries, including health care, pharmaceuticals, academia, biotech, retail, finance, and sports. She is a leadership facilitator in executive education at Harvard Business School and on the faculty at Brandeis University where she teaches in their Executive MBA for mid-career physicians. Sally was a Founding Fellow and advisor of the Institute of Coaching at Harvard Medical School and co-founded The Boston Executive Coaching Round Table, a group of Boston's leading executive advisors. She is also on the Board of Directors of several Boston nonprofits
Sally holds an AB in Human Biology from Stanford University and received her MD from Harvard Medical School. She is certified in multiple individual, team, and 360 assessments including Hogan, LSI, DiSC, Kantor, MBTI, Zengor Folkman, and others.
Job Titles:
- Coaching Practice Manager, Consultant
Sara E. Miller, Coaching Practice Manager, Consultant, and Facilitator, is based in the greater Boston area. In addition to her client-facing roles, she has also served as Richard Levin & Associates' Managing Director-overseeing a number of marketing and operational initiatives, and striving to understand the needs of potential clients in order to connect them with the best coaches, consultants, and facilitators. As Coaching Practice Manager, Sara connects the administrative piece of the work with coaches and clients, and strategizes for communication externally and internally.
As a coach, Sara prioritizes developing trusting relationships with her clients, such that shared goals and challenges alike can be approached with understanding and strategic savvy. She enjoys helping clients find creative solutions that position them for success and believes that learning across organizations and fields can yield strong results.
Sara has previously worked in Providence, Rhode Island at a campus-based organization devoted to student engagement and education, as well as with organizations such as a museum, an arts institute, and a women's shelter abroad. She has a BA from Brandeis University. A graduate of the MBA program at the Heller School for Public Policy, also at Brandeis, Sara devoted her graduate fieldwork to a diversity of competencies: education, data analysis, and human resources policy research. Sara has also completed the "Facilitation for Community Engagement" training through Essential Partners.
Shari Cohen, Ph.D., has been working as an executive coach, advisor, facilitator, and leadership consultant for almost 20 years. She helps mission-driven leaders and organizations become more impactful as they navigate massive change and uncertainty. She has worked with clients in the non-profit, private and government sectors with organizations such as The United States Climate Alliance, The Aspen Institute, Natural Resources Defense Council, Brookings Institution, New England Conservatory of Music, Doctors without Borders, Rockefeller Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Nielsen, and AOL.
Her focus is helping senior leaders and teams become more strategic, creative, resilient, and capable of constant learning and adjustment by raising their awareness of limiting mindsets and assumptions and developing new habits and capacities.
Shari has helped clients with challenges such as: onboarding and leading in a new culture; working with a challenging board or other stakeholders; leading a strategic planning process; adjusting to major changes in the external environment; reshaping and developing a team; and, strategically sorting among a multitude of priorities or struggling with burnout.
From 2018-2020 she ran a department of the Jewish Federations of North America where she built CEO onboarding, board development and organizational culture programs serving its 146 local Federations. From 2007-2017, she was a consultant and then a Partner with Next Step Partners, a boutique leadership consulting firm. Since 2009 she has served on the design team for the Aspen Institute's First Mover fellowship program for social innovators in large corporations and she designed and built a coaching program for the fellowship. Earlier she served in leadership roles at two mission driven organizations: Demos and at CLAL-National Center for Learning and Leadership. She began her career as a professor of International Relations at Wellesley College.
Shari holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley. She is also the author of Politics Without a Past, published by Duke University Press. She has a certificate in organizational and executive coaching from NYU, is an authorized partner for Wiley's Everything DiSC assessment, and a certified Immunity to Change Coach.
Susan Peppercorn is a Boston-based executive coach enabling leaders to be more influential and impactful. Her coaching empowers leaders to take a bold stand for what they want and build the confidence to go after it. Susan helps her clients experience increased self-confidence, enhanced leadership presence, greater ease in collaborating with others, moving from the tactical to the strategic, and building high-performing teams. Her passion is to bring out the best in individuals to achieve positive change.
With over 15 years in the tech industry, Susan has worked with executives in the biopharma, higher education administration, healthcare, tech, investment, and nonprofit sectors. She has worked with executives in all functional areas, notably strategy, finance, supply chain, marketing, and operations.
Susan uses a unique blend of skills, models, and assessment tools, leveraging the best of psychology, emotional intelligence, and neuroscience. This deep toolkit enables her clients to see their underlying motivations, beliefs, and patterns and expand their perspectives and possibilities. She is certified in several tools, including the EQi-2.0, the Enneagram, and Situational Leadership.
Susan is a graduate of Georgetown's Leadership Coaching program in the Institute for Transformational Leadership and certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) as an executive coach. She is trained as a positive psychology coach by Robert Biwas-Diener, a positive psychology researcher and coaching leader. Susan regularly contributes to Harvard Business Review and Fast Company. She is the author of the Amazon bestselling book Ditch Your Inner Critic: Evidence-Based Strategies to Thrive in Your Career.
Susan Warshauer is a coach and consultant who helps leaders become more successful and confident in their roles and bring the best of themselves to their work and their business relationships. She often works with people who are transitioning roles, especially leaders moving towards broader scope or scaling management responsibility.
A direct and caring person, Susan believes in helping individuals clarify what they want to work on and uses coaching sessions to focus on those specific issues and next steps. Susan believes that the coaching sessions themselves often provide opportunities for real-time feedback on the behaviors individuals want to change. She encourages and helps prepare her clients to try new behaviors as experiments, assess progress, and adjust as needed. Her clients appreciate her thoughtful balance of seriousness and humor.
As a social psychologist, Susan believes that everyone works within an organizational structure and culture, and that understanding those unique systems helps individuals be more effective and happier in their roles. She can be both strategic and practical, adjusting to an individual's needs-and always able to return to the larger organizational context if that is most relevant.
Susan draws from her extensive experience, developed over a career of leading learning, development, and executive effectiveness in several top organizations including MIT, Boston Consulting Group, and Wellington Management Company. She has worked with individuals in both for-profit and non-profit organizations across many industries and around the world.
Susan has a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Connecticut. She is bi-coastal, splitting her time between Boston and the San Francisco Bay area.
Suzanne Wilkins, based in Boston, is a coach and organizational consultant with over 20 years of experience working with organizations and individuals to develop leaders in healthcare, higher education, retail, financial services, and non-profits.
Suzanne coaches leaders to enhance their own performance and to create inclusive environments in which organizational goals can be achieved. As a registered drama therapist, Suzanne uses traditional coaching approaches and invites her clients to utilize embodied techniques and tools from the arts to develop critical insights into the myths, meanings, metaphors and memes that drive each leader's behavior and effectiveness.
As a consultant, she helps organizations develop and fully leverage the talents of their valued employees through coaching, creation and facilitation of long-term developmental experiences, training and building inclusive environments.
In her former role as Director of Program Services at The Partnership, a Boston-based firm specializing in talent development for professionals of color, Ms. Wilkins led the organization's flagship leadership development programs and guided the firm through a six-month transition period as Interim President and CEO.
She has worked with a wide variety of clients, including Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Commonwealth Care Alliance, Massachusetts General Hospital, St. Mary's Center for Women and Children, Tufts University, The TJX Companies, Inc., and Harvard Business School.
Wilkins is a sought-after conference presenter on leadership development and personal transformation. She is a presenter at the Linkage Women in Leadership Institute and coaches through the Harvard Business School Executive Education programs. Wilkins has been a guest lecturer at Babson College and Bentley University, The Institute for Nonprofit Management and Leadership and on the faculty of Cambridge College. A playwright and actress, Wilkins performs Undiscovered, a one-act play on a woman's journey through mid-life.
She earned her BA degree from Princeton University, her MA from Lesley University and her Registered Drama Therapist credential from the North American Drama Therapy Association. Wilkins has served on several non-profit boards and is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Coaching at McLean Hospital.
Todd Smith Principal Balancing the respective needs and inputs of your company Board, your shareholder group, and your independent directors always requires a measured approach that values feedback and places a premium on the values embedded in the company by its...
Job Titles:
- Megan Helzner Senior Manager
CFAR Founder Tom Gilmore's article, "The Importance of Linking Leadership Succession, Strategy, and Governance," offers three common dilemmas in leadership succession, three case studies that demonstrate the important relationship among strategy, governance, and...
Job Titles:
- Director of Marketing
- Director of Marketing and Growth
Victoria Nessen, Director of Marketing and Growth, is an accomplished executive who has spent her career driving growth. A versatile and visionary leader, Victoria is known for her ability to see pathways for growth, develop simple and elegant strategies that integrate sales and marketing, and eliminate organizational friction. Her extensive experience enables her to set realistic benchmarks, use metrics to show momentum and deliver results.
Before joining CFAR, Victoria spent over 20 years as the dynamic founder of NK&A, a boutique growth strategy and marketing firm. Known for her unbridled enthusiasm and her ability to problem-solve in the moment, Victoria turned creativity, energy, and business know-how into success stories for small and mid-sized companies across industries. Before building NK&A, Victoria created brand presence for Timberland, Reebok International, Clark Shoe Company, and CRIC Capital.
Victoria has held board positions with two ecommerce start-ups. She was an equity advisor to Gentreo.com and sat on the Board of Advisors to Green Piñata Toys, helping them exit the business in a successful sale. Victoria was also a Strategic Advisor for Eastern Bank's Business Equity Initiative and is a mentor to other businesses through Babson College's CWEL and WIN Lab Accelerator Program. She is a frequent speaker at Babson College, MassChallenge, The Board Forum, Google's Women Will program, and other groups aimed at building entrepreneurial leaders.
Victoria earned her BA in Sociology from Franklin & Marshall College.