The majority of my clients are experienced leaders who are good at what they do and want to be better. Leadership complexity doesn't decrease with experience — it changes shape. Experienced leaders often benefit most from coaching because they have enough context to implement quickly and enough at stake to take it seriously.

Books and courses give you frameworks. Coaching gives you a thinking partner who applies those frameworks to your specific team, your specific faculty dynamics, and your specific leadership context. Most academic leaders don't lack knowledge — they lack a structured space to work through real decisions, build real systems, and get honest feedback from someone who isn't in their reporting line or their institution. Coaching compresses years of trial and error into months.

Most clients meet every 2-3 weeks for a focused 60-minute session over Zoom. At the start of an engagement we co-create a set of goals that anchor the work — the things you most want to change or build during our time together. Those goals stay at the center. But every leadership role also has day-to-day fires and real-time decisions that can't wait, and we make space for those too. The work stays connected to your actual life in the role, not just a plan we made at the beginning.

1:1 coaching is fully customized to your situation — your team, your institution, your specific challenges. It's the right fit if you're navigating something complex or time-sensitive, want personalized access, or need a level of focus and confidentiality that a group setting can't provide. The group program is something different — and for some leaders, something better. You work through core leadership challenges alongside a small cohort of peers who understand campus leadership. The coaching is structured, but so is the community. Many participants say the cohort itself — the relationships, the shared experience, the room full of people who get it — is as valuable as the coaching. If isolation has been part of your experience in this role, the group program deserves serious consideration.

Yes. What you bring to a session stays in the session. I hold an ACC credential through the International Coaching Federation and work under their Code of Ethics, where confidentiality is central. The exceptions are narrow and standard: where the law requires disclosure, or where someone is at serious risk of harm. That confidentiality is most of what makes the relationship useful. You can say the thing you can't say to your supervisor or your colleagues, and think it through with someone who has no stake in the outcome and no role in your evaluation. When an institution sponsors the engagement, they're paying for your development and any disclosure is typically limited to confirming sessions took place.

The Institute of Coaching, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, reports that 80% of leaders who work with a coach come away with greater self-confidence, and more than 70% see stronger work performance and relationships.What I can tell you is this: coaching requires real investment from both sides, and every client I've worked with who engaged seriously — who showed up, did the work, and implemented between sessions — left with clearer systems, better decisions, and more capacity.

Yes. Coaching is frequently covered through institutional professional development budgets. If your institution requires a vendor on file, I can be set up as one. If you need to make a case internally, download my Coaching PD Rationale and adapt it for your request. Not sure if this applies? Bring it up on our intro call.

The intro call is a free 30-minute conversation — not a sales pitch. We talk about what's going on in your role, where you want to go, and whether coaching is the right fit for where you are right now. By the end, you'll have a clear picture of what working together would look like and everything you need to make that decision. Book your intro call here.

Therapy focuses on healing and processing — it's the right resource if you're working through mental health challenges or past experiences. Consulting gives you answers — someone assesses your situation and tells you what to do. Coaching sits in a different space: it's forward-looking and practical, focused on how you think, decide, and lead from here. A good coach doesn't hand you the answer — they help you find it, while also bringing frameworks, accountability, and a structured space to work through what you're actually facing.