Coaching for Emerging Leaders & Teams
Every leader has a through‑line. I help you find yours.
Coaching for new managers, emerging leaders, and the people earlier in the journey who are too often overlooked — and for the managers investing in them. I help you lead, and grow, with more clarity, steadiness, and confidence, grounded in 13+ years guiding leaders and teams through real change.
About
A coach who has sat in the chairs you're sitting in.
My path is unusual by design. I began as a journalist — at the Associated Press, MSNBC, and The Hill — where the whole job was to listen and ask the questions that lead to greater understanding.
I carried that craft into leadership: Chief of Staff and Senior Director of Strategic Initiatives at UVA's Batten School, Managing Director of Executive Talent at Teach For America, and a trusted advisor to founders and non-profits navigating high-stakes change.
Today, as a Senior Organizational Development Consultant at the University of Virginia, I coach leaders at every stage — from people stepping into their first management role to seasoned senior leaders — along with the teams they're part of, across academic, medical, and public-service settings. Having spent time in and around Washington D.C. and state capital buildings, I have a particular affinity for legislative and government offices, where staff often shoulder real responsibility early and with little support.
A good deal of my work is team coaching: helping groups build trust, work through tension, and pull in the same direction through change. That range is the point: I've built the systems, made the calls, and felt the weight — so the coaching is grounded in the real texture of leadership, not theory.
The Work
Coaching that meets the moment you're actually in.
My work is with both teams and individuals. Whether I'm coaching you one-to-one or working with your whole group, the same principles act as a guide.
Start with self-awareness
The most useful shifts begin with seeing yourself clearly — your patterns, your defaults, and the gap between how you intend to land and how you actually do.
Lead the team, not just the work
Your effectiveness lives in your relationships. We'll work on the dynamics, trust, and tensions that decide whether a team performs or stalls.
Navigate change without losing yourself
Leading through ambiguity is its own skill. We build the steadiness to make hard calls and bring people with you when the path isn't obvious.
Turn insight into language people follow
Clarity is a leadership act. Drawing on years of executive communications, we sharpen how you frame, message, and move the people around you.
For Managers
Investing in the people coming up behind you.
Some of the highest-leverage coaching happens early — when someone is stepping into their first management role, taking on a stretch assignment, or finding their footing after a hard season. That's often exactly when good support is hardest to come by.
If you lead a team, sponsoring coaching for an early-career team member is one of the clearest signals you can send that you're invested in their growth — and it pays off in confidence, retention, and readiness for what's next. I partner with them directly, with the discretion coaching requires, while keeping the work aligned to the development goals that matter to you.
Not sure whether coaching is the right fit for someone on your team? That's a good first conversation — no commitment, just a chance to think it through together.
Track Record
Range earned across sectors, roles, and rooms.
Experience
- Senior Organizational Development ConsultantUniversity of Virginia
- Chief of Staff & Senior Director, Strategic InitiativesUVA Batten School of Leadership & Public Policy
- Managing Director, Executive TalentTeach For America
- Independent Strategy & Leadership ConsultantFounders & national non-profits
- Earlier: journalism at the AP, MSNBC & The HillThe listening craft behind the coaching
Education
- Graduate Certificate, Organizational BehaviorHarvard University
- MPP, Public PolicyUniversity of Chicago, Harris School
- MA, JournalismUniversity of Missouri
- BA, EnglishUniversity of Virginia
Engagements
Two ways to work together.
Whether you're growing as a leader or strengthening a team, we'll find the right shape for the work.
Accessibility
I don't think good coaching should be reserved for senior leaders with the biggest budgets. I work with people across a wide range of budgets — including non-profit and early-career professionals — with the same care and the same depth, whatever your stage or resources.
Individual coaching
Every engagement is eight one-hour sessions — enough room to go beneath the surface, work on what's real, and build momentum that outlasts our time together.
A partnership built around where you're headed.
- For new managers, emerging leaders, and anyone growing into more
- 1:1 leadership and executive coaching
- Focused on what's real for you — a new role, a hard call, finding your voice
- Flexible scheduling across the engagement
Coaching for the whole team, built around what your team needs.
A lot of my work is with intact teams and senior leadership groups. Team coaching doesn't fit a fixed package — every team is carrying something different: a dip in trust, a reorg, a new leader, a strategy that needs alignment. So we start by figuring out what's really going on, and I build a proposal shaped to your goals, your group, and your timeline.
Request a proposal- 1We talkA conversation to understand what the team is navigating.
- 2We scope itGoals, the group, format, and timeline — what success looks like.
- 3You get a proposalA tailored plan and investment, whether that's a retreat, a session series, or work across a season of change.
Get Started
Let's see if it's a fit.
A short, no-pressure conversation to talk through what you're navigating and whether coaching is the right next step. No prep required — just bring what's on your mind.