Our Team

“Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.” – Margaret Wheatley

Iris focuses on leadership development, executive coaching, building high performance teams, facilitation, and strategic planning. She works with senior leaders on creating organizational vision and alignment, cultivating emotional intelligence, developing inclusive work environments, ensuring good communication, and improving leadership effectiveness. Iris has over twenty years of management experience in corporate, non-profit, government and educational settings. Her business experience ranges from managing a small company focused on health care needs in developing countries, to sales and marketing at IBM. She has extensive experience in adult learning, gained through her work directing conference and training programs for George Mason University’s Center for Health Policy, Research, and Ethics and the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses, a national association.

Iris is an ICF certified executive coach, has a post-graduate certificate in Organization Development and Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University, and an MA in Political Science from the University of Michigan. Iris is fluent in Spanish and has lived and worked extensively overseas.

“Everyone has the ability to reach their potential, they just need encouragement.”

Carol is a leadership coach specializing in voice, speech, and leadership presence. She helps leaders find their voice, overcome stage fright, and develop their unique personal presentation style. She also works with leaders to develop leadership presence through body awareness, movement, and voice quality, and helps them to use storytelling and narrative for higher impact communication.

Carol brings her training as a professional actor and acting teacher to her coaching. She has taught acting and theatre for more than 25 years at the college and high school level. She currently teaches at George Mason University, Signature Theatre, Synetic Theatre and Arlington Public Schools. She also lectures, coaches, and directs across the country and serves as an Arts Commissioner for Arlington County.

She has received numerous directing and teaching awards, and has been nominated for a Tony Award in Theatre Education. In 2017, she received the F. Loren Winship Secondary School Theatre Award from the American Association of Theatre Educators, nationally recognizing her long-term contribution as a pioneer in secondary education. Prior to becoming a teacher, she was a professional stage and film actor for ten years based in Miami, Florida, and is trained in various acting techniques.

Carol has a BA from Grinnell College and a MA in Self-development through Arts Education from George Mason University. She is fluent in Spanish.

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Wayne Dyer

Celeste is a seasoned organization development practitioner with more than 25 years of management consulting experience. She has worked across the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. Her areas of expertise include strategic planning, organizational assessments, team building, and business process improvement.

She has led organizational development projects for federal agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). She also has supported transformation efforts for municipal organizations, such as the District of Columbia Office of Contracting and Procurement and the Washington Convention Center Authority.

Celeste holds a MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a BA in Economics from Harvard College. She is trained in DiSC and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). She has studied organizational development at NTL, attended facilitation training, and completed the leadership development program at the University of Maryland.

“True power is an integrated mind-body state in which energy flows unrestricted towards a purpose.” – Thomas Crum

Daphne is a highly experienced executive coach with more than 3,000 hours of direct one-on-one coaching. She is skilled at identifying core issues and partnering with her clients to help them discover new paths to meet challenges and see opportunities. Her approach is rooted in the lens of language, emotional intelligence, and somatics. An engaging trainer and facilitator, Daphne brings creative approaches to the design and delivery of leadership development programs.

She has worked across sectors including non-profits, companies, and with multiple federal and local government agencies. These include the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), FEMA, the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, GSA, USDA, the Architect of the Capitol, and Arlington County Government, among others.

Daphne is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) as well as a Coach Fellow and adjunct faculty in George Mason University’s Coaching to Well-Being and Leadership Coach Certification Program. She trained in ontological coaching at the Newfield Network and completed the Advanced Coaching Program at George Mason University. A Texas native, Daphne has a B.S in Communications and Business from the University of St. Thomas in Texas.  She is certified in multiple assessments, including the Center for Creative Leadership Benchmarks 360° Assessment, the Lominger 360° Assessment, the Leadership Circle Profile 360, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, SOAR (Success through Observer, Action, Results), and DiSC.

“Our presence is the greatest gift we can give in life’s most important moments.”

Cassie Crosby is a certified leadership coach and leader development consultant who empowers leaders to step out of the shadows and bring their unique vision to life. A retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, Cassie brings to bear more than 20 years of success navigating the complexities of gender disparity, leading in ambiguity and uncertainty, and helping senior leaders make strategic decisions to her coaching practice. Cassie has extensive experience spanning coaching and leader development as well as public affairs, logistics and supply chain management, strategic communications, and strategic and operational planning.

As a coach and consultant, Cassie helps leaders and organizations create their own version of success, identify barriers to change, see new possibilities, and develop strategies to leverage opportunities and overcome challenges. Her specialty is working with underrepresented executive leaders seeking the clarity and confidence to make a bigger impact. In addition to coaching, she is an experienced facilitator and speaker who teaches on a number of topics including gender and leadership, intentional leadership, executive presence and decision making, and organizational leadership.

Cassie holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of New Hampshire, a Master of Business Administration in Organizational Leadership from Norwich University, a Master of Military Arts and Science in Operational Planning from the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies, and a graduate certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University. She co-authored My Green Notebook: “Know Thyself” Before Changing Jobs.

“One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” – Andre Gide

Vanessa works with senior executives and emerging leaders to improve business results, leadership skills, career decisions, and well-being. With more than fifteen years of diverse professional experience in multinational organizations, including the Inter-American Development Bank, her rich career has run a course parallel to the geographical and cultural changes she’s undergone throughout her life.

Born in Panama to a French father and an Ecuadorian mother, Vanessa has lived and worked in France, the UK, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Argentina, and the United States. Currently based in Luxembourg, Vanessa works with clients across Europe, as well as in the Unites States and Latin America. Vanessa brings insights into the topic of transitions from her own lived experience.

Vanessa has an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics and an MS in International Affairs from Sciences Po in Paris, where she also received her BA in Political Science. She is certified in Leadership Coaching by Georgetown University, PCC accredited by the International Coach Federation, and works in French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Vanessa is also certified in a number of assessment tools, such as the MBTI, DISC and DISC 363, the Leadership Circle Profile 360, and the Life GPS tool.