ACTO
BOARD MEMBERS
President
Virginia González-Vélez Valcarce, Woman white mother, a university graduate, Spanish, grew up in the Canary Islands from a peninsular family. She graduated from Madrid and settled there. She is an entrepreneur, non-conformist who seeks her own fulfillment and the people she interacts with through spiritual practice and coaching. She is a coach trainer.
Past President
Vikram Bhatt, is a cisgender male, who identifies as an Indian, heterosexual and agnostic about religious affiliation. Among his core identities is that of a curious explorer, a father, and a person who has been in a spiritual partnership with his wife over the last 25 years. As a coach he embodies intuitive wisdom, and as a coach educator as well as a coach trainer he embodies the identity of a disruptor, who challenges the status quo and is invested in evolving coach training towards serving the consciousness shift on this planet. While proudly embracing his Indian identity, he claims his global citizenship with shyness and some nervousness, and he is learning to own those identities that are outside of his birth and his origin. What has helped him live in uncertain time is the value of friendship and learning.
Vice-President/Secretary
Shareefah Sabur, Black, US American (second generation born free), Female, Muslim; has a non-visible disability. Born in Ohio to working class parents of the Great Migration. Earned two Master’s degrees and worked in healthcare for over 30 years, locally and internationally. Executive Director of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, certified diversity professional, coach educator, coach.
Treasurer
Jim Smith, PCC. Skinny white kid who grew up in an economically-challenged Catholic and ethnic suburban community where eight siblings and hand-me-downs was the norm and everyone’s grandparents were “from the old country.” Struggled with both depression and sexual identity. First in his family to graduate university, he built a multi-hued and international family through birth and adoption, learning along the way how to advocate for those with differing abilities. Proud that he has always sought to raise up strong women both in his sons/daughters and in the workplace. Situational vegan. Loves to dance, garden, and curate dark beers, owns 16 ways to make coffee, and loves to talk to strangers.
Kaan Aksu – As a Transformational Coach and Coach Educator, my passion is helping others define their purpose and challenging them to live an intentional life by overcoming their limiting beliefs. I have transformed my own life by leaving 20 years of successful corporate career at global multi-billion-dollar companies to create a new digital nomad lifestyle around Coaching. I have been privileged to contribute to the growth and development of many leaders from diverse cultures around the world, and I look forward to helping many others.
Jagruti Gala considers herself an agent of transformation and constantly pushes the edge of consciousness in self and in others, to create a world of greater peace, truth, and compassion! Her calling in life is shaped and informed by India’s mind-numbing diversity and inequity.
Since 2010, she has been working with leaders, who want to find the Hero Within, and together they explore a way of holding shared power, relating and just being. Her clients are from all walks of life and include Top Management in corporates and educational institutions; as well as parents; couples and women who want to grow as leaders.
Jagruti holds an ICF accredited PCC with more than 1800 hours of coaching and mentoring experience. She is Faculty and Director of Mentoring, at Leadership that Works India. Jagruti also serves on the mentor team of the University of Wisconsin Professional Coaching Program and JST Coach Training program. Jagruti is pursuing a Diploma is Coaching Supervision from Coaching Supervision Academy.
Jagruti is also the Founder and Managing Trustee of a non-profit, AURA – A Learning Place.
She is the author of 99 Marigold Mornings, a book of prayer poems.
Steve Galloway is an organizational development consultant, executive/leadership coach, and believer in positive change with over 25 years’ experience across both the private and public sectors. Steve helps leaders and rising stars take a transformational approach to emerging change challenges and opportunities.
As a Leadership coach, Steve purposely partners with people who want to learn how to better leverage themselves to enhance overall professional and personal effectiveness while fulfilling their purpose.
Currently Steve is a Partner with ChoicePoints Learning, an organizational and leadership development consultancy specializing in leading effective DEI & B strategic efforts.
Halli Macnab is white, married to a woman, a proud Canadian and has a disability. She holds an MCC credential from the International Coach Federation (ICF). She is Past President of the Vancouver Island Chapter of the ICF.
Halli obtained her degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo and practiced professional engineering in the building design and construction industry for 15 years before embarking on her second career in professional coaching in 2009. She has trained coaches in New York, San Diego, Victoria and Seattle, as well as at the UNFPA in New York City. She now trains ADHD coaches for JST Coaching & Training.
She is a past president of the global Association of Coach Training Organizations (ACTO). As president, she changed the focus of this global group to one of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.
Sukari Pinnock Fitts is a cisgender woman and a member of the African diaspora. She is a heterosexual Baby Boomer, living with a hidden disability and some degree of socio-economic privilege as a U.S. National. She has no religious affiliation, believing strongly that the “universe provides.” She is the daughter of a Jamaican immigrant father and South Carolinian mother, and was raised with one sibling in a middle-class, multi-racial neighborhood in Los Angeles. Now residing on the tribal lands of the Nacotchtank, Sukari has been coaching leaders in all sectors for over 20 years, supporting clients in the U.S. and abroad. She is a devoted partner-spouse, a proud mom and a favorably biased “Nona” to three delightful grandsons.
