It’s about a month and a half from the end of my term as President of the ACTO Board, which will come to a close at the Conference in June. It’s been an incredibly fast, and productive, year.
This month, please join me in honouring the current Board, who have volunteered tirelessly and supported all the amazing work we have accomplished this year.
In June, I will be honoured to turn over the reins to my colleague, President Elect Jodi Sleeper-Triplett. Please be assured that the work started by ACTO and the Board this year to move the conversation forward about diversity, inclusion and belonging in the coach training and coaching professions will carry on powerfully.
Without further delay, your 2018-2019 Board:
Halli MacNab – President
Jodi Sleeper-Triplett – Vice President / President Elect
Kathy Harman – Past President
Carol Harris-Fike – Secretary
Robert Seidenspinner – Treasurer
Vikram Bhatt – Diversity, Trainer Competency Committees
Ray Fisher – Diversity Committee
Sackeena Gordon-Jones – Expansion Committee
Elgiz Henden – Expansion Committee
Sukari Pinnock Fitts – Diversity, Scholarship Committee
Amrita Singh – Expansion Committee
Jason Veliquette – Education Chair
Halli MacNab – President
Halli is a Professional Certified Coach in private practice. She also trains coaches as a Program Leader for Accomplishment Coaching in their Victoria, BC program and she was instrumental in bringing the training to Canada. She is a Past President of the Vancouver Island ICF Chapter. This year, she is President of the Association of Coach Training Organizations (ACTO) and has led the organization in creating a Stand for diversity, inclusion & belonging, and set the organization’s focus on making a difference in the Coach Training and Coaching Professions in this regard. This year’s ACTO Conference in June is centred around this topic.
Cultural Bio: white, a proud Canadian and a woman who is married to her partner of the same gender. She lives with a (mostly) invisible disability and is an athlete, an engineer and a coach. She was raised in a highly educated, middle income family. A university education was assumed. She was raised by a Jewish mother and Christian father; arguments (“discussions”) were the way to learn. Vancouver Island is her adopted home, and she is an avid fan and advocate for this corner of the world.
Jodi Sleeper-Triplett – Vice President / President Elect
As is a trainer, mentor, coach and speaker, Jodi Sleeper-Triplett is passionate about making a difference in the lives of young people. She developed the first coach training program focused on coaching children and adolescents with ADHD and related difficulties. Her company, JST Coaching & Training, provides ICF accredited student and ADHD coach training programs worldwide. Jodi is zealous advocate for struggling students and works to ensure that well-trained coaches are available to students around the globe. She is the recipient of the 2016 CHADD Hall of Fame Award & 2017 ADHD Coaches Organization Founders Award. Jodi is the author of Empowering Youth with ADHD and contributing author of Becoming Self-Determined: Creating Thoughtful Learners in a Standards-Driven, Admissions-Frenzied Culture. As president-elect of the Association of Coach Training Organizations, Jodi’s platform is focuses on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility in coach training.
Cultural Bio: Jodi is a white, heterosexual, married American female of Eastern European Jewish decent. She is a strong, hard-working, resilient woman who was taught as a child to stifle emotion and carry on. Perfection was expected. She a survivor and a grieving mother, often wearing her heart on her sleeve to drive home a point in service of those who cannot speak for themselves.
Kathy Harman – Past President
Kathy Harman, MCC, CCM, is a techie-turned-coach who trains people to coach teams and individuals to extraordinary success. As Co-Director of Training for Success Unlimited Network, she instills in her students the same spirit and passion for coaching that she enjoys, preparing them to thrive in their new profession. Kathy has blended her coaching knowledge with her 30+ years of experience in IT to develop the PRISM Team Coaching Approach, which she has trained globally. She is the author of PRISM Teams: Coaching Prolific, Radically Innovative Self-Managed Teams, and The ABCs of Living Well. To support the profession, Kathy served as 2013 and 2014 President of ICF Virginia and 2017-2018 President of ACTO. Kathy is also a Certified Coach Mentor, supporting coaches who are working towards their next ICF Credential.
Cultural Bio: Kathy Harman, MCC, CCM, is a human being who loves to partner with other humans to raise the well-being of the world. She has been on this earth for a long time and has learned that we are all part of the same tree, and when we focus on who we are in the present and what we want going forward, we can better work together for the greater good. As Co-Director of Training for Success Unlimited Network, she instills in her students the same spirit and passion for positively impacting the world that she enjoys, preparing them to thrive in their new profession.
Carol Harris-Fike – Secretary
Carol is a Personal Leadership Coach & Mentor, supporting clients around the world. She is a Newfield Network Program/Mentor Coach, and Newfield Coach Coordinator. Carol also created Coach Deep, an online-on-demand mentoring program. She is the author of 5 Life Energies: The Choice You Have in How Energy Shapes Your Life © 2009, and co-creator of JICT Images: Journey with Intuition & Creativity for Transformation © 2010. Learn more: https://chfcoach.com.
Cultural Bio: Carol is a strong West Texas woman raised with an understanding that rain is rare and the wind may blow you off your feet if you are not grounded. She came from an educated family that believed if you obeyed the rules and studied and worked hard, you could have many things you desired. Life sometimes slapped her in the face with experiences that didn’t follow those rules which initiated her spiritual growth. When ready she made a career change from public education administrator to coach and mentor coach. Every experience is supporting her present challenge as a cancer “thriver”.
Robert Seidenspinner – Treasurer
As a Professional Coach, I have worked for the past fifteen years with leaders, teams and relationships in a broad range of Life/Work situations. Using a strength-based, systems approach to coaching, training and consulting, I support clients to leverage and develop their unique strengths, skills and abilities. I began Coaching after twenty-five years of work experience in diverse fields, including construction management, book publishing and commercial property management, I understand the dynamic role of leadership in building successful teams. As a coach, I lean into my life experience, coach training, and intuition on behalf of the client’s changing agenda and navigate the process with heart and humor.
I received my Co-Active Coach certification CPCC through CTI and Professional Coaching Certification PCC from ICF. I have extensive training and I am certified in Organizational and Relationship System’s Coaching (ORSCC) throughCRR Global, where I serve as Training Supervisor for the Inside Team Coaching Program. I have been Treasurer for ACTO for the past 5 years.
Cultural Bio: I identify as human being connected to earth and all life. Here to learn, change, build bridges and support others. White, Swedish/English mother, Filipino/German father- both hard working middle class. Our family is a loving, supportive, challenged by unskilled relationship- family. I identify culturally as White, Filipino, Muskogee Creek by adoption. A married, a father and grandfather. Self-identified counter-culture learner, more than physical, glass half full person, seeker of understanding. Hard working privileged and curious. Roots in Oakland CA. High school sports and leadership. Aware of how diversity is my strength, teacher and joy.
I have been a member of ACTO since 2012 and Treasurer for the past five years.
Vikram Bhatt – Diversity, Trainer Competency Committees
Vikram engages with client systems as a mentor, coach and a leadership development facilitator. His experience ranges from working at a one-to-one level with CEOs, CFOs, senior managers, and middle level executives to facilitating visioning, value orientation and behavioural/team building workshops and competence development for intact and cross functional teams.
An electronics engineer by qualification, Vikram has adopted applied behavioural sciences as a chosen profession out of pure passion. Currently, Vikram is leading Integriti Consulting and Leadership that Works India, a community/network of transformational coaches and facilitators – focused on leadership development in organizations both within the profit and not for profit sector. Integriti partners her clients build internal capacity to manage the change through active program management. Additionally, an initiative that Integriti team is invested in is the building of a coaching platform within India that reaches out to communities beyond the corporate sector. This is being constructed in partnership with Leadership that works India, an ICF accredited training institute. LTW India runs coach training & certification programs in India. (www.leadershipthatworks.com). Vikram is also an associated consultant with the Global Mckinsey ABERKYN network.
Cultural Bio: A 44 year old Indian male, heterosexual married with a son who is 12 years old. Born in upper caste and middle class family in Mumbai, India. Identifies with the urban Indian culture. First in his family to be self employed and work in the consulting, facilitation and coaching profession. Loves music, cricket and Bollywood movies and the work of poets from around the world who bring to consciousness our hidden patterns as a human collective Can speak three languages and understand three more (mostly Indian) . Am learning to embrace my global identity without marginalizing or excluding any of my Indian identities. Typically work with client systems which are hierarchical and where embedded and inherited power structures promote patriarchy over other forms of power distribution. Live right in the middle of great diversity, big power differentials and polarities brought in through coexistence of ancient rituals with modern day technology driven rituals.
Ray Fisher – Diversity Committee
Ray Fisher, MSW, LCSW, PCC is an executive coach and facilitator who has worked with a variety of clients in the global business arena, government (Federal, State, County, and City), and higher education. Helping senior leaders and management teams expand cooperation, improving performance, and transforming their organizations. Ray has extensive knowledge in the area of emotional growth,human development, and is a relationship expert who utilizes this knowledge throughout his coaching and consulting engagements.
With over 15 years of clinical experience and over 10 years coaching leaders, Ray’s style is forthcoming, connected, personable, and grounded in research based techniques focused on helping individuals, teams, and systems reach their stated goals. Ray has been also doing anti-racism coaching over the past 5 years with individuals, groups, and companies.
He holds a Master’s degree from Smith College School for Social Work (where he is also an adjunct professor), attended the Teleos Leadership Institutes Coach Development Training Program, is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coach Federation (ICF), and certified in the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI) through the Hay Group. Ray is currently a Ph.D student where he is studying the experiences of African American male leaders and their career development.
Cultural Bio: African American, Gay, abled bodied, raised middle class in an upper income community, first in his family to graduate from college and get a master’s degree, loves house music, DJ’ing, and dancing, is the single father to five sons, coach, educator, and activist
Sackeena Gordon-Jones – Expansion Committee
Sackeena wears multiple hats to express her singular passion: Helping people flourish by living out their potential. Founder and Chief Coaching Officer of Transformation Edge Coaching and Consulting Company, and the Transformation and Business Coach Institute, she designs and delivers coach training and leadership development programs. Sackeena is the director of the Business & Professional Coaching Program at NC State University, and has developed an internal coach-training program for the U.S. Military, SOF. When not wearing the training hat, Sackeena, is an executive and personal coach, strategist, speaker and transformation consultant. Sackeena is called to work with talented leaders and professionals who want to master authentic and transformational leadership, coupled with a life that is in harmony and fulfilling. Combining her passion for liberating potential with expert knowledge of human development and strategic planning, she obtains results that are sustainable by effectively addressing behavioral changes and mindsets necessary for successful organization and personal leadership. She holds a Ph.D. in Leadership, is a Master Certified Coach, through ICF. Previously, Sackeena served in organizational leadership positions including head of global learning and development.
Cultural bio: I am a child of God, a disciple of Christ. I am a happily married woman to my first husband and the mother of two wonderful young ladies. We parent both our children from birth to adulthood. I am proud to be of Jamarican ethnicity. My siblings, cousins, and uncles have enabled our family tree to continue to diversify. I have close relatives who are Asian, Irish, German and Hispanic. I grew up in a dysfunctional home, with 5 siblings and we all received incredible love from our mother and care from our father. I had a university education following my two older siblings. I am a New Yorker at heart, now living in the South and seeing life through multiple lenses.
Elgiz Henden – Expansion Committee
Elgiz Henden has more than 6800 hours of coaching experience with Professional Certified Coach PCC-ICF and Registered ICF Mentor Coach accreditations. She served as a member of Board of Directors for ICF Turkey Chapter between 2012-2014 and was leading the research area. She is currently an active member of EMCC – European Mentoring and Coaching Council.
Elgiz Henden met with coaching in 2004 and she experienced the positive effects of coaching on herself. As the founder and managing director of Iz Coaching, Education and Consultancy, Henden works both with individuals and corporations offering them individual and team coaching. She is mainly specialized in coaching needs in the process of learning & development, for those who are at the beginning of their career and who experience difficulty in their education and work lives due to Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). She is the author of “Basarabilirim Çünkü…/ I can succeed because…”. She uses positive psychology, positive education, cognitive behavioral coaching approaches in her coaching work.
Sukari Pinnock Fitts – Diversity, Scholarship Committee
Sukari Pinnock-Fitts is a seasoned Organization Development consultant and PCC-level ICF-certified Coach, specializing in cultural competence, leadership and executive development, organization transitions and team building. Her Master’s degree, in Organization Development, is from the American University. Her undergraduate degree, in Labor Studies, is from the National Labor College. She holds certificates in Leadership Coaching, and Mentor Coaching, from Georgetown University.
Pinnock-Fitts is an Adjunct Professor in the Human Resources Masters’ Degree Program for the Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies. She is the Program Director for, and curriculum designer of Georgetown’s Executive Certificate in Diversity and Inclusion Management, within the Institute for Transformational Leadership (ITL). She is a Coach Assessor for Georgetown’s Leadership Coaching Certificate Program and Board Member of the Association of Coach Training Organizations (ACTO). Pinnock-Fitts is presently working with a colleague on a book about coaching “with identity in mind.”
Believing strongly in an “action-oriented” approach, Pinnock-Fitts works with individuals and organizations to maximize human potential, cultivate talent and enhance group and individual performance. In the two decades spent as an Executive with a large nonprofit organization, she developed a unique understanding of the need for effectiveness, efficiency and commitment in both mission and profit-driven organizations. Pinnock-Fitts understands that in bringing about small shifts – in awareness, thinking, behavior, intention and action – significant change can emerge to help propel her clients forward. Her coaching style is characterized as “direct” and her coaching approach is designed to support the client’s agenda for enhanced performance, effective interpersonal relationships, and reasoned decision-making.
Pinnock-Fitts has coached clients in organizations including, but not limited to: the AARP, the American University, the Atlanta Housing Authority, Busboys & Poets Restaurant Group, the Consumer Health Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Reserve Bank, the George Washington University, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the IRS, the International Federation of Accountants, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, KIPP Schools, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the National Education Association, the Potomac Health Foundation, the Service Employees International Union, the USAID, and the Weissberg Foundation.
Cultural Bio: I am a Cisgender female member of the Black Diaspora. A Baby Boomer living with some degree of socio-economic privilege as a U.S. National. I have no religious affiliation, however do consider myself a Pantheist — believing strongly that the “Universe Provides.” I am the daughter of a Jamaican immigrant father and South Carolinian mother, both of whom raised me and my only sibling in a middle-class, multi-cultural, multi-racial neighborhood in Los Angeles. I am “Nona” to three beautiful grandsons, mother to three resilient adult children, sister to my oldest friend and biggest fan, and partner-spouse of 40 years to someone who truly gets me. I am an “off-the-chart” Myers Briggs Introvert, a poet and a life-long learner. I am comfortable in my own, dark skin.
Amrita Singh – Expansion Committee
Amrita is a Senior Consultant with over 25 years experience and leads the Coaching Practice at ODA. She is an Associate Certified Coach from ICF having completed her Coach Training from Coach for Life, USA. She is currently pursuing her Masters Program in Coaching, with the same institute.
At ODA, she uses the Coaching Mindset and Philosophy to a number of Leadership Development Journeys that include, Talent Strategy for an Investment Bank, Transformation for a large Engineering Company, creation of a Developmental Centre for an NBFC, Women’s Leadership Development for a multinational Bank and driving Coaching Culture within large organizations. As a full time Coach, she enables CEOs, top team leaders, and professionals to embark upon an inward journey of discovering their higher purpose and creating a vibrant, fulfilling and meaningful life. With her deep understanding of building teams, building business from scratch and enabling others to drive results, she brings in rich experience and expertise to her clients.
Amrita has embarked on an enriching journey with her Mentor – Master Coach Peter Reding, to co- facilitate ICF Approved Coach Training Program organized by ODA Consultancy (India) and Coach for Life (USA) and has supported over 100 senior business leaders, learning and development professionals, independent trainers and individuals graduate as coaches. She is also an empaneled Coach with leading MNC’s.
She is described by those who know her and have worked with her as a leader with strong people development skills, disciplined coaching practices and the ability to not only motivate her teams but also empower them to succeed in whatever they set out to do.
Amrita’s mission is to help individuals find what they were born to do. She loves helping others see their true potential, find their purpose and navigate a path that’s aligned with who they are. As an entrepreneur, she has led a team of 180 people and was responsible for capital allocation, growth & business consolidation.
The Company she co-founded, TLC Childcare Services Pvt. Ltd, was acquired by an investment fund that was looking to consolidate the Daycare business in India which is when Amrita decided to exit the business and shift gears and pursue a second career in the area of leadership development and organization transformation.
Amrita bears the unique ability to empathize, energize and encourage individuals and she is a passionate facilitator who connects with participants quickly and helps them open up and engage. Her most enriching experience has been walking a parallel path of material fulfilment & spiritual enhancement. Her vision is to, ‘teach as she learns, give as I receives & serve as she leads.’
She has done her MBA from Symbiosis in Pune and worked in the Corporate sector for 7 years. She is Managing Committee member of the International Coaching Federation, an active member of Association of Mumbai Coaches, NHRD Network, Rotary Club of Mumbai Lakers, and TIE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). She has been profiled by BBC, CNBC, NDTV & TOI as an Entrepreneur & Change Catalyst. She has recently been written about in a book called Leading Ladies an international publication by Rohini Rathour.
Jason Veliquette – Education Chair
Jason Veliquette is a Leadership Coach and Consultant based in Fort Collins, Colorado. He works with teams and individuals to find solutions that unlock peak performance and sustained results. He spent 10 years leading volunteer teams in a large non-profit organization developing his skills in leading, coaching, teaching and speaking. In 2012, he started Sequoia Leadership Group and has gained extensive experience in organizations coaching and facilitating leadership programs. He also works as a the coaching and training lead for Blue Mesa Coaching. He holds a Professional Certified Coach credential from the ICF. In addition to his work experience, he is a Board Member and Chair of the Education Committee for the Association of Coach Training Organizations. Heruns ultra-marathons andenjoys hiking and camping with his wife and three young children.
Cultural bio: White, male, married to his best friend and work partner who is a woman. Father of three young children 1, 5, 9. Coach, coach trainer, consultant, ultra trail runner currently residing in Fort Collins, CO. Raised by his father and mother who were ministers in a Charismatic Christian Church in Santa Cruz, CA and Arvada, CO.
Have a great month!
Halli MacNab
ACTO President