I help organizations develop their leaders, strengthen their teams, and create environments where people are motivated to stay, grow, and contribute at their highest level.
Drawing on organizational psychology research and my experience working within complex organizations, I develop practical, evidence-based programs tailored to the needs of each organization.
The next level of leadership requires the next version of you.
The strengths, habits, and ways of thinking that brought you success won't necessarily carry you into your next chapter of leadership. I help emerging and mid-level leaders understand who they are today, recognize where they need to grow, and intentionally develop the mindset, capabilities, and behaviors required for what's ahead.
A team is more than the sum of its people.
Individual talent matters. But what makes a team effective is how people understand their roles, relate to one another, make decisions, and work toward a shared purpose. I help teams strengthen those dynamics, build trust, and develop the capacity to navigate challenges together.
People don't disengage without a reason.
When motivation declines, it's easy to focus on the people rather than the conditions shaping their experience. Drawing on my research in motivation, organizational justice, and work disengagement, I help organizations understand what's undermining employee engagement, identify the underlying causes, and make meaningful changes that support both people and performance.
People bring real situations, practice skills during the session, and get feedback while it still matters.
These are examples, not a fixed menu. Each can run as a standalone workshop, as part of a series, or inside a longer organizational development engagement.
A team-building program grounded in Self-Determination Theory and research on group dynamics. Teams learn how their working styles fit together, how to communicate and divide work more efficiently, and how to build the cohesion that makes people want to show up for each other. It also covers how to bring a struggling member back into the group.
Each participant builds a personal development plan for their next role, with clear goals, the behaviors that will get them there, and a way to track progress after the program ends. Can be offered on its own or integrated into a longer leadership development program.
Fairness isn't just about the decisions we make. It's about how we make them.
Employees pay attention to more than whether they get the outcome they wanted. They also notice how decisions are made, whether they're treated with respect, and whether leaders communicate openly and honestly. Fairness in Practice introduces the four dimensions of organizational justice (distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational) and examines how each shows up in everyday organizational decisions and interactions. The session focuses on what leaders can actually do to put these principles into practice, including when decisions are difficult, resources are limited, or people disagree with the outcome.
The conversation isn't always the problem. It's how we approach it.
Most people know when a difficult conversation needs to happen. Knowing how to have it is another matter. This workshop helps participants recognize the assumptions, emotions, and communication habits that can make disagreements harder than they need to be. It provides practical approaches to addressing concerns directly, listening to different perspectives, and working through disagreements while maintaining professional relationships.
Most engagements are customized around the people, challenges, and outcomes in your organization.
Explore Programs & Workshops →The best retreats create enough distance from daily work for a team to finally have the conversation it keeps postponing.
I don't start with activities. I start with the problem the retreat needs to solve: what's changed, where the team is stuck, what people aren't saying, and what has to be different when everyone walks out.
I've spent thirteen years building my career within a large, complex organization. I didn't simply wait for opportunities to come along. I built relationships, sought out experiences, developed skills, and found ways to contribute that opened doors to new roles and greater responsibility.
That's the approach I bring to professional coaching. I help emerging and mid-career professionals take ownership of their development rather than waiting for someone else to decide what's next. We work on understanding where you want to go, identifying the relationships, experiences, and capabilities that will help you get there, and finding ways to create opportunities within your organization or beyond it.
Through individual coaching, group sessions, and a structured Leader Development Plan, we turn those goals into actions you can take now.
Leadership at the senior level brings complexity, competing demands, and decisions that rarely have simple answers. It can also mean having fewer opportunities for candid reflection. I provide a confidential space for leaders to think through challenges, examine their assumptions, and receive candid feedback.
My role isn't to tell you what you want to hear. It's to ask good questions, offer an outside perspective, and help you think more clearly about your decisions and their consequences.
A 5 AM co-working and group coaching community for graduate students building momentum on dissertations, theses, capstones, and other long, lonely projects.
Nobody finishes a dissertation on willpower alone. Come see how the mornings work, and stop doing this by yourself.
Live on Zoom, weekdays 5 to 6 AM Pacific.
I'm an organizational psychologist with a PhD from Claremont Graduate University, an MPA, and thirteen years of experience working in higher education administration and supporting executive leadership at UC Irvine. I study motivation, fairness, and work disengagement, and I teach organizational psychology and research methods at the university level. I've also spent my career working inside organizations, managing complex projects, supporting senior leaders, and navigating the realities of institutional decision-making.
The theoretically perfect answer is rarely the one that survives contact with a real organization.
More About Stephanie →The Big Five Personality Profile describes how you approach work and people, using the most widely researched model of personality in psychology. Every score has strengths, and your full report appears as soon as you finish.
We're made of two things: what happens to us, and how we choose to respond.
Environment matters enormously, and leaders help create it. But that's only half the story. The other half is character: whether our actions line up with the person we want to be, particularly when things are hard.
Read the full philosophy →You don't need to have a defined project before we talk. Whether you're considering a workshop, planning a retreat, developing your leaders, or working through a challenge in your organization, we can start with a conversation about what you're trying to accomplish.