Velocity Leadership Consulting

Personal Summary

Sonya is an executive coach who partners with clients to support them in moving beyond their comfort zone to uncover and foster their full leadership potential. She is a systems thinker who knows that none of us operates in a bubble. Her approach takes into account the complexities and nuances of the client’s environment—both professional and personal—to support them in constructing and implementing a mission-driven vision of leadership that aligns with their distinct values. She works with leaders to enhance their understanding of their own intersecting identities, inner critics, and saboteurs, empowering each client to lead with creativity and authenticity.

Sonya has a particular interest in working with leaders whose organizations are engaged in transforming their organizations to expand diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI). Addressing clients in their full human complexity, she helps them explore their own sense of identity and belonging in service of creating an organizational culture in which every employee can thrive.

Career Highlights

Sonya’s coaching is deeply influenced by her twenty plus years of experience as an attorney and business owner. She spent her legal career primarily representing defendants on death row and children sentenced to life without parole throughout the American South. As a law professor, mentor, and trainer, she took what she learned in the trenches and applied it to effectuating equitable, systemic change in the criminal justice system. In doing so, she served as counsel in matters before the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous other appellate courts on behalf of institutions such as the American Bar Association, Brennan Center for Justice, Constitution Project, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. By working to forge partnerships in the legal community on behalf of her clients and in service of systemic change, Sonya developed a collaborative, creative approach to her leadership that she brings to her work as a coach in both the corporate and nonprofit settings.

Sonya is a graduate of Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Program at the Institute for Transformational Leadership. She is an Associate Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation and is also certified to administer the Leadership Circle ProfileTM 360º Assessment and the Hogan Personality Inventory Assessment. She is also an Internal Family Systems practitioner.

Personal Summary

Desiree is a personal and professional transformation coach who specializes in helping high achievers and visionaries in their transition period become the next best version of themselves in leadership and business. Drawing from her certifications, training, and education in executive coaching, business, and positive psychology, she has helped her clients successfully birth their first business, happily restart their life in a new city, transition to a more lucrative career, and more!

Career Highlights

Desiree is the host of her own podcast, Get Your Life Today, and her expertise has also been featured on Forbes, The Gifters Podcast, Exposed the Podcast, 88Nine Radio Milwaukee, and the PowHer Network. She is also an award-winning author and former Milwaukee Business Journal 40 Under 40 who has appeared on stages for TEDx, Innovation Women, Marquette University, the African American Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, and more. In her free time, she works as the co-founder and board chair of a six-figure nonprofit called Signature Dance Company in Milwaukee, WI. She lives in Maryland and enjoys brunch!

Personal Summary

Anne is a facilitator, a leadership coach and a curious, compassionate strategist who works with individuals and organizations seeking to create transformation. She believes that cultivating a sense of deep belonging is the key to individual, organizational, and community well-being. With her coaching support, individuals and organizations can build alignment between their values, goals, and actions.

Anne’s work centers around equity, community, leadership, and power. She has over a decade of experience navigating systemic change within the context of K-12 education, Higher Education, and at the nexus of community, local government, non-profits and private industry. She is committed to cultivating empowerment and belonging through empathetic leadership and she believes deeply in the transformative power of coaching to that end.

Anne is also a member of the inaugural Coaching for Everyone Fellowship, a Co-Active trained coach, and a Technology of Participation-trained facilitator. She received a PhD in Rhetoric and Writing Studies from the University of Minnesota, where her research focused on the role of embodiment and narrative in racial self-understanding.

Personal Summary

Marie-Jeanne is a highly seasoned coach bringing 25-plus years of combined experience in the C-Suite and as an advisor to leaders at fast-scaling and established organizations – in the US and internationally. Leaders of varied race, gender and sexual orientation repeatedly seek her out because of the unique lens she brings to her coaching: she was often the first or only woman in all male executive teams, she is an immigrant, she has raised her two Black children – now young adults – in the United States.

Marie-Jeanne works with clients who are willing to move out of their comfort zone – with courage, discipline and humility. Clients who invite ongoing critical feedback from multiple stakeholders, and understand that changing behavior and perception does not happen overnight. Is this process at times unnerving? Of course. At other times, fun and invigorating? Definitely!

When working with rising stars and founders, Marie-Jeanne focuses on rapidly building leadership skills, influence and executive presence. With more seasoned leaders, she helps them boost impact and resilience during critical transitions. As a senior-level ICF certified coach, Marie-Jeanne also works with intact teams, or cohorts of peer leaders, to build greater competence, trust, impact. 

Career Highlights

Her clients range from well-funded fast-growth startups to Fortune 100: GoogleX, Facebook, Uber, SAP, Dropbox, Coinbase, Webflow, Hingehealth, Turo, Ximedica, Gilead, Genentech, the Swiss Innovation Center, Canadian Consulate, Wells Fargo, Stanford University, the YMCA.

Marie-Jeanne has pioneered female senior leadership roles in Silicon Valley, is a former national business journalist with both the New York Times and Venture Magazine, is a facilitator and exec communications coach at Stanford Graduate School of Business and is one of first 100 consultants selected worldwide to train in the rigorous year-long Search Inside Yourself, the renowned leadership program developed at Google and based on neuroscience.

Personal Summary

Michael is an ICF certified executive coach, consultant, published author, entrepreneur, international speaker, United States Air Force veteran and tech product development enthusiast. He is committed to the acceleration, advancement and conscious evolution of the global human family. Michael enjoys playing tennis, hiking, and traveling. He currently lives in Tucson, Arizona with Ellen, his wife of 13 years.

Michael He specializes in supporting those who seek to align with their higher self for the purpose of carrying out their soul’s work on a global scale. Leaders coached by Michael cultivate and refine their leadership and teaming abilities, gain access to enhanced creative capacities, elevate their listening and communication skills to resolve conflict, and improve their ability to mentor and develop diverse organizational talent and future leaders.

Career Highlights

Michael is a member of the International Coaching Federation and the Family Life Coaching Association. In 2021 Michael was ranked #2 out of the top 20 coaches in Tucson, Arizona by Influence Digest. He currently serves on the Board of the Unified Progress International (UPI) Loan Fund, Arizona’s only Black-led loan fund and economic development organization focused on providing affordable personal loans to marginalized communities in Arizona.

Personal Summary

Makeda is an Executive Coach who dedicates herself to helping individual leaders as well as teams unleash their potential to create value and achieve results. She has helped individual contributors and leaders accelerate their ability to navigate their professional journey, embrace their authenticity and manage change.

Makeda believes that coaching is a powerful partnership that drives professional and personal growth for her clients. Clients find Makeda to be very insightful and inspiring. Her natural drive and appreciation of learning are reflected in the unwavering support she provides to her clients. Her formula for client success includes aligning purpose and values in a manner that drives results. Makeda’s approach to coaching is rooted in Energy Leadership which is a methodology that positively influences and supports constructive change in individual perspectives, emotional reactions, and behavior patterns of leaders, employees, and organizations.

Career Highlights

For more than 20 years, Makeda has made people the focus of her career. Prior to coaching, she was an Executive Human Resources Leader with responsibility for developing and delivering talent strategies that maximize business results. Makeda advised and partnered directly with Senior Executives in R&D, Sales & Marketing, Manufacturing, and Corporate Functions (Finance, IT, Compliance, Strategy, HR, Legal) across global organizations in the Pharmaceutical, Technology and Food/Hospitality industries. She also served as the Global Succession Planning leader for a large, multi-national company. In this role, she facilitated the accelerated development required to ready diverse leadership talent to assume critical roles and to lead productive teams.

Personal Summary

Victor brings 30 years of leadership development experience within a variety of sectors including secondary and higher Education, High-tech companies, mental health nonprofits, and Fortune 100 businesses, and has worked effectively with a range of age groups from teenagers and early-career young adults to senior executives.

As a Certified Professional Coach and Certified Strengths Coach, Victor is exceptional at guiding individuals in understanding their personal and professional strengths and leading them in achieving their fullest potential by leveraging those strengths. With empathy, joyfulness and passion, Victor supports individuals in functioning optimally in the workplace while fulfilling a sense of personal purpose and work/life balance. He also leads teams and organizations in aligning their practices with their organization’s mission and vision to achieve desired outcomes.

Career Highlights

Early in his career, Victor was a High School teacher, a school administrator, and a university professor of education at several universities across the U.S. As a professor, Victor was awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to study history, politics, and educational systems in South Africa. Recently, Victor founded the non-profit organization, Coaching for Everyone. Its stated mission is to offer complimentary coaching and leadership support to traditionally underserved and under-resourced Black, Latinx, and Indigenous populations, with a focus on young adults, k-12 educators, and non profit organizations.

Personal Summary

Jes is a professional coach and seasoned expert in human resources, organizational psychology, and talent. With more than 20 years of global experience, she has helped leaders in both Fortune 50 multinational and not-for-profit organizations achieve growth, lead through change, and engage diverse workforces. Jes brings her vast experience in business and life to focus on the individual, their potential, and their contributions. As a professional and transitions coach, she has worked with executives, business owners, and students to increase their effectiveness while ensuring they maintain the integrity of who they are. Jes is known for her results-oriented approach and her ability to assess complex situations and safely guide clients through the challenging organizational dynamics that exist in every organization.

Career Highlights

Jes’ approach with clients focuses on identifying core values, building self-awareness, and increasing their effectiveness and overall impact. She is lauded for her ability to communicate tough messages appropriately, coach others to success, and help individuals during transition, change, or upheaval to move beyond emotions and towards productive activity and compassionate self-love. Jes has her professional coaching certification from the College of Executive Coaching, the premier institution for masters-level executive coaches. She holds a Master’s Degree in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, and Bachelor Degrees in Journalism & Political Science from Rutgers University.

Personal Summary

Farah is a Leadership Executive Coach, Consultant and Speaker. Farah’s mission is to support organizations and leaders redefine the concept of leadership by making Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Anti-Oppression a core leadership competency. Her clients include executives in the C-suite, creatives and entrepreneurs, and organizations across wide-ranging sectors and industries. She is also a faculty coach at multiple learning and development institutions. Farah believes equity and inclusion are the foundational pillars for creating healthy cultures of belonging at work.

Farah’s speaking engagements include Yale University, Ford Foundation, Voice America, NY Travel Festival, Travel Unity, Adirondack Diversity Initiative, among others. She is a sought after speaker at national conferences, most recently at Forum for Workplace Inclusion, SHPE and SASE. She has been featured in Forbes and is also a contributing member of the Forbes Coaches Council. Farah is the creator and host of FARSIGHT FRIDAY, a video podcast started in 2020 in response to the heightened racism and divisiveness of marginalized communities. She is a recipient of the Diversity Award by the World Zoroastrian Organization, recognized for her work in raising awareness towards gender, culture, racial equity and inclusion globally.

Farah holds an MFA in Theater from Sarah Lawrence College, and is a graduate of the Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC) Program. She is a Professional Certified Executive Coach (PCC) with the International Coach Federation, and is certified in the Energy Leadership Index (ELI), EQ-i 2.0 and EQ 360 assessments, and Character Strengths Intervention. She is featured in Umbrage Edition’s national award-winning book Green Card Stories as one of 50 profiles of recent immigrants from around the world.