Collaborators
DeDe Halfhill
Col, USAF, Ret., ACC, CDTLF
Described by Dr. Brené Brown as one of her “leadership heroes and a total badass” in the New York Times’ bestseller Dare to Lead, DeDe is a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel. During her 25-year accomplished career, DeDe became a trusted advisor to some of the United States’ highest-ranking military leaders, including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense. Deployed twice during the Iraq War, DeDe has had first-hand experience as a leader and advisor under literally the most difficult circumstances, often when lives were at risk and when there were no easy answers. She understands leadership not just from studying it, but by truly living it.
During her career in the Air Force, DeDe realized that traditional military leadership lacked the skills to navigate the often-overlooked area of emotions, like empathy and shame, which then prevented leaders from having the difficult conversations that could promote organizational connection rather than undercutting it. Whether it’s wholehearted discussions regarding mental health, racial injustice, or gender inequality, DeDe has come to realize these painful topics can be more effectively addressed by stepping into the arena of vulnerability, wherein lies the path to true courage.
A Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator, DeDe is an executive coach certified through Georgetown University’s Executive Leadership Coaching Program. DeDe holds a master’s degree in leadership from American Military University and a B.A. in Communications from the University of Iowa. She is also a graduate of Air War College, Air Command and Staff College, Squadron Officer School, and Defense Information School.
Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.
Brené Brown
Ana Estrada Daniels
MPA, ACC, CPCC, EMCC Global ITCA, CDTLF
Ana Estrada Daniels, President and CEO of Anavo Solutions, works with individuals, teams, and organizations to develop their capacity to lead and influence at all levels, drawing on more than 20 years of experience and results. Ana’s impact arises from building relationships with clients to gain an understanding of their challenges, opportunities, and desired impact while looking across their evolving landscapes. She specializes in executive and team coaching, leadership development, and facilitation. Her drive is to create equitable environments where all people belong and thrive.
Ana is trained in a variety of tools and facilitation methods including as a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator (CDTLF), an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) through the International Coach Federation, and a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC). Additionally, she holds a European Mentoring Coaching Council Global Individual Team Coaching Accreditation. She was an Annie E. Casey Foundation participant from the Social Sector Talent Pipelines Strategy & Learning Lab, focused on results-based accountability/facilitation, adaptive leadership, and racial equity. She is also an alum of the Boards and Commission Leadership Institute. She holds a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Spanish from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Ana currently makes her home in California, with her husband and daughter, where she enjoys yoga, running, and road trips.
People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
Carl W. Buehner
Koren Motekaitis
MA, ICF, CDWF, CDTLF
Koren leverages more than 28 years of leadership, facilitation, coaching, and team development experience in academia, sports, non-profits, and for-profit businesses. A life and leadership coach since 2009, Koren has also developed her own leadership skills as the executive director of a non-profit organization since 2003. Koren holds a master’s degree in Sports Management and was previously a tenured faculty member of Sacramento City College. Koren is a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator (CDTLF). You can find examples of her work on her podcast (on air since 2006), “How She Really Does It, the place where inspiration + possibility meet.”
A mentor is not someone who walks ahead of us to show us how they did it. A mentor walks alongside us to show us what we can do.
Vern Gambetta
Karen Walrond
J.D., CDTLF
Because of Karen’s diverse legal, corporate, and creative background, she focuses on topics as wide-ranging as leadership, diversity, self-image, creativity, social media, and human resource issues. She’s also a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator, trained in Brené Brown’s work on vulnerability, courage, empathy, and worthiness. Her keynotes and workshops include these concepts, specifically addressing how vulnerability – the ability to show up in the midst of uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure – is the strongest measure of courage that we have, courage which can help foster innovation and creativity. Further, she has trained in positive psychology coaching with the Wholebeing Institute, using the science of well-being and research-based assessments and interventions to bring about greater satisfaction, purpose, and fulfillment in life.
She is the creative mind behind the award-winning website Chookooloonks.com, an inspirational source for living with intention, creativity, and adventure. Her writing, images, and other projects have been featured on CNN.com, USA Today, Good Housekeeping, and Wondertime magazines, among others. Her bestselling book, The Beauty of Different, is a chronicle of imagery and portraiture, combined with written essays and observations on the concept that what makes us different makes us beautiful – and may even be the source of our superpowers. Her upcoming book explores the intersection of joy and activism. She has appeared on both local and national television and other news media, including PBS, Huffington Post, CNN.com, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
She makes her home in Houston, TX.
your art is your protest
your speech is your protest
your meditation is your protest
your heart is your protest
your teaching is your protest
your marching is your protest
your anger is your protest
your love is your protest
Joél Leon
Charletta Wilson
PhD, ACC, CDTLF
As an I/O psychologist, Dr. Charletta Wilson (Char) serves the public as an Executive and Team Coach, Leadership Consultant, Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator and founding principal of CaPeesh Consulting, LLC. Char works with senior leaders in U.S. Government, corporations and family-owned business with a focus on improved team effectiveness and personal accountability. She is credentialed through the International Coaching Federation, Mindfulness Coaching School, European Mentoring Coaching Council (EMCC) and is certified in multiple behavior and emotional intelligence assessments. Her service passion is to help people develop a better relationship with themselves which raises quality of life.
As a human, Char loves her roles as wife and mama. She grew up in Okinawa Japan but made Hawaii “home”. This island gal loves to spend time with her family, gardening, hiking, dark chocolate, Netflix and traveling abroad.
Aiko Bethea
CDTLF
Aiko’s executive leadership coaching practice focuses on scaling the impact of executives and teams by elevating emotional intelligence and resilience. She specializes in providing leadership coaching and workshops for underrepresented individuals (people of color, parents, international, women in tech, and the LGBT+ and disability communities). She also specializes in working with leaders who have a desire to: create equitable and inclusive teams, be aware of their blindspots, and recognize behaviors and circumstances that create barriers for underrepresented individuals.
Aiko’s consulting clients (distinguished from coaching clients) include organizations that are building leadership programs, or beginning their DEI journey and are building their diversity, equity, and inclusion framework. This includes preparation/foundation-building for executive leaders, co-creating a plan to socialize DEI within the organization, identifying metrics for success, establishing employee resource groups and curated conversations, and developing a roadmap for inclusive community building and outreach.
Michelle Poole
CPCC, PCC, CDTLF
As a leadership coach, Michelle Poole is passionate about re-invigorating the hearts and minds of the people with whom she works. She is co-founder of Coaching 4 Good, an organization that transforms lives, careers, and communities by providing customized personal and professional development workshops combined with one-on-one coaching. Michelle’s coaching draws on her previous and highly successful career of more than fifteen years in Human Resources.
Michelle holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and is addicted to learning. As a result, she’s certified as a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coach Federation, a Professional in Human Resources (PHR), Meyers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) practitioner, Professional Career Manager (PCM), and a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator (CDTLF).
Michelle lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, two kids, and numerous bicycles.one-on-one
Lee Clark
CDTLF, LCP, Disc
Over 30 years inside and outside the corporate world, Lee has had the extraordinary opportunity to coach, counsel, and train thousands of people at all levels of an organization as well as individuals outside organizations looking to make improvements in the way they live, love, lead, and parent.
It has been Lee’s passion and privilege in both the public and private arenas to help others create the life they want to live; to become the best leader their followers deserve; to become the best person they want to be. It is Lee’s belief that no one wants to be unsuccessful; they just may not have the tools, roadmap, and/or perspective to create their success.
Through highly engaged, one-on-one coaching sessions and interactive, thought-provoking group work, Lee works with clients to uncover intentional and unintentional blocks to their success and create a plan for moving forward. Though he can’t guarantee there won’t be some pain and discomfort, he can guarantee it will be laced with humor and real-world applicability.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.
Dolly Parton
Honor Medina
MFT, Equus Coach
Honor Medina has been a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist for 23 years. Currently, she has a thriving Equus and Life Coaching practice in Carlsbad, NM. Honor is dedicated to helping people improve their relationships with self and others, building optimal confidence, and building robust boundaries while maintaining integrity.
Animals have been an integral part of Honor’s life since birth. Honor has made it a priority to learn how to share the power, wisdom, and love which animals have to offer with people who are looking for change in their lives.
Honor received both her bachelors degree in Fine Arts and her masters degree in Education from Ohio University. She received her Equine Assisted Growth and Learning certification in 2006. She also holds a Master Equus Coaching certification from the Koelle Institute. She has advanced certification in Hypnotherapy and EMDR healing modalities.
What you resist persists.
Carl Jung
Erin Cutshall
PCCE, Equus Coach