Coaches

The Coaches at Nebo are not only trained at the best coaching institutions, but they are all highly invested in the success of their clients.

To read more about our coaches, click on the names in the list below:

In addition to leadership coaching, several Nebo coaches are also specially trained as part of our MOMreturns leadership program.  These coaches are noted in the following list.

• Mimi Darmstadter (MOMreturns)
• Susan E. Dunlap
  
• Katherine (Kate) Ebner, Principal (MOMreturns)
• Paige Eldridge (MOMreturns)
• Bette George
• Erica Hoffman (MOMreturns)
• Bill Hummel
  
• Cliff Kayser
• Jan Kearce, VP Nebo for Sustainability
• Steve Kullback
  
• Meredith Persily Lamel (MOMreturns)
• Patton Stephens (MOMreturns)

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Mimi Darmstadter

MOMreturns Coach

“Being part of MOMreturns means that I can support women through this amazing time of transition and in so doing bear witness to their success and satisfaction in work and life.”

Mimi Darmstadter is a MOMreturns leadership coach. She brings 20 years of experience as a seasoned leader in the learning and performance and talent management fields. As a MOMreturns coach her areas of interest and expertise include:

• Personal/professional periods of transition and goal setting management and achievement
• Emotional intelligence
• Communication skills
• Balance and presence in life
• Conducting workshops on issues related to transitioning working mothers
  

In 2008 Mimi’s launched her own coaching practice and HR consultancy, My Life’s Work Coaching and Consulting, which complements her work with MOMreturns.  Prior to this endeavor Mimi worked for 12 years at Covance Inc. where she served as a senior leader within the Human Resources function.  As Covance’s Senior Manger for Training and Development Mimi oversaw the design and delivery of many of the Company’s leadership and employee development programs including initiatives to grow mid-managers as leaders shape company culture and build employee engagement.  Mimi also served on Covance’s Global Diversity Council and led many of the Company’s diversity and inclusion training initiatives.  She also launched its global mentoring program a program with 100 mentoring pairs annually, that remains one of its flagship workforce development initiatives for women employees.

Prior to Covance, Mimi worked for over five years as the training manager for the National Network for Youth, a not-for-profit membership organization for at-risk young people.

Mimi is a graduate of Georgetown University's Leadership Coaching Certificate Program. Her Masters Degree in Social Service Administration is from the University of Chicago. She earned a double Bachelors Degree in Psychology and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan where she was the recipient of a Hopwood Award for Underclassman Fiction Writing.

Mimi's extracurricular interests include teaching fitness classes, watching independent films, and spending time with her husband and two sons, Ari (age 10) and Eric (age 8).

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Susan E. Dunlap

Leadership Coach, Nebo for Lawyers

Susan Dunlap is a strategy consultant and leadership coach who specializes in working with lawyers in leadership positions with international, national and regional law firms. Over the last 20 years, Susan has counseled law firm chairmen and managing partners, policy committee members and practice group leaders in conceptualizing and implementing a broad range of firm-wide and practice group strategic growth and change initiatives.

As a coach, Susan works one-on-one with law firm leaders to bring forth each person’s authentic leadership style, identifying the person's innate leadership capabilities and honing those capabilities into effective leadership skills that enhance the person's ability to succeed as a leader and enjoy a greater sense of fulfillment and accomplishment at work.

Susan brings a unique perspective to coaching law firm leaders because much of her career has involved consulting with law firm leaders on a daily basis in developing and implementing their firms’ most important and difficult strategic initiatives, including firm-wide and practice group planning, lateral partner hiring and integration, business development and marketing. Based on this experience, Susan has a comprehensive understanding and awareness of the demands and challenges facing the leaders of large law firms.

Susan has taught CLE classes and programs on practice development for the Georgetown University Law Center and the D.C. Women's Bar Association, and she has published articles in the Legal Times and the Washington Lawyer on law firm management. Susan is a graduate of the Georgetown University Executive Leadership Coaching Program, has completed graduate level courses in finance through Wharton School of Business and organizational psychology at the University of Maryland, and has a B.A. from The University of the South.

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Katherine (Kate) Ebner

Principal, Executive Leadership Coach, MOMreturns Coach, Organizational Consultant

Katherine (Kate) Ebner is a change leader, writer, business strategist, and leadership coach who is catalyzing conversations, forging connections, and creating opportunities to realize transformational change at this critical time in our history. She has spent the last two decades guiding change in corporations, educational institutions, non-profits, and associations – partnering with clients to realize transformational change by balancing her business and organizational expertise with her deep understanding of the human elements of leadership.  Kate's work is grounded in her core belief that “we are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.”  In this spirit, she invites individuals from all walks of life to harness their creativity and talent and to call upon their best selves to focus on what matters most in their lives and at work.

Committed to encouraging the voices and leadership of women at work, at home and in the world, Kate is a founding partner of The Nebo Company and Nebo for Women, programs designed to transform the lives of women by sharing a new paradigm for working, leading and living. In this capacity, Kate leads retreats and special programs, using an innovative model for teaching women how to create shifts in their lives that ensure greater effectiveness and fulfillment. In a similar spirit, The Nebo Company’s newest offering, MOMreturns, is a special program that helps women to navigate the transition back to work after having or raising children.

Kate is deeply committed to a peaceful and sustainable future. She has collaborated with Peace x Peace, The Soul of Money Institute, The Oneness-Family School, and other organizations dedicated to making a difference in the world. She and Partner Jan Kearce head the DC chapter of the Global Sufficiency Network, a national movement to help people live from sufficiency rather than scarcity.

In 2004, Kate Ebner founded The Nebo Company with a vision of bringing innovative people, ideas, research, and methods together to crystallize visions for a better future and to make those visions real. Today, The Nebo Company continues to work for a peaceful and sustainable world by providing leadership development, coaching and consulting services to leaders in the corporate, government, and non-profit sectors, as well as offerings for individuals and organizations who desire to design and step into a larger vision for their lives and work.

Kate is a member of the faculty and a co-director of Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Program, a renowned certification program for coaches that approaches leadership coaching from an organization development perspective.  Kate has created an innovative coaching model for working with professionals to help them improve their work/life balance, delegation, prioritization and self-mastery.  Called “Coaching for Leverage,” this approach addresses the common struggle with work-life balance and the stresses that often plague high achievers. Kate’s work on this subject is published in On Becoming A Leadership Coach, a Holistic Approach to Coaching Excellence. In 2010, along with colleague Lloyd Raines, Kate presented a model for “Coaching for Sustainability” at the International Coach Federation (ICF) annual conference.

Katherine lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with her husband, two children and their puppy, Nyx.

To read more about Kate's role as Principal of The Nebo Company, please click here.

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Paige Eldridge

MOMreturns Coach

"My participation in MOMreturns means having the opportunity to work with women during one of the most magical and transformational times in their lives.  I look forward to examining the excitement and challenge of being a working mom and discovering just how such a life change impacts life at work and at home."

Paige Eldridge is a leadership coach for MOMreturns.  She brings nearly two decades of work as an attorney to her coaching and consulting work with individuals, teams and organizations.

As a MOMreturns coach, her areas of interest and expertise include:

• The legal industry
• Mentoring
• Transition and career counseling
• Women in the workplace and the intersection between passion and work.

Paige is the Principal of Inside Edge Leadership, LLC, where she works with clients in her capacity as a coach and mentoring program designer.  She is also a consultant at Drake Beam Morin Inc., providing transition/career counseling to individuals.  Additionally, Paige administers the peer-coaching program for Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching program.

Prior to launching a coaching and consulting business, Paige was an Associate at several corporate law firms, her most recent position at Cooley Godward, LLP.  When Paige realized her passion for law was no longer driving her career, she made her own transition to more purposeful, satisfying work.

Paige is a graduate of Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Certificate Program.  She earned her J.D. from the College of William and Mary.  She received her Bachelors of Science Degree in Economics from the University of Virginia.

One’s of Paige’s personal passions is ice dancing.  She practices daily.  She also loves to read. Paige enjoys spending time with her husband, Sam, her 11 year old son,  and Caroline, her 8 year old daughter.  Together, they like to travel, play games and go out to eat.

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Bette George

Leadership Coach

Bette George is a leadership coach who works with executives, business leaders, and teams to bring forth their best gifts—courageously, creatively, and productively.  Bette brings special expertise to support individuals successfully navigating life and work transitions such as promotion to a new position, job or career change, moving towards retirement and reentry into the workforce.  Bette’s coaching practice is built upon thirty years of experience as an educator, business owner and management consultant.  She combines organization development experience, including groundbreaking work in diversity, with a new appreciation for the power and potential of the purposeful conversation – conversation that helps clients embrace the conflicting demands, emotions and challenges in a workplace and world that require extraordinary presence.

Bette holds a Masters degree in Organization Development from The American University/NTL Institute and a BS degree in Education from the University of Virginia.  She is a graduate of the Georgetown University Leadership Coaching Certificate Program and serves on the faculty of that program as a Learning Circle Advisor.

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Erica Hoffman

MOMreturns Coach

Erica Hoffman is a leadership coach for MOMreturns.  She brings over 10 years of experience in organization development, leadership coaching and team coaching with clients in diverse universities.  Erica is committed to awakening the potential in women and expanding choice and possibility in their lives.

As a MOMreturns Coach, her areas of interest and expertise include:

• Designing and delivering large-scale leadership development and culture change programs
• Communication strategies for leaders
• Supporting clients in achieving a better sense of purpose and balance in their lives
• Experiential, high-impact learning programs
  

Erica has coached all levels of the workforce, from senior executives to individual contributors. She has a proven record of helping clients become better communicators and achieve a greater sense of purpose and balance in their lives. She has a passion for experiential learning and has created high-impact learning opportunities for her clients in unique venues such as sailing on the Chesapeake Bay and building a Habitat for Humanity house.

Erica is the owner and president of The Symphony Group, a leadership and organization development company which she founded in 2000. Prior to forming The Symphony Group, Erica was a Principal with Renaissance Leadership where she was responsible for building client relationships and helping clients along their 'renaissance journey' toward optimal performance.  Prior to Renaissance, Erica was the Communications Program Manager at Digex, Inc., a fast growing technology company, where she was responsible for designing, developing and delivering leadership development and organization development programs and initiatives. Prior to joining Digex, Erica worked as a consultant with Horizons Consulting Group where she developed and delivered outdoor experiential team building programs for a variety of clients including Merck, Coors, FDA and The Discovery Channel. Erica began her career at Andersen Consulting as a Change Management Analyst helping clients manage the human resources impact of major reengineering projects.

She received a B.A. in education and cultural anthropology from James Madison University and also completed post-graduate work in Organizational Behavior and Human Resources Development at JMU. Erica holds two graduate certificates in both Organization Development and Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University. She is a member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF).

Erica currently lives in Annapolis, MD with her husband and three young children.

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Bill Hummel

Leadership Coach

Bill is a coach to leaders of public and private corporations.  He is a leadership coach with strong knowledge and experience in creating sustainable change. This experience has been garnered as a seasoned entrepreneur and senior leader focusing on organizational development and change. His leadership experience has taught him the power of how a cohesive executive leadership team, fueled by a shared mission, can produce tremendous results. 
Bill’s coaching focuses onhelping clients see themselves and the environments they operate in more clearly. He partners with clients to identify what they want and how to achieve the change and outcomes they desire.

Bill is the past President and CEO of Federal Computer Corporation (FCC), a federal systems integrator. He was responsible for all strategic planning and organizational development of the company, which he sold in a public offering.

Bill holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Drake University and is a graduate of Georgetown University’s Executive Leadership Coaching program.  He is certified by the International Coach Federation as an Associate Certified Coach (ACC).

Bill is an active volunteer working with a children’s shelter in Haiti, co-founding a job networking group in Alexandria where he serves as a coach and creating a mentor program for St. Margaret’s transitional family residence where he serves as the mentor coach.

When he is not training for his next backpacking trip, Bill enjoys cooking for his family in Clifton, Va.

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Cliff Kayser

Leadership Coach

Cliff is a coach to U.S. and international executives and key individual contributors. His coaching and training expertise spans a variety of areas, including Leadership presence and style, time/energy management, career strategy/development, managing transition, conflict and change, and interpersonal and intercultural communication. Cliff specializes in helping clients who are “stuck” in chronic or unsolvable problems and he is praised for his ability to blend warmth with power – using both head and heart – while pulling from his broad base of knowledge and life experiences. Cliff is dedicated and focused onhelping clients achieve results.

Cliff is an entrepreneur whose past experience includes an internal consulting position as VP of OD and Training for The National Cooperative Bank (NCB), a Congressionally-chartered financial institution located in Washington, D.C. where he provided OD and change management services to NCB and its 340-plus employees, including consultation to teams, departments, and individuals across the NCB Family of Companies. He also managed the OD and Training team and applied his coaching skills to company leadership in the Washington, DC headquarters and in branch locations in New York, Ohio, and California. Cliff also spent nearly a decade serving The Washington Post newspaper as Senior OD Consultant and the corporate office of The Washington Post Company as Corporate Manager of HR, Training and Web Development. Prior to joining The Washington Post Company Cliff held HR and management positions at the Planning & Development Collaborative International, the law firm Arter, Hadden, Haynes & Miller, and ServiceMASTER.

Cliff holds a BS in History and Business from Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, NC, Master’s Degrees in both OD and HR from American University, and graduated from Georgetown University’s Executive Leadership Coaching program. Cliff is an International Coaching Federation certified coach and certified by The Society for Human Resource Management as a Senior Professional in HR.

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Jan Kearce

VP of Nebo for Sustainability, Executive Leadership Coach, Organizational Development Consultant

“When we embrace possibility, we impel ourselves to seek. We discover our potential to take transformative action to create a more sustainable, compassionate world.”

Jan Kearce is a change leader, strategist, coach, and partner who brings deep passion and experience to her work with leaders, teams and organizations. Perhaps equal to Jan’s depth of passion and experience is her commitment to building leadership capacity and operational excellence that supports sustainability for our planet.

Jan has more than three decades of experience working with leaders and teams to create results that matter – to them, to their organizations, and to the world. As Vice President of Sustainability at The Nebo Company, Jan leads seasoned organizational strategists and certified, experienced leadership coaches to develop and deliver customized leadership development and mentoring programs and strategy consulting services that support the vision and action of individuals and organizations committed to ensuring that we live and work in balance with the earth.

Jan’s work rests on her core values of stewardship, connectedness, empowerment, and risk-taking, and on her belief in the possibilities that exist for individuals to create and sustain fulfilling lives, thriving organizations, social and environmental change, and healthy ecosystems. Her work is informed by the thoughts, writings and work of leaders who propose new paradigms for the way in which we live and work with our planet, create possibility, practice intentional conversation, and turn our visions into reality.

Jan’s breadth and depth of experience, as well as her education and training, have fostered her unique ability to connect with what matters to people at all levels of the organization. She is known for her ability to listen for, hear, and integrate the emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual aspects of the work of an organization, enabling her to catalyze the effective co-creation of a strategy and implementation plan that realizes results that matter not only in the short term, but over the long term.

With diverse experience as a leader in manufacturing, outdoor education, and environmental organizations, Jan has experience leading initiatives that span from quality, safety and operational excellence to design of “a great place to work,” strategic and fundraising planning, creation of an internal training institute, and multi-location mergers at the Georgia River Network, Outward Bound, and CertainTeed Corporation, among others.

To learn more about Jan's role as Vice President of Nebo for Sustainability, please click here.

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Steve Kullback

Executive Leadership Coach and Consultant

Steve Kullback is an executive coach and global leadership development consultant with more than 15 years working with leaders who share common goals such as organizational excellence, leadership effectiveness and personal fulfillment. In addition to being a seasoned executive and entrepreneur and a management consultant, Steve is an experienced facilitator and trainer with expertise in human dynamics and business strategy. 

Steve specializes in working with high-performing teams and individuals who are managing business-critical strategic initiatives as well as leaders who are making transitions in their work and personal lives. In addition, Steve has skills that position him to help multinational organizations and professionals reach new levels of achievement, having managed a global executive leadership program and lived and worked in Asia, Europe and Australia.

The fundamental principles of Steve's coaching style are authenticity, truth and empowerment. He operates as a partner who listens to understand his clients' perspectives and needs, then calls on his experience to ask difficult questions and to provide thoughtful input with the objective of enabling clients to develop their own solutions. Steve is empathetic and understanding in his approach, but speaks the truth in a way that challenges clients to reach deep and emerge with effective, self-sustaining outcomes.

Before starting his own practice, Steve worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Director. He was an early member of the management team of Genesis Park, a best-in-class global leadership development program, where he developed and expanded this initiative. He coached teams and individuals from more than 40 countries to effectively build high-performing teams to lead in multi-cultural environments and global markets. While a member of the management consulting practice at PwC, Steve partnered with Fortune 100 companies and government agencies to develop effective strategies and improve performance. He also served as a staff advisor to PwC's Global Managing Partner for Operations (COO), focusing on restructuring global operations. Prior to joining PwC, Steve founded and was President of Pacifica Vietnam, a consulting firm specializing in helping clients enter Southeast Asian markets. His company was featured in Fortune Magazine in 1996.

Steve received his master's degree in International Management from the University of California, San Diego, where he was a Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellow (SLYFF). He has a bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University. Steve is a Professional Certified Coach (ICF) and earned his leadership coaching certificate from Georgetown University. He is qualified with the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and is a certified Action Learning Coach (WIAL - pending).  

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Meredith Persily Lamel

MOMreturns Coach

"I am excited about being a coach for MOMReturns because I enjoy working with clients around significant transitions and perhaps there is no greater one than those before, during, and following the birth of a baby."

Meredith Persily Lamel is a leadership coach for MOMreturns. She brings over 15 years of experience working in both the public and private sectors as an executive coach, leadership development expert, and instructor. As a MOMreturns Coach, her areas of interest and expertise include:

• MBTI and Leadership Circle Profile 360 assessments
  
• Using appreciative inquiry to access individual and organizational strengths and positive viewpoints
• Developing a personal and/or organizational vision
• Retreat design and facilitation
• Leading coaching groups of working moms
• Team coaching and development
  

In 2006, Meredith founded MPL Partners, LLC, providing leadership solutions to individuals, teams and organizations. She also serves on the business school faculty of a private university. Prior to founding MLP Partners, Meredith served as the Director of Consulting at the Congressional Management Foundation and as the Director of Executive Education for the Corporate Leadership Council. From 1994-1999, Meredith worked for Pyramid Research, formerly the telecommunications division of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)based in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Meredith earned her MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and earned her BA with honors from Brown University. She earned a Certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University and is an authorized facilitator of The Myers-Brigs Type Indicator^® (MBTI^®), The Leadership Circle Profile^TM, Appreciative Inquiry, and the Team Diagnostic^TM Assessment. She is fluent in Portuguese and Spanish.

In order to sustain herself, Meredith works with a leadership coach and exercises regularly. She enjoys every moment with her two children, ages 3 and 1. These days, trips to local museums, the zoo and parks, playing in fountains and attending neighborhood festivals keep her family very busy and entertained.

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Patton Stephens

MOMreturns Coach

"I love being a MOMreturns coach because it allows me to support other women in the ever-changing task of integrating motherhood into their broader lives—work which, if done intentionally, adds tremendously to the lives of not only the women themselves, but also to the other lives they touch." 

Patton Stephens is a leadership coach for MOMreturns.  She brings 5 years of experience in executive coaching and over 15 years as an organizational development consultant.

As a MOMreturns Coach, her areas of interest and expertise include:

• Emotional intelligence at home and work
  
• Energy techniques to maintain life balance and/or sustain leadership performance
• Using Enneagram and Myers-Briggs types to improve an understand relationships at home or work
• Adaptive leadershipas a tool for leading in the context of one's current life situation
  

Since 2008, Patton has worked in partnership and collaboration with the OCL Group The OCL Group where she has focused on three areas: leadership coaching, operations and project management, and leadership-related writing.  For 12 years prior to joining OCL, Patton worked as an Organizational Development Consultant and Leadership Coach with government, business, and not-for-profit clients.

Patton received her certificate as a Professional Executive and Leadership Coach from the Institute for Professional Empowerment Coaching.  She also is a graduate of Georgetown University’s Organizational Development Certificate Program.  She earned a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the University of Kentucky, and a Bachelors of Arts Degree from Millsaps College.  

In her spare time, Patton writes and reads poetry and poetic prose. She is active in her community, coordinating two local creek clean-ups each year, and also spends time in the mountains whenever possible!  

Patton’s self-care activities include daily walks by the creek and a “light” routine of yoga and meditation.  She enjoys spending time with her husband and 2 children, ages 13 and 10, and finds parenting two pre-teens a fascinating journey that creates regular opportunities for learning and growth as a parent.