International Coach Federation Professional Certified Coach (PCC)
National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC)
Certified Woman-Centered Coach
Certified Leadership Coach
1000+ hours of executive & leadership coaching
Founded 2 businesses and led team of 25+
20+ years facilitating leadership & team development
Coach Trainer & Mentor Coach, International Coach Federation
This is my story
Hi, I’m Melissa, and I partner with women in leadership to grow through the moments that stretch them—personally, professionally, and organizationally. My work is grounded in helping women lead with impact and authenticity while also living a life of joy, balance, and purpose.
My clients are often at critical inflection points—stepping into bigger roles, navigating uncertainty, or redefining success in a way that feels more sustainable and aligned.
After years leading in the nonprofit and healthcare sectors, and as an entrepreneur in the wellness space, I pivoted from leading organizations to developing leaders. I have developed deep subject matter expertise from thousands of hours coaching, consulting and training hundreds of leaders across global organizations, along with more than 20 years of experience in team facilitation, leadership development, and instructional design.
My approach is strengths-based, empathetic, and action-oriented, grounded in positive psychology. Blending leadership and wellness coaching with expertise woman-centered coaching methodologies, I support leaders to sustain high performance without burnout, even in environments where pressure is constant. While I coach clients of all backgrounds, I bring specialized experience supporting women in male-majority fields. Known for my ability to create a space where clients feel both fully seen and meaningfully challenged, my clients consistently describe a shift that goes beyond goals: they become more intentional, more effective, and more aligned in how they lead and live.
I Partner With:
- Women who are successful on paper but sense it’s time for a deeper, more meaningful evolution in how they live and lead.
- Women in leadership who are stepping into bigger roles or navigating complexity and want to grow their impact without sacrificing their wellbeing.
- Women in leadership who are operating in high-pressure, fast-changing environments and are ready to expand their capacity, strengthen their teams, and lead with greater clarity and authenticity.
My Coaching Approach
I partner with women in leadership across levels—from emerging talent to senior executives—to navigate increasing responsibility, organizational change, and evolving business demands with clarity, authenticity, and impact. I have extensive experience coaching and consulting with leaders in local to global organizations, and partnering with teams to strengthen alignment, collaboration, and execution.
My approach blends executive coaching with evidence-based frameworks in positive psychology, leadership development, and woman-centered coaching methodologies to support my clients to align personal growth with organizational impact—especially in high-pressure environments where performance and resilience must coexist.
My clients gain the clarity, confidence, and capability to lead through complexity—while organizations benefit from increased capacity, stronger alignment, and more sustainable, high-impact performance.
Testimonials
“Melissa is an experienced professional and has insights that are valuable to me in my role. Through our work together, I discovered that as a leader, I am unique and have my own unique sets of strengths and skills. I lead differently and feel differently towards my work/my team/my role. I learned that everyone really needs a “Melissa” to help work through areas of executive leadership. It isn’t easy and having someone to safely talk to has made a big difference in my life both professionally and personally. I am celebrating that I now recognize my wins, address my feelings and take a proactive approach with my leaders to help them become better leaders. Melissa helped me see that the challenges I was working through aren’t easy for anyone, regardless of their title, role, tenure. I like that Melissa always met me emotionally where I needed to go, and was there to laugh with me too. Melissa, I honestly don’t know if you appreciate how much you helped me during our time together. Thank you!” ~ Kathleen
“Before starting my coaching journey to find my voice, I believed I needed to be a loud presence in meetings or when facilitating a Kaizen to be effective. Through Melissa’s coaching, I realized that I don’t need to be the loudest voice to lead. Learning practical techniques and approaches helped me lead with warmth, confidence, and authenticity—while staying true to myself. I now speak more confidently in meetings and can recognize my inner critic and choose how I show up. One of my most important discoveries has been realizing that I don’t need to be a loud voice to be heard. I can lead authentically by being myself and leading with warmth. Another key “aha” moment was learning and applying the concepts of “taking the temperature” and “raising the heat.” Trying these techniques in real situations was eye opening and helped me become more intentional about when and how I speak up. I’m celebrating the positive feedback I’ve received from my manager and peers, which has reinforced that I can be effective by being myself rather than trying to be the loudest voice in the room. I’m also recognizing my own wins—becoming more intentional about when and how I speak up, and leading with warmth in a way that feels authentic and impactful.”~ Divvya
“Before starting coaching, I felt so confused, lost, and frustrated with all the changes in our organization that I knew I needed help but I didn’t know who to ask and what questions to ask. Coaching with Melissa has been an incredible experience. I wish the sessions could continue! I have loved learning about myself with the help of a coach and learning that there are tools to help me get out of bad habits, reframe negative thinking, etc all while finding and staying true to my core values. Now that I have completed our sessions, I feel like a different person! I now know that I can be an effective leader and still hold true to my core values. I feel centered and focused and capable of taking on the challenges that face me.” ~ Rebecca
“I started coaching because I wanted to learn how to interact with senior/executive leadership in a productive manner without feeling flustered or intimidated. My coaching experience with Melissa was very productive…I made significant progress in this area in a short amount of time. I have learned to consider all sides of an issue before deciding on the best path forward. The tools she shared were extremely helpful in handling different situations when they occurred. Having to start a new team came with its own challenges and navigating the “Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing” stages provided numerous opportunities to grow. as a person and leader. Above all, I’ve learned that as I grow as a leader, I will continue to be true to myself and my values – this is quite liberating. Melissa is a wonderful coach and I am truly appreciative that she created an environment where I was comfortable to express myself. She is an excellent listener and each time we discussed new issues I faced as a leader, she taught me how to rethink the problem so that I could find ways to solve them myself. She made me do the work in a fun way. By taking the time to understand my personality & values, she tailored the coaching sessions so they were productive and effective.” ~ Nadia
“Being an entry to mid-level associate with an aspiration to grow into executive leadership, I started coaching wanting to understand and learn how leaders think. I was always awed by the quickness and strategy of their thoughts and thought that learning how to think that way could be my key to success. I now feel like I have a path to that goal, and all I have to do is walk on it. I was able to carve out a specific long-term plan where I developed objectives I wanted to hit, skills I wanted to learn and a timeline that seemed reasonable to me. But most importantly, I learnt that I had all that I needed all along, but needed some help to realize this, and to trust myself. Melissa is the most pleasant and insightful person I could have ever wanted as my coach! She always encouraged me to think deeper, and to realize that I had what I needed to reach my goal. Always an amazing discussion with Melissa! And, shortly after finishing coaching, I received a promotion. The plan and mindsets I developed in coaching helped me advance much more quickly than I thought was possible!” ~ Maria
“I LOVED COACHING! I feel as a woman in leadership that I didn’t want to admit my issues. Now I want to own them and share them. I am shifting my focus to be more open to feedback and asking for help, able to discuss openly my challenges. Through coaching, I’ve worked on my personal self and professional self and the results are reflected in my team. Letting people learn and grow provides more benefits than me just taking it all on. I’m celebrating a better version of myself. The conversations I’ve engaged my boss in, my language, my strengths and that everything seems to be ok. I am grateful for the perspective, and feedback Melissa provided. I feel like I grew up, and have embraced working on myself more which results in help for those around me. Her coaching left me with a sense of growth, and responsibility. This growth has enabled me to be more available and helpful working with my team. ~ Jackie