About the Coaching + Training Implementation Team

ACI FACULTY + IMPLEMENTATION TEAM

Our team is a collaborative group of certified coaches, facilitators, strategists, teachers, thought leaders, practitioners, and therapists, with a breadth of experience in healthcare, corporate, military, education, design, finance, tech, and many other industries. We work together to create the co-designed outcomes you and your organization need and desire.

ANESE CAVANAUGH

CEO + Strategic Advisor

Founder IEP Method® and Positive Energy Workplace™ Initiative

Anese Cavanaugh is devoted to helping people show up and bring their best selves to the table in order to create significant impact in their lives and (authentic) positive energy workplaces and leadership. She is the CEO of Active Choices, Inc., creator of the IEP Method® (Intentional Energetic Presence®) and the Positive Energy Workplace™ Initiative, a strategist and advisor to leaders and organizations around the world, a keynote speaker, and author of CONTAGIOUS CULTURE: Show Up, Set the Tone, and Intentionally Create an Organization That Thrives (McGraw-Hill, 2015), CONTAGIOUS YOU: Unlock Your Power to Influence, Lead, and Create the Impact You Want (McGraw-Hill, 2020), and THE LEADER YOU WILL BE: An Invitation (a leadership storybook).

As a leading voice on intention, energy, and presence in leadership and culture, she helps people unlock greater leadership potential, collaborate more inspiringly, create more openly, intuit more bravely, and lead more joyfully and effectively. She holds a degree in Kinesiology as well as multiple credentials in coaching, training, facilitation, and relationship systems that support her in bringing a breadth of knowledge to clients in order to meet them where they’re at and best pair the team with the optimally fit engagements. Top innovators and executives in companies like IDEO, Zingerman’s, Cooper, GM Financial, Vistaprint, 15Five, Fitbit, Vivayic, Kaiser Permanente, BNY Mellon, and others have engaged with Active Choices to strengthen team health, maximize leadership impact, and optimize company culture. In addition to appearing in publications like Harvard Business Review, The Huffington Post, CEO.com, Forbes, the NY Times, and others, Anese has a column, “Showing Up” on Inc.com, writes regularly for subscribers of ActiveChoices.com, and speaks on stages (in person and virtually) around the world. More detail on Anese here.

ESPERANZA LEBRON, MBA, PCC

Executive & Professional Coach + Workshop Leader

Esperanza is a triple Certified and Accredited Executive & Professional Coach from the University of Texas, The Life Coach School, and The International Coaching Federation (PCC, ICF). She has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) and a Masters in Organizational Development, and is an Expert in Human Change.

Esperanza has worked with top Fortune Companies as a Change Agent and as an Army Veteran has extensive experience in strategic workforce planning and change management implementation. Esperanza brings Neuroscience into her coaching philosophy to help her clients overcome a lifetime of patterns and increase confidence and performance. Her passion lies in coaching others and leading teams to execute and create extraordinary results.

KAREN MAIER

Executive Advisor + Coach

Karen is an organizational and leadership executive advisor and coach for world-class C-suite executives and their teams. With more than 30 years of global HR experience as an Executive and Chief People Officer across diverse industries, she is an expert in engaging diverse leaders and teams, building organizational and leadership capability, and co-creating organizational and leadership transformations. Karen demonstrates the courage to tackle the most challenging situations in fast-paced, high-stake environments while elevating leaders and team to achieve lasting results.

Karen has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Business, studied Organizational Behavior and Leadership, and holds a variety of certifications: Professional Coach, Master Practitioner in Energy Leadership, Executive Strategic HR, EQ-i, The Five Behaviors, MBTI, and Project Management. Tag line: I help C-suite executives and their teams go from ‘hair on fire’ mode to root cause and the lasting individual, team, and organizational transformation that powers business growth.

KELLY POPPAW, PT, DPT, CIMT, CIDN, IEP-C

Physical Therapist + Leadership Coach + Trainer

Kelly has spent much of her life and career working on self-development and personal growth. She believes the skills she has gained as a physical therapist and teacher are far better utilized because she has worked so hard at knowing herself. Devoted to ongoing awareness and master, she continuously engages in her own personal and leadership growth and development via training, coaching, and reading. She coaches leaders one-on-one and mentors her staff as a Clinic Director at Probility Physical Therapy. She is proud to say above anything else that has enriched their bottom line, it is their strong culture and staff’s sense of purpose and ability to live and operate by their core values. Her skill in building culture was developed at Eastern Michigan University where she was a NCAA Division-I athlete and captain of the women’s soccer team, winning national recognition for most-improved team.

Her public speaking background includes auditioning at TEDx and keynoting two international healthcare symposiums alongside luminaries Brené Brown and Daniel Pink. As a writer, she contributes to the C-Suite column for the National Business Education Association on leadership topics including the true value of core values and its effect on a company’s bottom line. She is certified as an IEP Certified Steward, a unique designation in the IEP Methodology that requires three years of training and apprenticeship with Anese Cavanaugh. Kelly teaches the IEP Method® to help people improve their leadership by taking an inside-out approach and focusing on their intentions, energy, and presence. She believes the most important thing you can do to be happy in work and life is to care for yourself first.

KENYA TODD, MSL, SPHR, GPHR

Organizational Change + Leadership Consultant

Kenya Todd is a 20+ year HR and Organizational Development professional who has worked in a variety of sectors including information technology, finance, engineering, and manufacturing for global organizations. Kenya has enjoyed collaborating to build talent strategies and practices that support engaged team members, strong leaders, and inclusive cultures. Her work has allowed her to work with world-class talent in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, India, China, Japan, Korea, and Germany.

Kenya seeks out work that aligns with her personal values of embracing change, honoring choice, communication, stewardship, and the power of community. She gravitates towards strategy development, team dynamics, change implementation, and leadership coaching. Kenya’s passion for the IEP and Positive Energy Workplace™ Initiative comes from her direct experience of its transformational power in her home and work life. Kenya says of Active Choices Inc, “I knew from completing my first IEP experience that I wanted to be part of sharing this work. There is not a day that goes by that I am not drawing on tools and awareness from the IEP Method® and the time spent with Anese. Everyone needs the opportunity of this wisdom”.

Kenya is a graduate of East Tennessee State University, BA Psychology Minor: Management) and Pfeiffer University, Masters of Organizational Change and Leadership. She is a National SHRM member, HRCI Certified SPHR and GPHR. In addition, she is a Prosci Certified Change Practitioner and Prosci Certified Level I Trainer, a National ODNetwork and Triangle ODNetwork member. Finally, she holds a 360 Assessment Certification by the Center for Creative Leadership as well as a working knowledge of various assessments.

Kenya lives in North Carolina with her dreamy husband and two emerging world-changer daughters.

MELINDA DRANSFIELD, ACC, CPC, ELI-MP

Leadership Coach + Consultant + Trainer

Melinda is an ICF accredited coach, trainer, keynote speaker, and consultant committed to creating thriving hybrid workplaces where your people and business can break through to higher levels of health, happiness, and success at work and at home. She is a workplace well-being expert that believes that when your people are healthy and happy, your business thrives.

Melinda brings her engaging style to a clientele list that includes Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organizations, and academic institutions. In addition to owning multiple businesses, she built her reputation in the financial services industry, partnering with Fortune 100 leaders to drive multi-billion-dollar sales goals through training and coaching. She led the Sales Performance Elevation Team and Top of the Rock University at Prudential Financial. She also led marketing, business operations, and new business development initiatives for Moreton Retirement Partners in Denver.

Melinda graduated with a business degree from Florida State University and completed her coaching studies at the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). Additional certifications include: Certified Happiness Coach through the Berkeley Wellbeing Institute, Performance Coach through the Human Performance Institute, Digital Wellness Coach through the Digital Wellness Institute, COR.E Leadership and Performance Dynamics Coach, and Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner through iPEC.

MICHELLE REMBERT, ACC, CPCC

Coach + Speaker + Trainer

Michelle is an ICF credentialed coach, speaker, and trainer, who partners with her clients to maximize their personal and professional potential. By creating self-awareness, uncovering blind spots, and tapping into their inner wisdom, Michelle helps them to find their unique
solutions and strategies so that they can live better and lead better! Drawing on more than 30 years in healthcare and non-profit leadership, Michelle’s unique background, coupled with her experience as a professional coach, makes her well-prepared and uniquely qualified to support individuals, teams, and organizations in a variety of settings. Throughout her career, Michelle has held several leadership positions and has been a business owner, so she speaks from experience, as well as years of her own personal and professional
development.

As a lead facilitator and mentor coach for Grand View University’s Certificate in Coaching, Mentoring & Leadership, she specializes in designing, planning, and facilitating workshops for emerging and seasoned leaders. Some of the benefits of developing coaching, mentoring, and leadership skills is to enhance leadership self-awareness and presence, to improve communication and collaboration, to build strong accountability, and to become calmer and more creative in the midst of challenges. Michelle believes that in order to show up fully and lead others, you must show up fully for yourself. Michelle has received specialty training in C-IQ® Conversational Intelligence, mindfulness-based stress reduction, and workplace wellbeing, including compassion fatigue and resiliency. Michelle is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) through Co-Active Training Institute (CTI) and an ICF Associate Certified Coach (ACC). She is a licensed facilitator for Corporate Coach U’s The Coaching Clinic® and the PCSI® -Personal Coaching Styles Inventory.

Laura Lundin, PCC

Leadership Coach + Trainer

Laura specializes in communications and transformational leadership development for high-performing executives and the co-creation of compassionate, inclusive workplace cultures. Her approach is grounded in the belief that each of us possesses a unique greatness and desire to contribute that, when aligned with our environment, leads to incredible results in business and social impact.

Laura brings 20 years of national and international corporate experience in communications, marketing, and social responsibility to her client engagements. A sought-after advisor to the C-Suite and Board of Directors, she has created functions and built teams in large, highly matrixed organizations and nimble start-ups.

She originated the national Social Impact and Strategic Partnerships function at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association where she generated measurable public health outcomes and brand visibility. She leveraged her compassionate, values-driven management style to create and lead a cross-functional, multi-generational team that won several internal and external awards for excellence.

Laura spent the first 5 years of her career in Nagoya, Japan, where she served as lead communications associate to the CEO of Oak Lawn Marketing (now Shop Japan), a global product marketing company. She is fluent in conversational Japanese language and business culture.