Perhaps you recently moved into a leadership position and feel overwhelmed — by your responsibilities, your lack of skills, your inexperience. Or you’re craving a job change but have no idea where to start. Or you’re exhausted and about to burn out and need time to slow down and reenergize while determining your next steps.
I help you:
My coaching specialties include leadership development, career transition, and intentional life planning. My clients are highly motivated, idealistic changemakers from the margins — queer people of color, women of color, people from immigrant/refugee communities, and our hardcore allies.
I frequently work with relatively new Executive Directors who are committed to social justice principles, and who imagine a different, values-based practice that shares power and builds leadership in the community.
Through our coaching relationship, you’ll become more confident with the decisions you make and how you spend each day; create a plan, action steps, and support structures to build and live out your goals; and use your gifts, talents, and strengths to make the change you strive for.
Coaching is a partnership between you and me to help you get from where you are to where you want to be. Using your goals as my guidepost, I help you figure out how you’re going to achieve them. I come with no hidden agenda, no unsolicited, if well-meaning, advice, no emotions to have to deal with. Just listening, curiosity, reflections, observations, resources. I am radically nonjudgmental. But as they say, don’t mistake kindness for weakness. I am also incredibly tenacious. I tell you the truth, I remind you of commitments you’ve made to yourself and help you stay on track — in a judgment-free, positive, forward-oriented space.
It’s not magic, but it’s maybe the next best thing. As you watch yourself make progress and grow into who you’re meant to be, you’ll move through your life and work with increased confidence, intention, and ease.
ABOUT ME
I am an accredited Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coach Federation (ICF) and a graduate of the International Coach Academy (ICA).
I was shaped by my immigrant upbringing in the 1970s in a small Wisconsin town. I felt like a misfit everywhere: at school, at home, when visiting relatives in India. I became involved social activism the minute I stepped foot on Bryn Mawr’s campus, came out as lesbian, and learned a vocabulary to describe my ideals of justice, environmentalism, and pacifism.
My nonprofit and philanthropic work focuses on LGBTQ equality, racial and gender justice, and education equity. I’ve been involved in LGBTQ organizing since 1983, and active in the South Asian queer community since 1997. In 2004, my wife Mala and I were one of the plaintiff couples in Washington State’s marriage equality lawsuit.
I have more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit and community organizations as a staff member, board member, executive director, volunteer, and community member. I’ve facilitated leadership workshops, given conference keynote addresses, and presented leadership trainings for college students as well as for local and national organizations. One of my favorite activities is facilitating daylong Intentional Life Planning workshops with my wife, Mala.
I also have a background as a social scientist, with 13 years of experience teaching sociology and advising low-income college students and students of color. In that time, I led student service programs at universities and foundations designed to increase access to higher education for low-income and underrepresented students. I also created and shaped social change projects and programs in a variety of issue areas since the 1980s.
The common thread that runs through all of these experiences is my love of working with smart, caring people who find themselves feeling stuck in some way. My gift is to offer a judgment-free, empowering space to nurture your internal spark and clear a path to your goals. Because of my decades-long obsession with figuring out what makes people change, I’ve also accumulated an arsenal of resources, exercises, and tools to support you on your journey.
MY RATES
Organizational executive/leadership coaching:
4 one-hour sessions/month
$800/month
6-month minimum
Engagement includes:
Unlimited email support between sessions
Homework as applicable
Access to leadership and team assessments, as applicable
Access to reference materials, as applicable
Individual career coaching:
One-hour sessions at $150/session. The number and frequency of sessions will depend on what your goals are and how far along you are in your career exploration journey.
Are you well on your way, have a clear sense of what kind of position you’re seeking, and just need an accountability partner to maintain your job-search momentum? We may well be done after 3 sessions over 3 months.
Or, on the other end of the continuum, are you stuck in a rut and know you need to figure out your next move, but have zero idea what to do or how to approach your job-search process? We may decide to work together every week or every other week for 6 months.
…Or anywhere in between.
I’m available on weekdays from noon to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Coaching can happen by phone, over video call (Zoom or Skype), or in person in Silver Spring, MD.
All engagements begin with a complimentary 45-minute discovery session and online intake form, and end with a complimentary 30-minute closure session.
I also offer group coaching and workshops. These are great ways to get the benefit of a coaching experience but at a lower cost per person. Not only that, but you get the added benefit of a built-in support system to keep you inspired and motivated on your journey.
I’d love to have a conversation with you to see how I can support you. Please email me at vega@vegamala.com or call me at 240-552-6981.
Here’s to us!