At ACT, we know and live by our values. Each member of the team is a critical contributor to our culture and has the power to make an impact on the business. ACT was created around the expertise of a team of passionate and trusted partners with exceptional skills in coaching, training and consulting. We draw on our teams unique backgrounds, personalities and perspectives, crucial to building the culture at ACT.
Erin Hutchins, MCC, ACTC
Co-Founder, Trainer
Erin Hutchins is the co-founder of ACT and founder and owner of ACT Government Services. She is an Adjunct Lecturer at Brown University and a Master Coach through ICF. Erin has trained hundreds of individuals from organizations and the Federal Government to become certified professional coaches. She has coached senior executives, teams and large groups in maximizing their relationships and results as well as to become more ‘coach-like’ in their workplace interactions. Erin previously worked as the Director of Corporate for CTI and as a senior consultant for PwC.
Mike Hutchins, PCC
Co-Founder, Trainer
Mike Hutchins is the Co-Founder of ACT. He is an Executive Coach and Adjunct Lecturer at Brown University. He has over 20 years consulting and coaching experience with PwC, IBM Business Consulting and KPMG, where he trained as a CPA / Chartered Accountant. He specializes in Change Management, Organizational and Instructional design, Strategy, Program Management and Leadership Development. Clients include: Vodafone, Nike Inc., Safaricom, O2, BBC, Wolseley, National Health Service, Novo Nordisk, Volvo, Alliance UniChem, Cemex, AECOM, CTI and American University.
Robin Rose, PH.D.,
PCC, Trainer
Robin is a highly skilled facilitator, educator and coach. She has worked in senior level positions and as an instructor at Brown University for 38 years. As a coach she works with executives from health care organizations, educational institutions and scientific and technology corporations. She is passionate about learning and helping others develop their practice of leadership.
Katie Johnson
Corporate Development Director
Katie is the Director of Corporate Development. She has been with ACT for over 7 years. Katie brings over 10 years of Sales & Marketing and consulting expertise, most recently working for PwC. She specializes in maintaining and developing client business relationships.
Brian Clyne, MD, MHL, Trainer, Academic Director for LCHP
Dr. Brian Clyne is a Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University where he has served in numerous clinical, educational, and administrative leadership roles over the past 20 years. As Vice Chair for Education, Dr. Clyne develops and supports programs across the continuum of learners from undergraduates to faculty. In addition to medical education, Dr. Clyne’s areas of interest include career development and physician leadership. He founded and directed Leadership in Healthcare, a master’s level course for Alpert Medical School students. He is a graduate of the Brown University Executive Master’s in Healthcare Leadership program and the ACT Leadership and Performance Coaching Certificate program. His coaching practice is focused on mid-career healthcare professionals seeking to expand their leadership capabilities to make a lasting impact.
Carlon Howard,
DEI Partner, Trainer
Carlon is a social entrepreneur dedicated to exploring innovative ways to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems. He is the Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer of The Equity Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing sustainable schools and communities through training, research, and community building. With a career trajectory rooted in the nonprofit and social impact sectors, his work has focused on developing, connecting, and supporting diverse leaders promoting life-affirming change. Carlon is also an adjunct instructor at College Unbound and a leadership coach, primarily serving social impact leaders from historically marginalized backgrounds.
Ashley Abbott, PCC,
B.Sc. Honours, Trainer,
Academic Director for Team Coaching
Ashley has 20 years of experience in enterprise software, professional services, and digital marketing. He started his career at IBM, and has held leadership roles in operations, client portfolio management, consulting practice management and project delivery in both corporate and startup environments. Ashley is a guest lecturer at Brown University, and has coached and taught hundreds of professionals globally over the last decade, in both 1-on1 and team formats. He is also the academic director for ACT’s ICF-accredited Team Coaching program offered in conjunction with Brown University. Past clients have included Calvin Klein / Tommy Hilfiger (PVH Europe), Deloitte Canada, Lockheed Martin, Lululemon, Molson Coors, Ontario Government, Quadreal, Rexall, Roche, Self-Esteem Brands (Anytime Fitness), and the US Federal Government.
Laura Lee,
Enrollment Coordinator
Caroline Gayton, Marketing Manager
Diana Simmons
Program Operations Manager
Diana is our Operations Manager for ACT. She has over 14 years of customer service and office administration experience and maintains the positive flow of communication between ACT and its clients. She supports the Program Director through positive interactions with, staff, business partners, and our clients from the beginning of their enrollment until the successful completion of their program.
Marlena DeCarion, MCC, Trainer
Marlena is passionate about empowering leaders, entrepreneurs and organizations to
not only grow, but to thrive and flourish in their mission and impact. She is a Master
Certified Coach through The International Coach Federation and has over 20 years of
personal and professional experience in human development and leadership
training. Marlena teaches Mindfulness publicly and inside organizations. She is a
certified teacher from Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute and a certified
Community Dharma Leader from Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
Julia Werts,
Program Manager
Julia joined the ACT team in 2022 as a Program Manager. She works to ensure successful and well-managed experiences for both participants and trainers. An Art Historian by education, her academic career included work at the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of African Art, the University of Cambridge, Cornell University, and Addis Ababa University. That background in academia helped inform her career as a working artist, spanning a vast array of mediums to include textile, ink, and watercolor paints. In her free time, she enjoys running and Korean cuisine. She lives just south of Pittsburgh, PA with her husband of 20 years, her 3 children, and far too many houseplants.
Stephanie Lovinger, PCC, Trainer, Mentor Coach
Adam Kugajevsky, ACC, Program Adviser, Trainer
Adam has consulted and coached on leadership, change, and strategy for over fifteen years, and he is passionate about helping people and organizations change for the better. Over his commercial and federal government consulting career, he has worked with all leadership levels across organizations large and small. As a coach, he focuses on helping people and organizations become more effective and higher performing through understanding how their values align with their work, and committing to and realizing lasting change. He has worked with clients in the U.S. Agency for International Development, Department of State, Department of Labor, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Agriculture, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and more, in addition to non-profit and commercial clients.
Miriam Discenza, Finance Manager
Christopher Veal, PCC, Trainer
A former Marine officer, combat veteran, and black man with 25 years of experience in talent development, Christopher supports leaders to embrace the vulnerability, courage, and compassion required in elevating their leadership influence and creating leaders with greater impact and results. He has worked in government, healthcare, and banking to help grow internal leadership talent and capacity.
Patrick Chapman, PCC Mentor Coach
Patrick’s passion for coaching stems from his desire to be on the front end of facilitating the development of conscious leaders. Patrick possesses 25 combined years of expertise in coaching, conflict management, training, organizational development, and law in the public and private sectors. He mentors new and certified coaches to help deepen their coaching competency. Patrick’s coaching, conflict management, and mindfulness expertise support executives and leaders with designing a more fulfilled and balanced work-life. Clients value Patrick’s calm nature, listening skills, intuitive knack, and thought-provoking questions and observations. He possesses an innate ability to help clients center, “cut through all the noise”, cultivate self-awareness, and execute their objectives.
Bonnie K Hill,
PCC, MSW, Trainer
Bonnie is passionate about her work as an executive coach and trainer. Bonnie specializes in leadership development and has extensive experience supporting leaders in increasing organization competencies, achieving organizational results and leading with impact. Clients have included Senior Executives, political appointees, and other leaders in HUD, USDA Forest Service, General Service Administration, HHS, Dept of Ed., NSA, DoD, Army, FDA and other government agencies. Bonnie has also worked with clients in hospitals (Children’s National Medical Center, D.C.), industry (Best Buy) and non profit organizations such as MercyCorps and FHI360.
Nick Kettles, MCC, Trainer, Mentor Coach
Media Foundation.
Katie Dimick, PCC, Alumni Manager, Mentor Coach, Program Advisor
Katie is a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and Facilitator with advanced training in Leadership Development and Facilitation and a specialization in Complex and Developmental Trauma. She works with clients to help disrupt limiting patterns and beliefs, develop stronger interpersonal communication skills and create more sustainable and fulfilling relationships. She also mentors new coaches on their certification journey and provides customized workshops for teams and organizations. At ACT Katie is a Mentor Coach, a Program Advisor and the Alumni Manager. She holds a BA in Spanish Linguistics from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Leonid Frolov, PCC, Mentor Coach
Sydney Wiecking, MCC, Trainer, Mentor Coach
Sydney has more than 30 years of experience educating, executive coaching and facilitating experiential leadership development in the non-profit, education, government and private sectors. She brings both a passion and a commitment to the processes of growth and transformation in her clients. Her expertise working in a diversity of cultures with both individuals and teams as they navigate change, has provided her the opportunity to work globally.
Roberta Harding, Executive Assistant
Vicki Jordan, PCC, Trainer, Mentor Coach
Vicki served 40 years as an Intelligence Officer with diverse experience to include the U.S. Army, National Security Agency (NSA), and USCYBERCOM. Throughout her career she held leadership positions at various levels of the organization and served the last decade of her time at NSA as a member of the Defense Executive Service (DISES); taking on many challenging Senior level roles and consistently mentoring and coaching team members, colleagues, and future leaders in the Intelligence Community. She is passionate about learning and dedicated to helping others develop their leadership skills. Vicki coaches individuals and teams in both the government and corporate arenas and is delighted to be a trainer for the Leader as Coach program.
Jeanine Mancusi, LLMC, PCC, NLCP Partner
Jeanine is ACT’s partner in the Next Level Coaching Program. Jeanine has been devoted to adult learning and effective training for more than thirty years. She trained hundreds of coaches before bringing her skills and passion to the Lucid Living and Coaching Transformation curriculum.
As a masterful coach and truth-teller, Jeanine maintains a robust coaching practice, bringing warmth, humor, and commitment to every client. Clients include professionals at Amazon, Google, Pinterest, Square, Facebook and Twitter as well as leadership teams at Wells Fargo Bank and Marriott Bonvoy Hotels
Michelle Goss, PCC, NLCP Partner
Michelle is ACT’s partner in the Next Level Coaching Program. Michelle is a self-proclaimed “personal growth geek” who read her first self-help book at the age of 12, setting the stage for a lifelong commitment to growth and spirituality. Since 1998, she has coached groups and individuals to experience greater levels of happiness and success by blending universal, spiritual principles with practical action. She is known for her lively, unconventional approach and has been called “magical,” “transformative,” and even “a lifesaver”.
Corporate clients include: The Coca-Cola Company, IBM, Herman Miller, EarthLink, Donaldson Companies, Georgia Pacific, Post Properties, Fairview Healthcare Systems, MidMichigan Health Services, Park Nicollet Health Services, W. L. Gore & Associates, Bonnell Aluminum, Kaiser Permanente, Cargill, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Twitter
Phil Askew, PCC, Business Builder Partner
Phil Askew is a certified professional coach and founder of his own coaching business since 2008. With 18 years of experience in tech, web and design, Phil now helps founders as a thinking partner find their mission, join the dots and bring positive change to the world through their ventures.
Phil has a passion for portraits and personal brand photography, which he has blended into his services for founders. He partners with them to capture incredible photographs to help them share their vision, tell their story, and elevate their confidence as the face of their business.
In addition to working with founders, Phil also mentors coaches to build impactful and profitable practices. As a coach and thinking partner, Phil offers support and guidance to both founders and coaches on their journey to success.
Michelle Hollingshead, MCC, Trainer
Michelle coaches and consults with executives, managers, and teams in Fortune 500 companies, privately held companies, and non-profit sectors. Michelle began her career in multicultural education before transitioning to coaching, consulting, and entrepreneurship. She holds a Master Certified Coach (MCC) credential through the International Coaches Federation, a Masters of Education in Curriculum Development from Lesley University and has extensive training in yoga, meditation and mindfulness practices.
Organizations she has worked with include Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Lexmark, Western Union, Cisco, Cigna, Nationwide Insurance and others.
Karen Makkes van der Deijl , PCC, Mentor Coach
Karen is from the Netherlands and after a 16 year corporate career she moved to coaching in 2010. Her motto is ‘Live life to the fullest and inspire others to do the same’. Clients work with Karen because they want to take leadership over their situation, professional or
personal. She helps clients to create the life, team, and results they really want. In coaching,
Karen creates a space of warmth, lightness, and safety and her coaching style is dynamic, direct, provoking when needed, and insightful.
She coached leaders in ING Bank, Accenture, Cargill, ABN AMRO Bank, DP World, Lloyds Register, Rotterdam School of Management, Fokker, and others. Karen is also doing leadership work with prisons, parents, high schools, and children in underprivileged areas (Rwanda and India) to pay it forward.
Denise Minor, CPCC,
Trainer
Denise spent over 28 years as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As a certified FBI instructor, she worked as a facilitator for the FBI’s leadership development program team.
Denise provides leadership development training to corporate and government organizational clients looking to achieve a higher level of performance through experiential-based learning and executive coaching. Areas of expertise include diversity and inclusion, women in leadership, professional and personal effectiveness and applied leadership development.
Clients include the Department of Commerce, Vaya Pharma, Environmental Protection Agency, IHG, and Georgetown University.
Anne Eggen-Johansen, MCC, Mentor Coach
Anne is a Master Certified Coach, working as an executive coach and leadership trainer. She is known for
creating a safe and courageous environment for people to expand, transform and perform from. She is a
passionate and intuitive coach who empowers people to create and navigate in complex systems with
simplicity and ease. Anne has worked with clients in public and private sector as well as with non-profit
organizations since 2003. She has been training and supervising individuals and groups to build their
coaching skills and capacities since 2006.
Ciara Baker,
Program Manager
Dr. Olena Khomenko PCC, Coach
Judy Nabb, ACC, LAC Trainer
Gina Paigen
PCC,CNTC, Mentor Coach
Gina Paigen, PCC, CPCC, CNTC, is an executive coach, diversity professional, consultant, strategist and facilitator; passionate about guiding individuals, teams and organizations to a deeper sense of purpose, and to higher levels of creativity, engagement, and inspired action.
She brings a wealth of diverse knowledge and experience in executive coaching and coach training, diversity, equity and inclusion work, leadership, mindfulness, business development, team and culture building, strategic planning, entrepreneurship, neuroscience, creative studies, and the arts.
Nicole Souadda, Program Manager + Alumni Manager
Nicole is a Program Manager and Alumni Manager with ACT and has been involved in and managed the operations of businesses for over 30 years in multiple industries such as manufacturing, insurance, educations, security ,nonprofit organizations and most recently financial services, both in the public and private sector with the last 10+ years at the C-suite level. She loves when students and faculty feel supported and have an experience that feels seamless. Nicole lives on the east coast of the united states and spends most of her down time with her adult children, extended friends and family and her beloved cats. She is an active volunteer in her local community and as a new empty nester, she is excited to be in the process of developing what this new stage of life with bring her!
Nimrat Dhariwal,
PCC
Nimrat Dhariwal is an executive coach and facilitator with over twenty years of experience in leadership development and performance management. She has coached senior executives and leadership teams in high tech, healthcare, multinational retail organizations and local and federal governments. Her leadership roles have included leading software teams, project engineering and training design and delivery in organizations. She uses a variety of methods such as neuroscience coaching tools, relationship systems mapping to engaging the right brain with metaphors and movement to help her clients shift perspectives and achieve sustainable results in complex and changing environments.
Tina de Meeûs,
MCC, CPCC, ACTC
A Master Certified Coach accredited by the International Coach Federation, Tina has a passion for making the work environment more humane. She has been working in the field of personal and professional development for over 20 years and today focuses on team- and leadership coaching and course facilitation. Tina actively seeks out varied, multi-cultural settings and environments and has worked with people from 6 continents, a large number of different countries and cultures, and various spiritual beliefs. Diversity helps her to challenge my own as well as systemic assumptions and think out of the box. Organizations worked with include: Footlocker, Google, Roche, The European Institutions and UN organizations.
Stephanie Mattes,
Program Manager
Stephanie joined the ACT team in 2023 as a Program Manager. She has more than 20 years of
experience in Program and Project Management with a background in International Development.
Stephanie has managed projects in the U.S., Germany, Colombia, and Argentina across various industrial
sectors including media, finance, and economy. She is an advocate of pro-active project planning, quality
control, and spearheading capacity-building activities to promote self-growth and confidence in team
members. Stephanie lives in Berlin, Germany with her husband and in her free time she enjoys cycling,
Pilates, reading, volunteering, and learning new languages.
Katie Arango,
Program Manager
Katie has extensive program management experience that comes from over a decade of working in the international education field, from serving as Program Officer at the Fulbright Commission to working at an international experiential education organization. She enjoys working directly with students to provide them with support and guidance ensuring they’re set up for success.
Originally from Chicago, Katie currently lives in Buenos Aires with her husband and two young children. She holds a degree in International Studies from Miami University (Oxford, OH). In her free time, she can be found spending time with her family, reading, and occasionally running. She speaks English and Spanish.
Jyllian Clarke-Shomo
Jyllian is an executive and leadership coach, mentor, and consultant who, after 30 years
in the security industry, has leaned into and embraced her passion to help develop
great leaders. Capitalizing on her drive to cultivate talent and develop leaders, she has
successfully combined her expertise in security with a deep understanding of human
potential, empowering individuals and organizations to thrive in challenging
environments. She has held executive level positions in the government and private
sector, where she enhanced the skills, knowledge, and leadership capabilities of
professionals. As a champion of workforce and leadership development, Jyllian aims to
equip leaders with the skills to foster a culture of continuous learning, professional
growth, and the ability to lead with confidence and authenticity.
She currently coaches executives, professionals experiencing career transitions, healthcare professionals, and is involved in leadership work with high school students
and parents.