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.
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.
Caroline Gayton, Marketing Manager
Caroline is the Marketing Manager for ACT. She has worked in marketing and communications/PR for over 20 years and has experience working in many sectors including business travel, automotive, electronics, the fitness industry and online education. Caroline is naturally inquisitive and has a passion for social media, she brings with her experience of curating content and design thinking. Outside of work, Caroline is an indoor cycling instructor but she loves to spend her time outdoors in nature with the family or on the bike.
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.
Miriam Discenza, Finance Manager
Miriam manages the accounting and financial planning functions for ACT. With an experience base that includes auditing, government contract accounting, and financial reporting, as well as general bookkeeping functions for multiple startups, Miriam applies her expertise to support ACT’s dynamic and innovative engagement model. Miriam holds a BA in Economics from Washington & Lee University.
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.
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.
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
Roberta Harding is the Executive Assistant and onboarding coordinator for ACT.
Roberta provides support to ACT Leadership by managing numerous tasks,
supporting internal communications and accomplishing key objectives. Prior to
joining ACT, Roberta spent over 15 years working within the federal government.
During that time, she held various positions to include quality specialist and trainer,
HR analyst, executive assistant, and in positions various of leadership. She was
recognized for her expertise in stakeholder relations, teamwork, communication, HR
management, and program and event planning. Throughout her career, Roberta has
consistently demonstrated her qualifications and proficiency as an administrative
professional. Her diverse skills and experience make her a forward-thinker,
anticipating challenges, and planning effectively without compromising standard
operations or accuracy.
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.
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
Ciara is an experienced project and account manager with a background in data management. Ciara has managed clients and projects in the UK, Argentina and internationally across various industry sectors including health, retail, banking. She has successfully implemented internal training programmes in both call centre and retail environments and created accompanying learning guides.
Ciara lives in Buenos Aires with her Argentine partner and their daughter. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, yoga, running, reading, and spending time with loved ones. She speaks English and Spanish.
Dr. Olena Khomenko PCC, Coach
Olena came to coaching after over 20 years of executive career with global companies, including 7 years in top management role with P&L responsibilities. Since 2015 she coaches senior executives and top management teams in North America and Europe. In 2020 she competed her Doctoral research study on managerial practices to facilitate learning from experience. As a LD development consultant Olena focuses on creating programs to support vertical development of managers to enable culture transformations in large organizations. Dr. Khomenko is a Professor of Leadership for Kyiv School and Economics and a member of Leadership Program Faculty of CTI. Clients include, Canadian Association of Mental Health Professionals, York University, Women in Leadership Canada, KPMG, LHH, National Bank of Ukraine, UMGI, Jabil Circuit, and others.
Judy Nabb, ACC, LAC Trainer
Judy has experience coaching emerging and seasoned leaders in higher education, non-profits, and government along with entrepreneurs. She received her coaching training through Brown’s School of Professional Studies in conjunction with ACT Leadership. She is passionate about helping others learn, grow and develop. With 20+ years of experience, she also designs, develops, and leads the implementation of a variety of learning initiatives. Her focus has been on leadership development, change management, mentoring and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Currently, Judy serves as the Director of Talent Development, Human Resources, Brown University. She also co-leads the Leader as Coach program offered through the School of Professional Studies in collaboration with ACT Leadership. Judy is a Development Dimensions International (DDI) Certified Facilitator, a Master Practitioner of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ® and is completing the CliftonStrengths® coaching certification.
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.
