A coach, educator, and researcher working at the intersection of human development and organizational life.

Practical enough for the room. Rigorous enough for the research.

Penny has been a coach-practitioner since 2006. Her work centers on leadership coaching, coach education, organizational development, professional transitions, and the developmental changes that can occur when people learn to coach.

She serves as Director of Coach Education and adjunct faculty in George Mason University’s Organization Development and Knowledge Management program. Her teaching sits inside a scholar-practitioner tradition: theory matters, practice matters, reflection matters, and people learn by engaging directly with experience.

Penny’s PhD is in Human and Organizational Systems. She holds an MS in Organization Development and Knowledge Management and a BS in Psychology. She is an accredited Senior Practitioner with EMCC Global.

Before coaching had a name in her work.

Earlier in her career, Penny worked in technology and project management, including troubled projects where stakeholder relationships had broken down. She became known for helping people talk again—essentially coaching before she knew that was what she was doing. That history still matters: her work remains grounded in real organizational tension, not abstract models alone.