Our Associates
North Star Facilitators works with many other skilled facilitators. Each of these process facilitators have been trained in Technology of Participation (ToP) methods. Some of them also do training and mentoring. They include facilitators, mediators and coaches from around the world including USA, Canada, The Netherlands, UK and Singapore. Many are able to provide stellar online facilitation as well. Please feel free to get in touch with them directly, as our mission is to promote facilitators from all generations and races. I would highly recommend any of these associates as most of us have worked together over the last 10-20 years.
North America
Canada
Monica Chang, British Columbia, Canada
Monica is the Founder and CEO of Start with Clarity Consulting. She coaches CEOs, executives, and business owners with revenues of $5M+ to achieve unparalleled business results and personal well-being through transformational growth using neuroscience-backed strategies, both in the boardroom and in life.
Monica has over 25 years of experience in leadership development, executive coaching, organizational development, facilitation, and change management in the private, public, and healthcare sectors. She has coached from the front lines to C-Suite executives over the last ten years.
She leverages her decades of experience to deliver customized strategies that drive measurable business outcomes. What sets her apart is her holistic approach to coaching and training, incorporating neuroscience with the Positive Intelligence app to help leaders build new neural pathways for sustainable, high-performance habits. The result is not just professional success, but also personal well-being, creating leaders who excel in every facet of life.
Monica holds a Graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching, a Master in Adult Education (specializing in adult learning and change), and an Advanced Certificate in Gestalt Leadership and Therapy (four-year intensive). She is a Positive Intelligence Coach, a Certified Executive Coach, and an Associate Certified Coach. She also holds certifications in the following psychometric tools: Myers Briggs Type Indicator, and Strength Deployment Inventory/Core Strengths.
Visit her website: www.startwithclarity.com
Robin Parsons, Alberta, Canada
Robin Parsons, MBA, is a Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF) and Certified (ToPTM) Facilitator (CTF) who genuinely believes that the world is a better place when participative dialogue has happened. She has made it her mission to help groups to think clearly so that they can make the decisions they need to make through the design and facilitation of great dialogue.
Robin is a strategic thinker and an experienced leader with 25 years under her belt. She has an MBA, a B.Comm and is a Communications and Advertising Accredited Professional (CAAP). Robin has lead strategic planning & business intelligence teams at several Canadian organizations.
Robin has trained with Roger Schwarz, Sam Kaner PhD. and ICA Associates Inc., responsible for developing the Technology of Participation (ToPTM) methods used throughout the world. She is also certified to teach ToPTM participatory methods for ICA Associates Inc. Robin has also used Appreciative Inquiry, World Café and Open Spaces methods.
Robin established her own Consulting and Facilitation business in 2014 and is a ‘go to’ facilitator for Colliers Project Leaders and Lead2Perform and has delivered hundreds of facilitated events. Some recent clients include Alberta Innovates, The City of Lethbridge, Hull Services, GLJ Petroleum Consultants, Western Canada Water, Canadian Bar Association (Alberta branch) and Repsol.
Visit her website: www.parsonsdialogue.com
Specializing in: Strategic Planning, Team and Leadership Development, PATH, Large Group Facilitation
Rosanna von Sacken, British Columbia, Canada
Rosanna von Sacken, M.Sc., CPF, is the President and principal consultant and facilitator of Advanced Consulting and Facilitation Ltd. She has been working with groups, organizations and communities in strategic group process facilitation and emergency management in the public, private and non-profit sectors for 25+ years.
Rosanna is skilled and effective in facilitating groups of all sizes. She brings a practical, dynamic, interactive and people-centered approach to her facilitation work, whether it is leadership or team development, courageous conversations, strategic / action planning or multi-stakeholder engagement. Rosanna works in partnership with her clients to custom design processes to engage the participants, empowering them to cocreate innovative solutions, to share their collective wisdom, experiences and knowledge, and gain commitment and agreement for future actions. Rosanna offers both in-person and virtual facilitation training programs and coaching support.
Rosanna offers visual recording and visual facilitation services in a variety of settings and integrates her graphic skills in her work wherever possible, bringing life and colours to the spoken words through graphic representation of synthesized discussion points, presentations or meetings. These may be in the form of graphic charts, digital drawings, infographics, posters and brochures, and/or explainer videos.
Visit her website: www.advancedconsultingfacilitation.com
Specializing in: Strategic Planning, Team and Leadership Development, PATH, Large Group Facilitation
USA
Rangineh Azimzadeh Tehrani, California, USA
Rangineh is a Circle Practitioner, Certified Professional Facilitator©, and the Principal and Founder of Solh Resolutions International. She has over 15 years of experience facilitating deeply human spaces that center connection and community, and has worked with cross-sector organizations (domestically and internationally) ranging from community-based organizations to local governments. Rangineh lives into her core values of empathy and self-awareness through her work with The Circle Way (TCW), a circle methodology that offers a counter-cultural, equity-centered approach to working with groups while shifting organizations from transactional places into relational spaces.
Rangineh also continues to draw from her early experiences in Iran to inform her unique approach to conflict. Her Conflict Consciousness Workshop Series creates a carefully curated container for groups to take a deeply introspective view of how and why they show up in conflict as the first steps to cultivating true transformation. She also understands the need for, and value of healing in the face of the compounding effects of systematic oppression. To this end, Rangineh curates spaces intentionally designed for healing and restoration.
Visit her website: www.solhresolutionsinternational.com
Specializing in: PATH, Team and Leadership Development, Large Group Facilitation
Mike Beebe, Washington, USA
Mike Beebe has over 25 years experience building the capacity and leadership skills of individuals, organizations, and community groups that are working for positive social changes in their communities.
His services include coaching, facilitation, curriculum development and organizational change consulting. He also offers training in leadership skills, facilitation skills and diversity/equity.
Mike believes strongly in collaborating with skilled colleagues to provide training and consulting services to create the greatest impact. In that spirit, he is part of a number of powerful training teams including F.A.C.E. Consulting Collaborative, Gracious Space Institute, and ToP Trainers Network.
While Mike's career started in the non-profit sector, he now works with clients across sectors including non-profits, government agencies (city, county, state and federal) and corporations.
Visit his website: www.leadershipforchangeconsulting.com
Specializing in: Strategic Planning, Team and Leadership Development, and ToP Training
Erima Fobbs, Virgina, USA
Erima Fobbs, MPH is a Certified ToP Facilitator and ToP Mentor Trainer, and is the President of Collective Health Impact, LLC. She has directed, managed, consulted, evaluated, and facilitated for dozens of successful cross sector initiatives and provides training and consultation on numerous focused public health topics, health disparities and health equity, and organizational capacity building. Erima brings over 30 years of strategic public health and community prevention expertise to her projects. She has applied ToP approaches since 2014 in facilitating focused conversations, collaborative environmental assessments, group and community participatory consensus decision-making, strategic and/or action planning for dozens of governmental, non-profit, community, and corporate boards, groups, organizations, and agencies.
Visit her website: www.collectivehealthimpact.com
Specializing in: Strategic Planning, ToP Facilitation Methods, Action Planning
Sandra Jackson, Oregon, USA
Sandra Jackson, Principal of Resolution Conversations specializes in mediation, facilitation, and training. Sandra has a passion for helping people to have open, honest, and productive conversations to gain clarity, create understanding, and generate forward thinking. Sandra’s facilitation experience consists of retreats, board meetings, community-input meetings, team building, and strategic planning for government, non-profit, and for-profit organizations. In addition, Sandra facilitates Foreclosure Avoidance conferences as well as DHS family decision meetings. She also mediates for Multnomah County Small Claims Court and has been a co-trainer for the program since 2014. Sandra has been a co-trainer for East Metro Mediation’s 48-hour basic mediation training since 2016. Sandra provides training for groups in the areas of communication, conflict management, and facilitation basics. Sandra was the recipient of the Shannon Steward Award of Excellence in 2014.
Dawn Newman, Florida, USA
Dawn Newman is the founding principal of Blackhawk Facilitation offering facilitation, training, and consulting. She is an enrolled member of Ho-Chunk Nation that has professionally worked with Indian Communities and Nations for 30 years. She retired from University of Minnesota Extension in 2021 as an American Indian Leadership and Civic Engagement Educator after 17 years. She has an MA in Education from Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL and BA in Business from Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, IL. Dawn is a credible facilitator and leader trained to empower people, communities, and organizations. She builds trust through focused dialogue, strategic planning, action planning and community engagement all while ensuring respect. She resides in Parrish, Florida for most of the year and Barnum, Minnesota during the summer.
Visit her website: www.blackhawkfacilitation.com
Specializing in: Strategic Planning, Team and Leadership Development
Dora Perry, Oregon, USA
Dora Perry, a Nigerian-American is the founder and Principal of Cultural Coaching Solutions (CCS) LLC. CCS is a multi-generational, inter-cultural consulting team with 30+ years of expertise bringing social justice awareness and practical application tools to community groups, educational institutions, governmental entities, corporate and non-profit organizations. CCS team works with clients to ensure that cultural humility and historical context is incorporated into our workshops and every process that we lead or support. Our team always aims at centering those who have been historically and culturally marginalized without losing sight of the organizational and group needs.
Cultural Coaching Solutions Associates are very adept in supporting organizational leaders in their effort to infuse equitable principles into all processes, programs, and policies. We support leaders' efforts to build communities of trust and equip them with tools needed to create a place of belonging and inclusivity for their employees and stakeholders. Our team uses integrated and intersectional approaches to guide our client’s journey of systemic change and cultural understanding. Our team is highly effective in educating and creating awareness on issues of individual, institutional, and systemic racism.
Visit her website: www.culturalcoachingsolutions.com
Shelby Pierce, Iowa, USA
Shelby Pierce, owner of Pierce Porter Facilitation, is a Technology of Participation (ToP) Facilitator and Trainer. She helps groups and organizations create meaningful and productive plans for the future. Before becoming a full-time facilitator, she had 10 years of experience in the financial services and healthcare sectors. Shelby has a rich background in community organizing and has served on the executive committee for several nonprofit boards. She is passionate about supporting communities to move forward in life and business as we all forge new paths in this historic time.
Since the start of the worldwide pandemic, she has worked with over 75 groups, ranging from local community initiatives and nonprofits, to nationwide groups including healthcare, city governments, Collaboratives, education and training groups specializing in international student recruitment, as well as on an international level working on planning projects with colleagues from Dubai, Jordan and Canada.
Visit her website: www.greatplains.top
Specializing in: Strategic Planning and Team and Leadership Development
Eileen Pippins, California, USA
Eileen Pippins, M.A. is founder of Eileen Pippins Consulting Agency – focusing on facilitation, organizational development, and communication. A dynamic facilitator with over 15 years of learning and program development, implementation and training in higher learning and corporate settings, she has lent her talents to organizations and individuals in communications, strategic planning, conflict management, change management, community engagement, strategic planning and social justice. Based in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area, she has worked with organizations nationwide.
Some highlights of her work includes Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in higher education, served as a thought partner on education equity initiatives, and strategic planning for faith-based organizations, NGOs, and start-ups. Eileen brings a focused and exciting energy to work and learning environments. She uses Technology of Participation (ToP) methods for facilitation for maximum engagement. Passionate about supporting people in their communication, Eileen has effectively facilitated difficult conversations in groups, including social justice, education, across coalition, housing and displacement, health advocacy, civic engagement, and equity in criminal justice.
Visit her website: www.eileenpippinsconsulting.com
Specializing in: Strategic Planning and Team and Leadership Development
Shane Sasnow, Pennsylvania, USA
Shane is a strategic change consultant. As the founder of Strategy Active his work focuses on facilitating individuals, teams, and organizations through collaborative processes that create value. He draws on years of experience in strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, and creative problem solving combined with project & program management, transition & change management, communications, and training expertise.
Shane has worked with organizations ranging from Nike, AOL, Intel, and MillerCoors, to the State of Oregon, City of Portland, and the United Way to manage strategic change and transition projects in the areas of technology, finance, HR, and supply chain, as well as increase employee creativity, develop new products and packaging, design innovative new ways to deliver services, and plan strategic approaches to implementing change and growth.
Caribbean and Latin America
Alicia Small, Trinidad and Tobago
Alicia is the founder of Game Changer Concepts since 2013. She is passionate about projects and partners that engage her love for transformational leadership development, coaching and facilitation, strategic planning and visioning and corporate social responsibility. Alicia is a Certified Professional Facilitator through the International Association of Facilitators.
As a workshop facilitator and consultant, Alicia has designed and conducted workshops for both business and NGO clients. To date, workshop topics focused on Leadership Development, Strategic Planning, Internal Communications and Culture.
Alicia is also the founder and Executive Director of NGO, SHIFT! Caribbean with over 10 years of experience in marketing and communications strategy, leadership and community development in Trinidad and Tobago and in the US. Alicia has extensive leadership coaching experience.
In addition to creating the youth program in Trinidad and Tobago, and the Caribbean, Alicia is also working to design programmes that specialize in personal transformation and leadership development to host a series of innovative programs locally. Through SHIFT! Caribbean, she is developing a suite of leadership and community development programs based on conscious leadership, systems redesign and personal transformation principles.
Connect on Facebook: www.facebook.com/GameChangerConcepts
Asia Pacific Region
Jackie Chang, Taiwan
Jackie is a Certified Professional Facilitator (CPFM) by the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) and an Assessor to IAF. She is also the Board Director and Core Facilitator of C.P. Yen Foundation.
Prior to obtaining her CPF status, Jackie accrued more than 17 years of professional experience working in the field of public relations, including work for Elite Public Relations Consultants, K-Concepts Communications, Hill & Knowlton, Bridge One Consultants as well as Edelman worldwide.
Since 2004 Jackie has successfully applied and integrated group facilitation methods in PR, marketing and communications related projects, to conduct a series of Facilitative Leadership, Facilitative Communication, Strategy Meeting, Team Building, Crisis Management, Spokesperson Training, Media training and Marketing strategies courses. Her previous crisis spokesperson training clients includes: AstraZeneca Taiwan, Ministry of Health and Welfare(DOH), Air Products and Chemicals, AZ Electronic Materials and Pernod Ricard.
Connect with Jackie on LinkedIn
Specializing in: Strategic Planning and Team and Leadership Development
Teck Kwang Loh, Singapore
Teck Kwang is an Organizational Development (OD) Catalyst whose passion is to help organizations & people learn and grow.
Teck Kwang is the Chief Catalyst at Pareto Solutions, and he is often seen facilitating Strategic Planning sessions, Staff Retreats, Visioning Exercises, Process Improvement Projects, and Leadership Development Programmes. He is facilitative in his approach to OD. He harnesses the diversity among people, and he brings out the best in them. He empowers clients, co-creates solutions with them, and he helps them reflect & learn about their businesses.
His other passion is in maximizing people’s potential. He facilitates learning through a repertoire of methodologies such as Experiential Learning, Action Learning, Brain-based Learning, and Problem-based Learning. He is known for creating fun & engaging learning experiences even if the topics are traditionally “Heavy & Boring”. His passion in training is in the area of Facilitators’ Training, Train-the-Trainer & Personal Development. He brings with him his wealth of knowledge from his work as an OD practitioner. He shares tested and proven tools & techniques that work.
Connect with Teck Kwang on LinkedIn
Specializing in: Strategic Planning, Team and Leadership Development, Large Group Facilitation
Lidia Rusvita, Jakarta, Indonesia
Lidia Rusvita, M.Si, EF, ACC is the Founder of GET Consultant focusing on Human Resources and Organization Development process consultation and intervention, bringing her 20+ years of hands-on experience as a Human Resources and Organizational Development from various companies and industries. She has undergone and been involved in many systemic organizational changes, including Merger and Acquisition in her career journey.
She has witnessed the immense impact of facilitation in fostering success. As the Human Resources Lead, she has been instrumental in guiding numerous HR processes: Conflict Resolution; Employee Relations; Training Development; Decision Making; Recruitment; Change Management; Performance Management; and Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives.
During the challenging periods of restructuring and Merger and Acquisition, effective facilitation ensures a smooth and successful transition to a strong and integrated organization by addressing several key aspects of Communication and Coordination, Conflict Resolution, Integration of Cultures, Change Management, Strategic Alignment.
Lidia partners with HR and Business stakeholders, driving impactful change, collaboratively creating a thriving and growth-oriented environment that benefits both employees and the overall success of the organization.
Visit her website: www.getconsultant.id
Specializing In: Strategic Planning, Team and Leadership Development
Grace Tan, Singapore
Grace is a Certified Professional Facilitator (CPFM) by the International Association of Facilitators (IAF). She is also the Principal Facilitator of TLC & Associates that seeks to bring the collective wisdom of leaders and their teams to achieve collaborative, sustainable, and successful outcomes.
Grace specializes in leadership and team development, and is dedicated to empowering individuals and strengthening teams through a holistic approach. With a profound passion for creativity and innovation, her facilitation style is designed to unlock the full potential of leaders and teams by fostering an environment that encourages fresh ideas and strategic thinking, and to align teams with overarching goals and objectives.
She has been designing and delivering leadership and coaching programmes, facilitating executive team off-sites, strategic planning process and large-scale innovation workshops since 2010. Her commitment to staying current with the latest trends in leadership and innovation ensures that her clients receive cutting-edge insights and strategies that propel their teams forward in an ever-evolving business landscape.
Connect with Grace on LinkedIn
Specializing in: Strategic Planning, Team and Leadership Development, PATH, IAF and Facilitator Mentoring
Lilian Wang, Australia / Singapore
Born in Beijing, educated in Hong Kong and Germany, Lilian Wang is committed to life-long learning, individual and team transformation. She has been designing and delivering leadership and coaching programmes, facilitating executive team off-sites, multi-stakeholder dialogues, strategic planning process and large-scale innovation workshops since 2006.
Always on the lookout for development opportunities, Lilian works towards integrating studies of east and west, such as mindfulness, process facilitation, integral theory, somatic release exercises into her coaching and facilitation practice. She partners with clients to develop dialogue processes that engage both head and heart, opening up space for understanding, connection and reconciliation with self and others.
Lilian comes from a diverse background comprising experience in management consulting, staff development, research collaboration and marketing operations in both public and private sectors. Prior to becoming a facilitator/ coach, she was engaged in a start-up learning and development business, where she helped lay the business foundation and expanded its client base to over 2,000 executives/ managers in Asia in two years. Her current clients span a range of sectors, including energy, financial institutions, healthcare and pharmaceutical, technology, manufacturing, social enterprise and non-profit organisations.
Lyn Wong, Singapore
Lyn Wong is an International Association of Facilitators (IAF) CertifiedTM Professional Facilitator and a Professional Coach who has undergone 104 coaching training hours with the Coaches Training Institute and 84 training hours as an organization relationship systems coach (ORSC™). An accomplished and committed professional, Lyn has to her credit, multiple certifications in team and professional assessment tools which she employs with great success in her work with clients. She has an avid interest in people, team and organization development and believes that the success of any change effort is driven by organizational culture. Lyn operates primarily on the value of collaboration, co-creation and collective approach through alignment and engagement in achieving strategic objectives. Her focus and expertise includes developing resourceful teams and leaders, harnessing the diversity of cross-cultural teams, facilitating collaborative problem-solving and active participation for organizational change. Lyn is skilful at using team coaching to help organisations accelerate team performance. She accredits success to the trust in the wisdom of the individuals and teams she works with which is highly empowering.
Specializing in: Strategic Planning, Team and Leadership Development, PATH, Large Group Facilitation, IAF and Facilitator Mentoring
Europe
Mireille Beumer, The Netherlands
Mireille is a facilitator and a change consultant working in the field of business, processes and technology. It is her specialty to facilitate management & design meetings and the processes of the realization of online learning & facilitation academies. She also trains project leaders how to facilitate their (virtual) team meetings.
Mireille lives in The Netherlands (Europe) and graduated with her first Master of Science in 1995 from the Technical University Delft, in Civil Engineering. In 2005 she graduated with her second Master of Science from the Open University of the Netherlands, in Business Processes and IT.
During her career she worked at different consultancy agencies, for more than 50 clients, both profit and non-profit organizations. In these projects she mainly played the role of change consultant, process supervisor and facilitator. The projects were both national as well as international.
The last 20 years, Mireille followed several courses in coaching, (virtual) facilitation, advisory skills and leadership and management. Since February 2015, Mireille works as a business entrepreneur. Typical words that describe Mireille are: professional, enthusiastic, energetic, positive and quality-driven.
Visit her website: www.mireillebeumer.nl
Martin Gilbraith, United Kingdom
I am an independent facilitator, trainer and consultant based in London, UK. I am a Certified Professional Facilitator | Master (CPF|M) of the International Association of Facilitators, former IAF Chair and IAF Europe Director. I am an ICA Certified ToP Facilitator (CTF) and a licensed provider and experienced lead trainer of ICA:UK Technology of Participation (ToP) facilitation training courses. I am past President of the Institute of Cultural Affairs International (ICAI) and former Chief Executive of ICA:UK, the participation and development charity. I have been facilitating and training, specialising in ICA’s ToP facilitation methodology, since 1986.
As a Certified Professional Facilitator, my clients are assured that I uphold the IAF Code of Ethics and that I demonstrate the full range of core Facilitator Competencies. For more on me and my work, and what others have to say about it, please see about me, how I work, who I work with and recommendations & case studies.
Middle East
Goli Ahmadifard, Tehran, Iran
Goli Ahmadifard has a bachelor degree in Environmental studies and started her career as an environmental trainer in 2003. Later on, she has continued her profession in the field of participatory adult training and group process facilitation since 2007. On the quest to explore how to influence people and bring about positive changes she studied for a Master of Leadership and Human Relation Studies at Makerere University in Uganda in 2011. And she has continued her career in group process facilitation and soft skills training.
She is an Endorsed Facilitator by International Association of Facilitators. She has strived to promote the power of facilitation in Iran by establishing IAF Iran Chapter in 2016 and creation of a website which provides related knowledge to the Iranian facilitators. She mainly engages in the projects with the aim of human development and sustainable development. Goli has also been trained as a mediator and she is a Persian local trainer at the International Mediation Campus, located in Germany. The course is accredited by the International Mediation Institute.