Center for Government Leadership Coaches

Walt Besecker
Excellence in Government Fellows Coach
Walt brings both experience and passion to his role as a coach. His experience includes 30 years of combined federal government and military experience, including more than 10 years in the Senior Executive Service, and more than nine years as a consultant, facilitator and trainer. His passion is linked to his desire to help individuals realize their own potential and to become everything they are capable of becoming.

In the course of his federal service, Walt led significant department-wide change efforts while serving in a variety of roles, including Associate Chief Financial Officer for the Veterans Health Administration's (VHA) Decision Support System, as director of the VHA Policy and Forecasting Office, as VHA Budget Director, as VHA Director of Medical Care Cost Recovery and as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Director of Strategic Management and Director of Planning and Policy Analysis.

In addition to his federal experience, Walt has been serving as an Excellence in Government Fellows coach since 2000. He also serves as a facilitator, executive coach, instructor and consultant in the areas of performance measurement, workforce analysis, succession planning, change management, project management, strategic planning and business process redesign to a variety of clients including the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of State, National Archives, Smithsonian Institution, U.S. Department of Education, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement organization of the Department of Homeland Security.

Walt has a Master of Arts degree from Kent State University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and has completed all but the dissertation for his doctorate at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Walt loves to travel, read and spend as much time as possible with his family and grandchildren.

 

Dawn Frick
Excellence in Government Fellows Coach
Dawn Frick has had a federal career of more than 30 years with the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense (DOD). Most recently, she served as the Director of Management Development in the Leadership School at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center where she and her team instructed more than 2,000 employees in a variety of skills-based leadership training programs. These programs included leadership seminars for Ambassadors and Chief of Mission, organizational development interventions at overseas missions and customized executive coaching.

Dawn's extensive overseas experience includes training and consulting with diplomats and government leaders in Great Britain, Western and Eastern Europe, Africa, Thailand, Central America and Asia Pacific. Earlier in her federal career, she lived and worked in Germany for 10 years. As an internal organizational effectiveness consultant for DOD, Dawn facilitated strategic planning conferences and transition workshops and provided performance improvement interventions for military leadership and their communities.

Today, Dawn is an executive coach, management consultant and instructor/facilitator. She designs and delivers customized training programs for a variety of corporate, public and international organizations. Dawn is passionately committed to increasing cross-cultural understanding and helping leaders bring about systemic change for a better world. Her clients have included: USAID, U.S. Department of Commerce, the National War College, Federal Executive Institute, American Express, Alyeska Pipeline Corporation, Anchorage, Alaska and GKN and Great Britain.

Dawn holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Behavioral Sciences and a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology and Higher Education from the University of Missouri. She is a certified trainer of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, Stephen Covey 7 Habits and 4 Roles of Leadership; Conflict Resolution and Negotiation, Harvard; Diversity and Organizational Development certificate, National Training Labs, Coaches Training series, Coaches Training Institute. Dawn has been a coach with the Excellence in Government Fellows program since 2007.

Le'Angela Ingram
Excellence in Government Fellows Coach
Le'Angela brings more than 25 years of experience in a variety of private, public and academic organizations in the areas of change management, staff training and development, organization development, human resource assessment, workforce diversity, selection and management, program evaluation, business process reengineering, survey design and marketing.

Her work efforts focus on improving organizational effectiveness, staff skills and employee commitment, and increased employee sensitivity to individual and cultural differences; reduction in cycle time and cost; and increased effectiveness and efficiency of workflow. As a trainer and organizational development consultant, Le'Angela conducts training in the United States, Africa and Europe. Courses include change management design and interventions for corporations. She provides leadership training, process consulting, organizational assessment and diagnosis, coaching, management development and instruction aimed at achieving increased productivity and quality improvement in change management programs. She designs, develops and launches customized seminars and conferences in diversity, leadership skills, change management and team building yielding high ratings in content and quality.

Le'Angela has been an Excellence in Government Fellows leadership development coach since 2000. She also serves as an executive coach for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, USAID and a host of private clients. Other clients include Arlington, Virginia County Government, U.S. Department of Transportation, Washington Hospital Center, U.S. Attorneys' Office, U.S. Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development, District of Columbia Superior Court, The (USDA) Graduate School, Anne Arundel Community College and Johns Hopkins University.

Le'Angela earned a Bachelor of Business Administration and Marketing from Howard University. She also holds a Master of Science in Applied Behavioral Science (Organization and Human Resource Development) from Johns Hopkins University, where she also completed Fellowships in Change Management and Women, Leadership and Change. She is certified in Transition Management by William Bridges and Associates, the Birkman Assessment and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator.

Steven E. Jones, Ph.D.
Excellence in Government Fellows Coach
Steven has held senior leadership positions in private and public organizations leading change efforts. He has 18 years of experience providing facilitation, coaching and training to organizations focused on building more effective workplaces. He develops coaching and training protocols that transform people's skills in the areas of leadership, team building, communication, systemic change and diversity management.

Steven is an executive coach to leaders of foundations, nonprofits, banking and in federal government agencies including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, the Africa Development Foundation, Shore Bank, National Cooperative Bank, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Aviation Administration, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Department of Education, National Institutes of Health, the Smithsonian Institution and U.S. Department of Commerce. Steven has been an Excellence in Government Fellows leadership development coach since 2002.

 

Leah Kedar
Excellence in Government Fellows Coach
Leah Kedar has over 20 years experience as a consultant, facilitator, workshop trainer, and executive leadership coach; helping teams, managers, office directors, CEOs, leaders, and organizations in diverse organizational environments, including government, corporate, not-for-profit, political and academic, in both domestic and international settings, (Europe, Caribbean, Asia, Africa). In a transient and ever-changing work environment, Kedar specializes in supporting leaders as they are called to collaborate and partner within their organizations as well as across organizations.

Leah's approach to consulting and coaching is results-based, holistic and integral. She engages with her clients through a process of goal discovery to explore professional, business and/or organizational goals and to develop and carry out strategies and plans to achieve those goals. Leah utilizes qualitative as well as quantitative individual, and system assessment tools when coaching individuals and teams with a focus on developing leadership effectiveness, building trust and increasing collaboration. Kedar utilizes tools such as cross-cultural models of action and understanding, based upon appreciating the power of language to produce (or not produce) results in organizations, facilitated dialogue, and real-time coaching to develop skills in the areas of leadership, team building, and enhanced interpersonal and organizational communication.

Leah's clients experience significant shifts in how they see and approach their work, including improved relationships and trust, increased regard and esteem for others, improved understandings across differences, increased and improved communication among team members, and enhanced ability to lead and set direction from an understanding of a broader vision of their organization's future.

Kedar provides consulting and coaching services and collaborates with other consultants and trainers to provide consulting and facilitation services to many organizations including National Institutes of Health, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Department of Commerce (DOC), Economic Research Group-USDA, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), NASA, United Nations Foundation, Democratic National Committee, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Department of Health and Human Services: Office of AIDS Policy, Office of Women's Health, and Human Resources Service Administration HIV/AIDS Bureau, Department of Education. Private sector clients include InfoVista, KaBoom, Inc., Genpact Europe, Chemonics International and J. LaSalle.

Kedar holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Linguistics from the University of Maryland (1978), M.S./AbD in Sociolinguistics from Georgetown University (1982). She is a Newfield-trained ICF coach, and is a certified facilitator for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and the LPI, CCL Skillscope, and EI 360-degree assessment tools. She is also a certified Results Based coach and facilitator and an Action Learning Team coach/facilitator. Over the last three decades she has participated in numerous Leadership and Organization Development, Communication and Coaching programs. Her publications include "Power through Discourse" and "Voices of the Community: AIDS Orphans in the District of Columbia." Ms. Kedar served on the faculty of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maryland for fifteen years.

Leah is the recipient of the 2009 and 2010 ICF Prism Award for Coaching Excellence with National Institutes of Health Clinical Center and The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

John P. Riordan
Excellence in Government Fellows Coach
John Riordan has been committed to challenging people and organizations to reach their full potential for many years—first as a leadership program founder and director in East Africa, and now as an organizational development consultant based in Washington, DC.

John knows what it means to face the challenges of leadership and produce real results under extremely difficult conditions.  In 1990 he embarked on a journey to Uganda.  What began as a three month trip turned into an eight-year investment in the future of a nation struggling to overcome a tragic history of genocide, racism and anarchy. Witnessing the catastrophic condition of that nation in 1990, John and two colleagues developed a vision for a community that would build a new generation of leaders to guide the future of Uganda.  What emerged from this vision was Cornerstone Leadership Academy— a comprehensive boarding school experience for young adults focusing on leadership, character, spiritual and intellectual development.

As co-founder and Director of the academy for four years, John dealt with the challenges of turning a revolutionary vision into a reality in the midst of racial and tribal tensions, scarce resources, and numerous physical hardships.  John and his wife Margaret lived on-site in the rural community, side-by-side with the Ugandan teachers, students and staff who literally helped to build the school from the ground up.  In 1998, John successfully handed the leadership of the community over to the Ugandan staff he had developed over the years (including several of the school’s own graduates). These same committed colleagues continue to build leaders for that nation to this day.  Over 450 graduates of the Academy have gone on to take positions of leadership and service in their communities, schools, universities, national government, business and religious ministries.  Several are currently undertaking the establishment of similar Leadership Academies in war-torn Rwanda and Southern Sudan.

Today, John brings his rich and diverse experiences to bear in working with organizations and individuals, helping them establish strategic and business plans, build strong teams, and fully develop their leadership capacity.  He prefers to grapple with the “real work” that needs to be done, whether helping clients lay out specific strategies and action plans, establish practical operating agreements, or identifying specific leadership challenges to overcome. While John naturally builds strong connections with his clients, he is committed to doing the hard work of pushing them to get real results. 

John received his Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy from Washington and Lee University (1987), and his Master of Arts in Educational Management from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda (1997).  He and his wife Margaret have four children and reside in Ashburn, Virginia.

 

Jon Seymour
Excellence in Government Fellows Coach
Jon is a results-oriented leadership coach, facilitator, and management consultant. He began his consulting work following a year as Vice President for Planning and Development at Lockheed Martin IMS, a company primarily focused on supporting state and local government programs.

Before joining Lockheed, Jon was a career federal civil servant. His last assignment was as Assistant Secretary for Administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). For almost ten years he was responsible for leading DOT's human capital, acquisition, finance, information technology, security, and administrative support functions.

Jon was recognized for outstanding leadership in public service through a number of awards, including the Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and a Masters Public Administration from the University of Washington.

 

Felícita Solá-Carter
Excellence in Government Fellows Coach
Prior to her retirement in January 2009, Felícita served as Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Human Resources and Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer of the Social Security Administration (SSA), rated among the top 10 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government®. In this role, she shared national leadership of the Personnel, Training, Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity, Labor, Management and Employee Relations, Human Capital Planning and Executive Services Support programs.

A native of Puerto Rico, Feli graduated from the College of Mount St. Vincent in 1971. She began her career with the Social SecurityAdministration (SSA) in New York City and quickly moved into managerial positions. In 1991, she joined the Office of the Commissioner in Baltimore as Senior Advisor to the Principal Deputy Commissioner, becoming the first Hispanic in that role. In 1998, as Associate Commissioner for the Office of Training, she became the first Puerto Rican woman appointed to the Senior Executive Service at the Social Security Administration. She is the recipient of a 2004 Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive and a 2005 Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive, the highest honors a career federal executive may receive.

Currently, Feli is President of Conexiones, the 2009 recipient of the Governor's Hispanic Heritage Award as the Nonprofit Organization of the Year. The all-volunteer organization supports Hispanic student achievement in Howard County, Maryland. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of The Horizon Foundation and the Equity Council, the District Planning Team and the Bright Minds Foundation of the Howard County, Maryland Public School System. In 2008, she was named as one of Maryland's Top 100 Women and as a Hispanic Hero by the United States Hispanic Youth Entrepreneur Education.

 

Solly Thomas
Excellence in Government Fellows Coach
Solly Thomas has over 30 years of experience in the leadership and management of federal agencies and programs. He has held executive-level positions in both the public and private sectors—as Executive Director, Chief Operating Officer, Chief of Staff, and Acting Associate Director for Human Capital in the Federal Government; as an Associate Partner at IBM Corporation; and as an Executive Coach/Instructor for federal leadership programs.

Solly currently serves as an Executive Coach/Instructor for the Excellence in Government Fellows (EIG) program. This one-year program prepares rising federal leaders to lead people and deliver results through innovative coursework, benchmarking, action-learning projects, coaching and mentoring. His EIG coaching experience has included interagency/open enrollment programs, as well as cohorts from the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Education.

Solly also serves as an Instructor for the Senior Executive Assessment Program sponsored by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). This program is designed to help senior federal managers assess their Senior Executive Service (SES) performance potential, determine readiness to go through the SES selection process and better understand what life in the SES is like.

Prior to his coaching and instructing experience, Solly was a consultant at IBM Corporation where he provided Human Capital consulting, subject matter expertise and thought leadership for the federal sector. He served as project executive for delivery of services, drafted and edited Human Capital thought leadership publications, served as guest lecturer/trainer, and conducted conferences, forums and workshops.

When he retired from federal service in 2006, Solly was the Acting Associate Director for Human Capital at OPM where he led a number of government-wide programs. At OPM, he managed government-wide human capital programs under the President's Management Agenda with an emphasis on leadership development, succession planning, talent management and performance management, including pay for performance. He also managed the Senior Executive Service selection, performance management and certification programs. In addition, he was an Executive in Residence at the OPM Eastern Management Development Center where he designed and delivered leadership programs. He also served as the acting Center Director.

Solly also has held Senior Executive positions at two other independent federal agencies. He was the Executive Director of the Federal Labor Relations Authority—an independent agency that resolves federal disputes—where he served as the Chief Operating Officer. Prior to that, he served as the Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Solly has a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Notre Dame.

 

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