Our team
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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I believe deeply in the transformative power of coaching to strengthen leaders and, through them, the communities they serve. C4CL’s mission resonates with my conviction that investing in leaders—especially those navigating complex challenges—can create lasting change.
By helping leaders reframe their perspectives, C4CL can support them in becoming more strategic, grounded, and hopeful, enabling them to sustain their impact without burning out. This work matters because strong, supported leaders are essential to creating thriving, equitable communities.
President & Secretary
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The time is now, for engaging with women across Maryland who are serving their communities in various ways and from various vantage points. Presidents, CEOs and executive leaders have benefitted from leadership coaching for years. Yet at the heart of change and impact are the leaders in the thick of it all, quietly working long hours and sacrificing their own time and energy to help their neighbors in greater need than their own. Those leaders, often looked over, are the ones that need our help to overcome challenges, build their confidence to make impacts, and advocate for themselves so they can better advocate for others.
C4CL is an organization that will link highly skilled coaches with passionate leaders who promote equity and justice for all. In doing so, we’ll create a powerful ripple effect that transforms change where it is most needed.
TBD
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As a white man in the U.S., I’ve come to understand how much privilege shaped my life in ways I didn’t see for many years. Since 2016, I’ve been on a continuing journey of learning, reflection, and action toward racial justice—guided by communities like Undoing Racism, Coaching for Social Justice, White Men for Racial Justice, and the Association of Coach Training Organizations (with their emphatic stand for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging).
Coaching for Community Leaders (C4CL), with its deep commitment to equity and belonging, feels like a natural home for this work and a clear answer to the question that continues to guide me: What is mine to do?
TBD
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Kristen Lavender is an energetic, compassionate and driven leader. Throughout her distinguished seventeen year career with the National Security Agency, Kristen chartered her own career path. She genuinely believes that the professional development support she received from mentors (as a junior employee) and coaches (after moving into a leadership role) directly correlated with her professional growth. She knows that not all of her colleagues or friends from other non-profit organizations received the benefits of these opportunities. Her personal vision for C4CL is to see coaching and professional development services offered to ALL who are actively trying to further our communities equality and make a difference in our world.
Treasurer
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I volunteer with C4CL because its mission—to create communities rooted in equity, justice, and belonging—reflects what I value most.
I’m passionate about helping people feel seen, heard, and valued, and I’m honored to contribute my leadership and coaching experience to support C4CL’s work in creating lasting, meaningful change.
TBD
Staff
Executive Director
Grace Manley
Grace Manley is a highly sought-after Executive Coach, Speaker, and Facilitator. After a distinguished tenure as an Executive Leader at the National Security Agency, Grace launched her successful coaching and consulting firm, With Grace. She specializes in coaching leaders who experience being the "Only" – a trailblazer by choice or lack of representation – and the "Other" – an outsider whose belonging is questioned within or by others.
Grace is inspired by the untapped potential she sees in people and is uniquely gifted at helping others unleash their strengths and wisdom to navigate beyond their internal and external obstacles. Her direct, insightful approach balanced with wisdom and compassion leads to her clients’ clarity and vision, and has seen how in turn, their leadership transforms their teams and organizations to soar to greater heights.
This is the impact she wants to make accessible to the organizations that are advancing the equity, rights, and opportunities of historically marginalized communities. With this passion in mind, she founded Coaching for Community Leaders with her inaugural Board of Directors to expand access to the transformative power of Executive Coaching to those who are helping our communities thrive.