Board of Directors
President
Ellyn Dannewitz
I am an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and founder of Brige The Gap Coaching. I help emerging leaders, executives and individuals who are ready to make meaningful change. My coaching is rooted in Positive Intelligence and mental fitness, guiding clients to build clarity, resilience, and confidence to bridge the gap between where they are today and the best version of themselves.
With more than 30 years of corporate leadership experience, I bring both depth and practicality to my coaching practice, creating space for growth that is both strategic and sustainable. Coaching has been transformational in my own journey, and I'm passionate about helping others experience the same shift toward possibility and purpose.
Most recently, I was honored to be elected President of the ICF Chicago Chapter (2025-2026). In this role, I am committed to fostering connection, accountability, and community and to advancing the impact of coaching across our profession the broader Chicago area.
Secretary
Stacy Jackson
Stacy Jackson is an executive coach who partners with leaders as they navigate complex relationships, workplace challenges, and seasons of transition with greater clarity, confidence, and purpose. She believes the best coaching creates space for leaders to slow down, think more deeply, reconnect to their own brilliance, and lead in ways that are both effective and deeply aligned with who they are.
Before becoming a full-time coach, Stacy spent 30 years with Chicago Lights, a youth development and adult social service nonprofit at Fourth Presbyterian Church. For fourteen of those years, she served as Executive Director where she developed leaders, strengthened teams, and guided strategy. Having led through organizational change, conflict, uncertainty, and competing priorities, she understands firsthand the realities leaders face. She creates a calm, thoughtful, and nonjudgmental coaching partnership where clients feel safe enough to be honest, challenged enough to grow, and supported enough to move forward with confidence.
Stacy earned her master's degree from the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, is an Licensed Clinical Social Worker, completed training through Accomplishment Coaching, and is an ICF-credentialed Professional Certified Coach (PCC). She considers it a privilege to walk alongside emerging and experienced leaders in the social impact sector as they create and elevate their leadership.
With much appreciation for the opportunity to serve as Secretary of the ICF Chicago Chapter, Stacy enjoys contributing to the coaching community while building relationships and learning alongside fellow coaches.
Jodi Kentner
Program Director
Aquabah Gonney
In a pursuit to change the status quo and strive for transformational change through innovation, Aquabah Gonney-Buckner has dedicated her 18-year career to teaching and leading in urban schools as a teacher, instructional coach, and turn-around school leader. As the principal of Lewis School of Excellence, Gonney-Buckner transformed her school from Level 2 (Intense Support) to Level 1 (good standing) by emphasizing a personalized approach to education, culturally responsive practices and social emotional learning, setting a new standard of excellence for students and a new vision of what school could be. In addition, Lewis School of Excellence achieved a 4.2% increase in student attendance and an 82% decrease in student discipline infractions. During the pandemic, Mrs. Gonney was featured in the Chicago Public Education Fund’s Principal Response to the Pandemic Report for her school’s bi-weekly culturally responsive teaching professional development for teachers and staff to discuss diversity, inclusion and equity in education. As a premier school in her network, she was featured in the book How Schools Work written by Arne Duncan, Former U.S. Secretary of Education under Barack Obama.
Aquabah Gonney-Buckner holds a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology with a Minor in General Art from Delaware State University and a Dual Masters in Childhood and Special Education from Wagner College. For the last six years, Mrs. Gonney-Buckner has used her passion for education to support other leaders within the field of education. She believes strongly in leaders working in tandem with other leaders to make strategic decisions. As a result, she started her company, Lead With Leaders LLC in 2023 to provide support to principals and district leaders from former and current leaders, to help navigate the challenges of leadership through Coaching, Consulting, and Professional Development. She has had the privilege of working with principals and school districts across the country to support school leadership. She is the recipient of two leadership awards for her work with the Black Principals Network as the Director of Programming for The Leadership Collaborative 2024. She is also a member of the International Coaching Federation and sits on the Board of Directors for the ICF Chicago Chapter as the Director of Programming where she uses her talents to curate professional learning for the coaching community in Chicago. Aquabah believes that despite what the saying says, it doesn’t have to be “lonely at the top'' if you have the right people at the top with you.
Membership Director
Jai Anand Sekar
Jai's path to executive coaching was shaped by more than two decades of navigating complexity - across technology consulting, strategy consulting and coaching with global organizations like Capgemini, Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company) and Amazon Web Services. His first hand experiences when he held leadership roles across North America, Europe and India, informs how he helps leaders navigate their challenges across identity evolution, career pivots, cultural adaptation, and the search for sustainable success.
Jai's deep experience reflects in his coaching philosophy: 'Leaders don't need more advice - they need translation'. He practices Precision Inquiry Coaching - a methodology that combines the analytical rigor of management consulting with the depth of transformational coaching. Jai is also adept at creating genuine psychological safety for clients to confront complex truths. He focuses on making the abstract measurable and the emotional logical - helping analytical clients access their inner wisdom through the language they already speak before gradually expanding into emotional territory.
Jai works primarily with mid-to-senior leaders in consulting, technology, finance, healthcare, consumer goods, start-ups, education etc. who are redefining success on their own terms - moving from external validation to self-authored decisions. A Northwestern Kellogg MBA graduate, he is passionate about expanding access to quality coaching, mentoring emerging practitioners, and contributing to research-informed practice standards within the ICF community.
Outside of coaching, Jai remains active as a strategy consultant and a global consulting leader, bridging the worlds of business transformation and leadership development.
Marketing Director
Joyce Mabelle Talag
[email protected] | [email protected]
Joyce Talag, MCC, is a leadership and executive communication coach and founder of The Leadership Voice Studio, based in The Loop, Chicago, where she works primarily with multicultural leaders, bringing a culturally responsive and English as an additional language (EAL)-inclusive approach to leadership and communication. She was drawn to coaching after years of working closely with boards and senior business leaders on corporate social responsibility, philanthropy, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Coaching offered her a way to extend that impact by supporting leaders whose decisions shape workplaces, families, and communities—while having the flexibility to be present for her daughter.
Since leaving corporate work, Joyce has built her coaching practice across the Philippines, California, and now Chicago. She has facilitated 5,000+ coaching sessions with mid- to senior-level leaders, including C-suite executives, across Big Tech, Fortune 500 companies, high-growth startups, and international nonprofits.
Joyce is now expanding her contribution to the profession through The Coaches Studio, where she aims to support the coaches behind the coaching. She has completed ICF Level 1, 2, and 3 coach education, including the Professional Certificate in Team, Board and Systemic Coaching at Henley Business School. In addition to her MCC, she holds ICF Mentor Coaching Specializations (MCS) for ACC, PCC, and MCC levels and has applied for the ICF Coaching Supervision Specialization (CSS). She holds a master’s degree in Development Management from the Asian Institute of Management and has also completed training through Harvard’s Program on Negotiation and Dispute Resolution and Cornell University’s Women in Entrepreneurship program.
As Director of Marketing for ICF Chicago, Joyce brings together her experience in coaching and business development to strengthen member engagement, amplify professional coaching, and build connections between the chapter and the Chicagoland area.
DEIB Director
Paul Steele
Paul’s introduction to coaching came while designing national programs in Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) development in the Sultanate of Oman. He holds a master’s degree in Intercultural Service Leadership and Management from the School of International Training (SIT) and is a 2024-2025 Fellow with the American Express Leadership Academy for non-profit organizations. His professional experience has included the public, private and non-profit sectors across Japan, Korea, China, Oman and Chicago. He works full-time for Lions International, managing a team of 200 volunteer leaders across 80 countries in Europe and Africa; and is on the Advisory Board for Refugee Jumpstart.
Paul is a certified DEIB Chapter Leader through International Coaching Federation (ICF). He hold an ACC certification, and his coaching practice specializes in executive coaching, Small and Medium Enterprise leaders, group coaching, non-profit leaders, and on cross-culture career transitions.
At-Large Director
Valerie Rogers
At-Large Director
Wanda Williamson-Jackson
info@whatsnextsolutionsllc.com
Wanda brings a profound commitment to continuous learning and excellence as a Director-at-Large on the ICF Chicago Chapter Board.
With over 34 years in education, she cultivated a deep and varied expertise, successfully navigating and leading diverse environments as a teacher, special education case manager, counselor, department chair, and assistant principal. This extensive experience gave her the privilege of empowering individuals at every stage of life to unlock their potential and confidently navigate change.
This deep-rooted passion now drives her private coaching practice, What's Next Solutions LLC. Founded in 2023, the practice initially focused on midlife transitions for women but evolved by March 2025 to support professionals and executives of all genders seeking tools to lead with purpose and positive impact.
Wanda offers a unique, holistic coaching partnership, tailored to meet each client's individual needs. Her methodology integrates strategic assessment data (including her DISC certification) with a deep specialization in leadership development and emotional intelligence.
Her background is anchored by a Master's degree and certifications in Educational Leadership and Professional School Counseling, complemented by focused certifications in Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and Mindfulness.
Wanda has completed the rigorous ICF-PCC Professional and Executive Coaching program and holds the ICF-ACC credential. Her exceptional career trajectory demonstrates the dedication she now brings to supporting the Chapter's mission.
