Sonja Mustiful (she/her), MHR, PCC, CDTLF, Executive Coach, Author, and Chief People Officer/Essence of Coaching, has over fifteen years of experience working with individuals, teams, and organizations to develop their capacity to lead and influence at all levels. Essence of Coaching, is a consultancy with intentionality of empowering leaders to discover their strengths, uncover their blind spots, and rise to their potential. She created Essence of Coaching after discovering her enthusiasm to inspire leaders to become more than they thought possible and lead with values, self-compassion, and trust. Prior to Essence of Coaching, Sonja was the Vice President of Human Resources - First Data.

She led transformational change and continues to create space for leaders to stretch their leadership muscle and embrace diverse perspectives. The drive behind her work is a desire to create inclusive environments where everyone has the opportunity to be seen, heard and valued. Sonja accomplishes this by building relationships with clients to gain an understanding of their opportunities and desired impact while looking across their evolving landscape. Sonja specializes in executive coaching, transformational team culture change, leadership development, strategic planning, and organizational effectiveness. She has over fifteen years of experience working with teams and organizations across ecommerce, manufacturing, financial services, government, nonprofit, and educational sectors such as Medtronic, First Data, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, FedEx, University of San Diego – The Nonprofit Institute, and the Family Sonja holds a Master’s degree in Human Resources, PCC certification as an Executive Coach from the International Coach Federation (ICF), Brené Brown Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator. Sonja will facilitate and coach at all levels of the program.