Every leader has walked the path, stumbled, and risen stronger. Our curated team of experienced leaders is here to help you pave the way.

 MPH, MCPM, PCC, PMP   

CXO & Program Designer

Brit is a founder, educator, and systems thinker with more than fifteen years leading large-scale transformation, learning design, and change initiatives across the private sector, healthcare, government, and mission-driven organizations, she knows what it takes to move people and organizations through moments that matter.

Her work lives at the intersection of psychology, change theory, and business strategy, because the realities executives face rarely fit neatly into one discipline.

Brit is committed to supporting professionals through transition and reinvention: the quiet reckonings that come mid-career, the pressure of leading teams through ambiguity, the cost of carrying a vision no one else sees yet, and the work of rebuilding confidence after the role or the path shifts beneath you.

At Anchor & Ascend, Brit supports the strategic design and delivery of programs that help individuals reconnect with their purpose and support organizations in building inclusive, resilient cultures. 

BA(HR), BA(Psych), Adult L&D Cert.

Program Designer & Instructor

 Margaret (MJ) Jennings is a mental performance coach with nearly 20 years of experience helping 3500+ elite athletes, executives, and high-achievers perform under pressure without burning out to get there. 

A former Princeton varsity athlete turned IFS-certified coach, she blends neuroscience, psychology, and firsthand experience from locker rooms to boardrooms into a practical, supportive, judgment-free approach. 

MJ helps clients reframe old patterns, recover from setbacks faster, and make composure feel automatic. 

 MSW RSW, SEP, RYT 200

Program Designer & Instructor

 The majority of my career I’ve led teams through healthcare innovation and transformation as a senior leader.  I’ve taught college-level courses in Health, Management and Strategy, and I’ve spent two decades studying sports performance, leadership and human behaviour.

I’ve learned there’s no one-size-fits-all. Humans are complex and so are the systems we work within. I offer an integrative approach that adapts to each leader and works from and within their unique perspective and contextual experience.

 My sweet spot is helping leaders shift teams into a performance mindset with a sports psychology focus.

My intention is for leaders to feel less alone, full of possibility and part of the solution.  

BA, MACP, RP(q)

Curriculum Designer & Instructor

With nearly two decades of progressively senior leadership experience informing her practice, she brings a real, lived understanding of what it takes to hold responsibility, lead teams, and navigate high-stakes decisions.

Her work with leaders and organizations is direct, collaborative, and calibrated for people with real bandwidth constraints. Sessions move. Adriana can sit with complexity without needing to tidy it up, and she knows how to translate insight into action in environments where "thinking about it more" isn't enough.

She instructs at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies and works as a senior facilitator, training professionals in some of the most demanding fields, which means her perspective stays sharpened by the work, not just the theory.

BA (Gov.)

Curriculum Designer & Instructor  

Erin is the Institute's governance expert: government experience, senior public-sector leadership, and deep familiarity with the political and accountability environments that senior leaders navigate every day.

Erin spent several years at the Ontario Ministry of Education, providing strategic policy support and coordinating briefing materials for the Deputy Minister, Minister, and Premier's Office. Earlier, she held roles in the Minister's Office at the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, where she developed the political acuity and high-stakes coordination skills that come only from inside the machine, managing multi-stakeholder processes under real pressure, with real consequences.

That background shapes how Erin shows up for clients. She understands the unwritten rules, the optics, the council dynamics, the Ministry-facing pressures, and the accountability weight that sits on a senior leader's desk. She can speak to all of it without needing it explained. 

Her advice is sharp, discreet, and grounded in the lived realities of public-sector leadership.

For senior leaders who want someone who already knows the environment they're operating in, not someone learning it from the sidelines.

M.A.(Leadership), RP 

Curriculum Designer & Instructor 

With more than two decades spanning clinical leadership, program direction, founding businesses, and university instruction, he brings the kind of range CEOs and senior leaders can use.

As a psychotherapist, Colin works with the realities executives know intimately but rarely get to name out loud: the weight of decisions that move people and dollars, the isolation that comes with being the one everyone looks to, the quiet toll of relentless performance, and the strain demanding careers put on relationships.

 His clinical work is direct, grounded, and paced for people whose time is the most contested thing they own.

As a curriculum designer and instructor, Colin translates hard-won operational experience into learning that holds up under scrutiny. He has built and led programs, diversified revenue under pressure, co-founded ventures from the ground up, and facilitated complex multi-stakeholder decisions at the senior leadership table. He teaches what he has done.

For CEOs and senior leaders who want a therapist and instructor who already knows the terrain, Colin is an invaluable resource and support. 

M.S.W., RP, RSW, RMFT-S

Clinical Director & Curriculum Designer

Melisse is the Institute's Clinic Director and the therapist senior leaders turn to when the stakes are high. Melisse contributes decades of practice experience working with C-suite clients, CAOs, CEOs, founders, and senior executives whose decisions move organizations and whose personal bandwidth rarely gets the same attention as their P&L.

Melisse is astute in building strategies and progamming for managing what is actually in the way-executive burnout, decision fatigue, the isolation of the top seat, high-stakes board dynamics, and the relationships that tend to strain under a demanding career  

Her approach is integrative, evidence-based, and confidential to the bone. Grounded, direct, and refreshingly human, Melisse works shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders who are ready to do the real work and isn't afraid to bring humor while you're doing it.