ABOUT
About Shana
Since I was a child, I’ve believed it was both possible and my responsibility to make the world a better place. For 20 years, I pursued that goal through leadership in community-based organizations in the Midwest, in New York City, and in the South — running large-scale education and social service programs for thousands of kids and families who are facing barriers to the safe, fulfilled, productive lives we are all born deserving. For 20 years, I was both a crusader and a workaholic. I didn’t think about or care about what was best for me — only what the work demanded. I was good at it, and it needed to be done.
Eventually, I hit a wall, and was faced with the cost of consistently sacrificing my own health, balance, and well-being for my work. I had to pause and ask myself some hard questions. When I reflected on the question of what I loved to do — not only what I was good at — the answer was coaching the leaders who worked with me. I loved sitting with someone who cared about their work, cared about the kids and families at the heart of their work, and wanted to bring their best selves to the task. I loved listening to them — a gift a leader rarely receives — and supporting them as they struggled to find perspective and get out of their own way (as all leaders must) so they could make an impact on the world. Most of all, I loved when magic happened — when they faced the truth, found their authentic voice, chose their own ground to stand on, and went forth to get things done.
Now, as a coach, I have the beautiful opportunity to pursue that magic all the time. It makes the world a better place and nourishes me at the same time. I bring my perspective as a leader charged with producing real results, and as someone who has faced burnout and learned self-care the hard way. My yoga practice — which started in my workaholic years as a strategy to expand my capacity for stress — has grown into my becoming an instructor and yoga therapist. I am honored to weave into my coaching what yoga has taught me about the connection among the mind, body, heart, and spirit.
There is a way to be your best self, do your best work, and live your best life. Your path to that is as personal as your fingerprint, and I’m excited to support you as you find — or create — your way.
Credentials
Education
B.A. in Political Science and African-American Studies
Indiana University
M.S. in Nonprofit Management
Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, New School for Social Research
Annie E. Casey Foundation Children and Families Fellow
Qualified Practitioner of Results-Based Facilitation
Certified Facilitator of Women Writing for (a) Change Writing Circles
Why 3 Birds?
3 Birds represents the dragon, the phoenix, and the owl: my totems, pieces of me that I honor and call upon in my life and in my work. They symbolize the values that I hold around wholeness, integration, and alignment: being all the parts of who we are – the light and the shadow. Living all the dimensions of our lives – the rising and the stumbles. Choosing from a place that is grounded in Love.
The dragon represents my fire. For most of my life, I tried to ignore or subdue that dragon energy, fearing its extremes of aggression and anger. Then I realized it had also given me gifts: it made me strong, and a force in the world, and a protector, and un-bully-able. In the legend of Saint Martha, she is said to have saved a village from a fearsome dragon – the villagers tried and failed to kill it, but she approached it as a friend and “tamed” it. What if the dragon’s rage and hostility were rooted in its exile? What if, instead of fearing and hating it, I could learn to befriend it, to integrate it into my identity in a healthy way? Now, when the dragon inside me starts to stir, I know that some value or boundary of mine is not being respected, and that I need to act from a grounded and responsible and compassionate place before the dragon is called upon to protect me in a more dangerous fashion. The dragon teaches me – in my own life as well as in my coaching – that our shadows serve a purpose, and make us whole.
The phoenix represents the cycle that I’m always living through – strong and mature and certain, then coming apart, falling to the earth, and catching flame, then finally struggling up through the ashes wobbly and raw, and learning to fly again. While we celebrate and are celebrated when we rise up in triumph, it’s hard to acknowledge and accept the part of the cycle where the person we have been dies, or something happens to evict us from the life we knew – and people in our lives, even people who love us, tend to look away at these times. Yet, this cycle is a natural and recurring one, and there is value in each stage. The phoenix process makes space for me to fully experience, learn from, and honor each part in my own life – and to support others as they do the same in theirs.
The owl represents my wisest, highest self. My highest self is in alignment with the universe and with its central motivating force: Love. It is rooted securely in the uniqueness of who I am. It has faith that I have what I need within me to find or chart my own path, and that I can summon the courage to do the next right thing. I often think of it as my future self – the 90-year-old who knows how everything turns out and that it was all for the best, and who both loves me as I am right now and is also yearning for me to continue to become. The owl reminds me that standing on my own sacred ground is the most honest and powerful place to be. From that place I can serve others as they identify and stand on their own values, and as they connect to their own innate wisdom.