Facilitating Executive Emergence,
the Purposeful Persona, and
a Professional, Principled, Public Life
Bring Your Best Self to Your Career
My name is Sunni Smith.
Professionally, I identify as a leadership and executive coach. I came to coaching organically from a background in media, public policy, entertainment, and law.
While effective Leadership is an essential component of business success, it’s a fundamental quality not mastered by many, even those at the height of their careers.
For me, “executive” refers to an individual at the top of their game or in the process of ascending to that apex…and equally as important, they are leaders because they know and understand what it means to follow, not only others, but their own heart.
It is someone in public life or coping with various types of over/under-exposure…
One who is an intentional Chief Executive Officer or even what I call an “Accidental CEO.”
“Nothing is Impossible, the word itself says I’m possible.” –Audrey Hepburn
As a science and an art…
Coaching provides me with an opportunity to integrate my professional ways of being into a practice that fuels the objectives and goals set by my clients.
I function as a kind of personal GPS that helps direct them toward a focused and intentional process aimed at maximizing their potential. Wherever you are in your journey, ask yourself this:
What would it be like to have a confidential thought-partner and reflective resource to support you in moving through self-identified successes as well as acknowledged challenges?
“You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it’s important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages.” –Michelle Obama, First Lady of the U.S.
Coaching involves a partnership in discovery; it means affirming what is working and identifying what is not working while developing a discerning ability to sort out what is in alignment with your core values.
My passion for coaching is founded in a sense of service and knowing that we are all here journeying through life for a reason. And a large part of that reason involves leadership, bringing your best self to your chosen career.
I invite you… to invite me… to join you on your journey to self.
Coaching Credentials & Competencies
As an ICF Professional Certified Coach, I am an associate with the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), a certified executive coach with the Ariel Group, and I work with clients through a)Plan Coaching.
Also, among several certifications, I hold recognized competencies in:
- Conversational Intelligence®(C-IQ)
- Team Advantage Coaching®
- Emotional Intelligence 2.0
- Conflict Resolution
My foundational coach training was with Goldvarg Consulting. I completed a certification in Coaching Supervision, which expands my capacity to utilize reflective and systems-thinking approaches, and I’m an accredited coach in an Arts-Based Experiential (ABEL) modality called Creating Futures That Work®.
“Sunni Smith is a brilliant guest speaker. Her insights, knowledge and perspective are life changing. She has such an impact on the students that three years later, students are still talking about the value and importance of her words… [She was] such a hit the last time and the students greatly benefited from what [she] had to say.”
Don Hill, UC Irvine Senior Graduate Professor, Claire Trevor School of the Arts
Partial Client List & Project Partners
For more than a decade, I have successfully trained and coached entities in leadership and management principles, as well as equity and inclusion.
Executives and organizations that have benefitted from my coaching, Coach Supervision, and partnership include:
- Coaching for Social Justice (CSJ)
- The ACLU
- National Arts Strategies (NAS)
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- KCRW 89.9 FM
- FiLM iNDEPENDENT
- Genentech & the Roche Group (gRED)
My executive/leadership coaching practice is an organic outgrowth of my professional background in public policy, media, and law. In the “thought -partner” role, I am regarded as a value-added asset in the emerging, complex, and compelling work toward cultural competency.
“In a world that moves so fast that the soul and purpose of people get lost, Sunni is a rare gem offering brilliance, patience and principle to all that are fortunate enough to be in her space…she delivers, cohesively, consistently, and creatively.”
Freddie Ravel, “Life In Tune™,” Keynote Maestro, Grammy-Nominated Musician, and Business Visionary
Capabilities & Career Highlights
- Over 15 years in the field of leadership and organizational strategy, primarily as a consultant, coach, trainer, and facilitator
- Author and Contributing Writer to various Coaching publications and sought-after Speaker
- Trained with Middle-East Conflict Resolution Specialists, Richard and Barbara Dash of “Putting ‘Peaces’ Together”
- Led international trade/policy missions to South Africa and Colombia, South America
- Awarded CORO Public Policy Fellowship & Annenberg Summer Faculty Fellowship
- Practiced appellate litigation and delivered oral argument before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, including before the “Notorious RBG”
- The academic achievements that underscore my professional work include a Master’s degree in counseling and rehabilitation, a J.D. with certification in communications law, and a Master’s degree in Public Policy Law from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC.
My Professional Philosophy
My approach to guiding individuals and organizations toward positive, productive, and professional expansion is both undeniable and unequalled. Often referred to as an ambassador of possibilities, I view the client partnership as a relationship of “in-powerment” rather than empowerment. It is a client’s self–propelled journey while realizing the power within that fuels the integral development process, whether it occurs within an individual, organizational, or systemic context.
“I’m talking about the resilience, you know. I mean, if you actually inject yourself with energy, you are striding, you see? You are unstoppable in a way.”
–Tania León, Cuban-American composer of Stride & the 2021 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Music.
“I’m talking about the resilience, you know. I mean, if you actually inject yourself with energy, you are striding, you see? You are unstoppable in a way.”
–Tania León, Cuban-American composer of Stride & the 2021 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Music.
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