Sunni (DeBorah) Smith

DeBorah “Sunni” Smith is a coach and consultant specializing in facilitating the growth, development, and success of chief executive officers and individuals in public life. As an organizational strategist and thought partner, she is credited for successfully facilitating mission/vision alignment, leadership sustainability, and employee engagement. Sunni’s home base is in Los Angeles, California, but her client list is global.

Sunni’s brand of transformational executive coaching includes expertise in organizational imperatives such as executive presence, program alignment, change management, cognitive diversity, bias, and inclusion principles. Sunni knows the importance of establishing relationships and resources that work together innovatively to manage change and create permanent, positive paradigm shifts. Her client base is diverse, and they all have at least one thing in common – a commitment to productivity and growth. Sound management and coaching principles allow Sunni to facilitate, fuel, and focus her client’s visions into actionable accomplishments.

Sunni’s background includes directing women and small business affairs in the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. She has consulted with, coached, and trained executives and managers of Fortune 500 companies and non-profits, such as IBM, Roche and its subsidiary Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Film Independent, The Smithsonian Institution KCRW, National Arts Strategies, Interpublic Group Kaiser Permanente and the Kaiser Healthcare Foundation. Sunni led international trade missions to South Africa and Columbia, South America in conjunction with the Department of Commerce. She has worked directly with national politicos, has designed marketing and promotional strategies for multi-million-dollar fund development projects, and managed technical implementations while tracking quality assurance and performance measures.

Sunni also teaches law in an adjunct capacity and has recently presented and trained on various coaching-related topics in Canada, China, and Africa.

Certification

• Professional Certified Coach (PCC), International Coaching Federation (ICF)
• Benchmarks® 360
• Accelements trainer/facilitator; certified by Paul Scheele (Learning Strategies Corp.)
• Coaching Supervision with EMCC European Supervision Quality Award (Goldvarg Consulting Group)
• Conversational Intelligence® (CIQ)
• Emotional Intelligence 2.0 (Anderson & Anderson)
• FIRO-B®
• Hogan Assessments
• Management Path Instructor, Peter Drucker Institute
• Mediation, LA County Dispute Resolution Program (Advancing Justice)
• Team Advantage Team Development Coaching (The Pyramid Resource Group)
• Workplace Big Five (Center for Creative Leadership)

Education

• Master of Laws, Public Policy, Georgetown University Law Center
• Juris Doctor, Communications Law, The Catholic University of America
• Master of Science in Rehabilitation, Virginia Commonwealth University

Practice Areas

• 360-Degree Feedback
• Anger Management or Civility Facilitation
• Board Development
• Career Transition Coaching
• Coaching Across Difference, Equity & Inclusion
• Coaching Supervision (Individual & Group)
• Cognitive Diversity & Cultural Competency
• Conflict Resolution
• Emotional Intelligence
• Executive Coaching and Executive Presence
• Leadership Development
• Public Policy/Governmental & Organizational Management
• Team Coaching & Development

Affiliations

• Americas Coaching Supervision Network & Asian Coaching Supervision Network
• Boston Facilitators & OD Roundtable
• Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) Adjunct Faculty
• Coaching for Justice
• Coaching for Social Justice
• ICF LA Board of Directors
• International Leadership Association (ILA)
• Mindful Leadership