Deb Denis

Deb is an executive coach and organizational consultant known for impact and results. She specializes in working with Director to C-Suite Executives, high potential leaders and their teams as they move beyond limits to tune performance, enhance interpersonal communications, develop stronger leadership acumen, and stretch themselves as decision-makers and strategists.

Her philosophy is client-centered and strengths-based. With a background firmly rooted in business, Deb recognizes that results matter: she brings an action-orientation along with a mindfulness-based style leading clients and colleagues to say that she is easy to talk with, a trusted thought partner who is positive and future-focused, truthful and direct.

Deb has been called the “Confidence Catalyst” because she helps people see what’s possible and get there.

She is a serial starter. In 1999 she started Cencibel, Inc. a NJ-based educational group bringing together people with shared interest in enological and culinary arts; she served many roles for the group including President and Trustee. She was co-founder of The Athena Project, a coaching consultancy specializing in women’s leadership development. Deb is a life-long volunteer, participating in and leading committees over the years, most recently as a member of the Legacy Foundation’s Good Citizen Committee with the Union League of Philadelphia. In 2010 she, along with coaching colleagues, started Coaches Without Borders, an international volunteer organization that pairs U.S.-trained Executive Coaches with leaders of aid organizations around the world.

In addition to her coaching work with leaders, Deb supervises professional coaches, and teaches the tools and techniques of coaching and consulting in University and business settings. Deb is an Adjunct Professor at Villanova University and an Executive Coach with Wharton’s graduate leadership program. Before starting her own practice, Deb’s experience included more than two decades in roles of consistently increasing responsibility and span at Colonial Penn, Dun & Bradstreet and Vanguard.

She is a published author and speaker: her work in coaching has been featured in academic journals, corporate newsletters, on blogs, podcasts and websites; she has been a featured speaker at industry, academic, Federal, and global NGO conferences. Publications include “Learning to Let Go,” a chapter in Dreamers & Doers, a collection of inspirational stories, life changing moments and acts of kindness compiled by women who have climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. Proceeds from this project benefit the Masai girls school in Tanzania. Only 41% of people attempting to summit Kilimanjaro (19,340 ft.) actually make it (2010 statistic), and Deb is one of them. She chronicled her journey in Kilimanjaro—One Woman’s Journey to the Roof of Africa and Beyond, which was published in 2012.

In 2019 Deb received a Diploma in Coaching Supervision from the Coaching Supervision Academy. She earned the Certified Professional Coach designation from International Coach Academy, holds the PCC designation from the International Coach Federation.

She received a Master of Sciences in Organizational Dynamics, from the University of Pennsylvania with graduate certificates in Organizational Coaching, Organizational Leadership, and Organizational Development and Change. While at UPenn, Deb was a graduate TA and founding member of the Coaching Advisory Board. She earned a Bachelors degree in Communication cum laude from Villanova University.

Other certifications include Intermediate and Advanced levels by the Wine and Spirits Education Trust in the U.K.; Master Certifier in LIFO® strengths-based tools and philosophy-Schutz Company; Certified Hogan Personality Assessments, Leadership Circle, Voices®360, Team Diagnostics Survey (TDS), Supporting Lines (Teams). Experienced in various coaching approaches, models and processes. >10-years of study in Presence-Based, Somatic and Mindfulness Coaching. Certified Personal Brand Strategist (CPBS). Myers-Briggs (MBTI), FIRO-B, Campbell Leadership (CLI), Cultural Orientations Framework (COF), Strength Finder®, DiSC, Social Styles, Birkman, Hermann Brain (HBDI), PDI Profiler®, Benchmarks®, 360/360 Plus, LEA 360™; EQi; Enneagram, and more. Positive Psychology techniques, tools and assessments such as Values In Action (VIA), and Appreciative Inquiry; Positive Psychology and ADHD certification.

Deb and her husband, Alan, love to travel and experience the world—they’ve worked and broken bread with people on every continent except Antarctica. They live outside Philadelphia, PA in the U.S. with their amazing Toller dog, Artemis. They have two adult sons and have just become grandparents this month, for the first time, to beautiful JJ!