Jan Gelman + Associates is a leadership and organization development consultancy committed to helping our clients achieve business results by:

• Growing Leaders: Strong leadership drives results. We help your leaders reach their potential.
• Connecting Teams: Strong relationships yield high performance. We help your teams connect
  with each other and achieve their shared goals.
• Uniting Organizations: Strong alignment underlies successful organizations. We help your
  organization identify and enact a shared vision, mission and values. 

JG+A consultants are known for being creative and having the enthusiasm and insight that cannot be put into a template. We believe in customization and truly getting to know our clients to ensure that the work we do is the right fit for them, their culture and their challenges. We work collaboratively with clients and encourage personal initiative to achieve sustainable results.

Our clients range from Fortune 500 companies to start-ups, spanning a broad range of industries, disciplines, cultures, and geographies. We work with leaders at all levels, including CEOs, executive directors, vice presidents, mid-level managers, and their expanded teams.

United by shared values, practical experience, and a commitment to our clients’ success, JG+A also celebrates the unique strengths of each of our consultants. We strive to match you with the appropriate personalities and expertise for your needs and your culture.

Click on the pictures below to learn about our core team of consultants.

Jan Gelman is a coach, facilitator and leadership development professional known for her ability to use curiosity and directness to help leaders get to the heart of their challenges quickly. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience as a senior leader in business, media and technology with companies such as Capital Cities/ABC, Sierra On-Line and GiftCertificates.com, she has unique insight into the complex demands that her clients face.

Jan works with leaders, teams and organizations around the world and is deeply interested in how cultural differences, rank and well-being impact relationships and performance. She is passionate about seeing her clients succeed and focuses on helping them move past self-imposed limitations, create health in their lives, and take initiative to drive business results.

Jan has been an internal leadership consultant at Washington State Labor & Industries and an external consultant with organizations such as Microsoft, Expedia, Amazon, Bug Music/Windswept, Point B, Peer 1, Whitepages.com, CarDomain, ShareBuilder, SumTotal Systems, King County Metro Transit, and FareStart. Her work includes coaching senior managers and high potentials, developing high performing teams, facilitating leadership development programs, and helping leaders improve their health to reach greater success. Jan has also written numerous business and lifestyle articles for New York magazine, Selling magazine, MSN and MSNBC; and published books for young adults with Alfred A. Knopf and Simon & Schuster.

Jan holds a Master of Arts degree in Applied Behavioral Science (Coaching and Consulting) from the Leadership Institute of Seattle at Bastyr University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Suzanne (Zan) Stafford brings over 25 years of business background to the table, having experienced the spectrum from sales executive to president. For the last 15 years she has worked as an executive coach, consultant and leadership development professional, inspiring her clients with her intuitive and candid feedback. Zan’s style is perceptive, sharp and relevant as is evidenced by her success as a facilitator in six continents around the globe.

Zan consistently works to create a partnership with her clients, assisting them to more effectively tackle both business and relationship challenges. Zan is a strategist. She brainstorms with clients to plan out the most realistic and sustainable methods for success. But perhaps most notably, Zan is dauntless. She is known for sticking her neck out, asking tough questions and zeroing in on the unspoken issues that often hold back even the strongest of leaders. Zan’s clients point out her responsive and insightful energy surrounding their specific goals and her uncompromised commitment to their success.

She has worked as an executive coach, facilitator, trainer and consultant in organizations in both the public and private sectors. Her clients include Microsoft, The Polyclinic, Molson Breweries, Employment Security Department, GiftCertificates.com, Washington State Smile Partners, Varolii Corporation, FareStart, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, McKinstry, Kaplan and Bug/Windswept Music.

Zan holds two Masters degrees – a Master of Arts degree in Facilitating Conflict and Organizational Change from the Process Work Institute and a Master of Arts degree in Applied Behavioral Science (Coaching and Consulting) from the Leadership Institute of Seattle at Bastyr University. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Business from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Mitch Shepard has worked in the leadership development field for 20 years. Back in the day she led outdoor expeditions for executive teams and managers; helping people push beyond their perceived limitations and unite to achieve big goals. Now Mitch works with business leaders using her unique insight to catalyze motivated leaders toward new and unchartered levels of success.

Mitch’s style focuses on taking action. As a coach Mitch holds clients accountable, challenging them to make tough choices and follow through. Clients appreciate her energy, humor and realism. Mitch is known for helping leaders make pronounced changes that lead to professional satisfaction and achievement.

As a coach, consultant, facilitator and speaker, Mitch has worked with clients in many different industries, including high-tech, airline, insurance, educational institutions, retail, banks, and resort hotels. She appreciates the high stakes atmosphere that leaders face and enjoys being a thinking partner to her clients as they navigate the many complex layers of business. She understands the importance of strong alliances and helps her clients build and sustain the relationships that are critical to their success. She is also experienced in administering and debriefing 360 assessments and tools that help individuals and teams build awareness and appreciate differences.

Mitch holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Economics and Accounting from UC Santa Barbara, and a Master of Arts degree in Applied Behavioral Science from the Leadership Institute of Seattle at Bastyr University.

An inspiring, energetic and authentic facilitator, coach and speaker, Stacey has an abiding passion for helping individuals, leaders and teams grow and develop in ways that bring meaningful success. Clients value Stacey’s ability to bring a supportive yet challenging nature, an approachable manner, to ask the right questions and bring focus to what really matters.

She has held positions in the last 20 years in several key industries, performing leadership, strategic, design and vision roles in business, accounting and finance, consulting, client relations, design and development. She understands business -- the people, the numbers and the systems -- that can be connected together in ways that transform. She has brought her expertise to organizations in higher education, government & municipalities, and manufacturing. Traveling the US, Asia, Latin and South America , Stacey has helped organizations deal with change and challenged their processes for greater efficiency and effectiveness.

A sought after speaker, Stacey has a reputation for delivering tremendous value to her audiences. They comment on her energy, humor, and the relevance of topics that both inspire and offer practical tools. She has spoken live and virtually with groups from 10 to 800 in a way that deeply connects to individuals with resonant messages.

Stacey holds a Master of Arts degree in Applied Behavioral Science from the Leadership Institute of Seattle at Bastyr University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Finance from Western Washington University.