• Faculty and Professionals

  • Faculty navigating promotion, tenure, transition, burnout, leadership growth, or complex workplace dynamics.
  • Professionals, non-profit leaders, job seekers looking for clarity, confidence, and direction.
• Administrators and Leaders

  • Department chairs, deans, and administrative leaders seeking a trusted thought partner for leadership, communication and strategy.
  • Non-profit directors and managers navigating change, building stronger communication, collaboration, and culture.
• Institutions
 and Organizations
  • Colleges, universities, departments, and centers investing in professional development, stronger leadership, and more welcoming workplace cultures.
  • Nonprofits and mission-driven organizations investing in leadership, workplace satisfaction, equity, and organizational effectiveness.       

Why People Hire Shaffer Coaching

Amanda Shaffer brings decades of experience at the intersection of coaching, leadership development, facilitation, and equity-informed organizational work. Her approach is informed by both professional credentials and long-standing partnerships with clients across higher education and mission-driven sectors work in faculty advancement, community and belonging, and organizational change.

Clients value Shaffer Coaching for its uncommon combination of strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, accountability, and care. Whether faculty advancement, community and belonging, or organizational change the work designed not only to help people think differently, but to help them act more effectively.

Academic Institutions

Nonprofit and Private Sector

• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), NY
• ACLU of Alabama, AL
• Better Business Bureau, Dayton & Miami Valley, OH
• Campaign Legal Center, DC
• Cleveland Clinic, OH
• Cleveland Heights/University Heights Public Library, OH 
• Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Network, DC
  • CREW Network, KS
  • CREW Network San Francisco, CA
  • CREW Network Orlando, FL
• Democracy Collaborative, DC
• Dogwood Alliance, NC
• Hathaway Brown School, OH
• Swagelock Company, OH
• Temple Beth El, OH
• Thompson-Hine, LLC, OH
• The Brooklyn Hospital Center, NY
• The Shopping Center Group (TSCG), GA
• University Hospital, OH
• Women’s Leadership Collaborative Dayton, OH
• Write Solutions, LLC, NC
• Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, OH
• Young Nonprofit Professionals Network, PA 
• YWCA of Cleveland, OH

What people are saying

“Amanda is an outstanding executive coach. She is an avid listener, asks key questions and offers thoughtful advice. I love that she summarized our sessions with actionable next steps that were a springboard for action. It set us both up for success and propelled our next session. I very highly recommend Amanda as your career coach.” 
Lori Gross, former Global Brand Developer, Microsoft

“Amanda taught me how to present myself in a job interview. She asked me questions about my work experiences and attitudes, and helped me see how my interview approach could be radically improved. All the while she guided me to the point where I understood and then truly believed in my own value. In my next interview, I applied everything I learned from Amanda and landed the job. (I know – it sounds like a cheesy ad. But it’s true.) Amanda’s amazing gift is to show you how to bring out your best self and share it with others.” 
Eric Broder, Editor-in-chief, Kovels’ Antiques and Collectibles 

“Thank you so much for the implicit bias workshop for our team! You are the perfect instructor for that topic. You made the information easy to understand, relatable and applicable. You created a very open and safe space for us to really get the most out of it. We all learned a lot. Please keep doing this amazing work!”
Faculty leader, research intensive university

“Amanda provided individual DEI workshops and CREW Bay Area DEI leadership training in the Spring 2021. I really enjoyed the insightful and collaborative approach Amanda had. I would 100% absolutely! recommend Amanda Shaffer. If you want to be an active learner and improve how you show up for your friends, family, co-workers and community, then I would say definitely hire Shaffer Coaching!”
Jennifer VanderArend, Lead, CREW Silicon Valley DEI TaskForce

“Since our last meeting, I’ve gotten three articles published (or at least accepted for publication) and I’ve secured a book contract for an anthology, I’m currently working on a proposal for my book and revising two more articles for publication.  I’m hoping to be ready to stand for Full Professor in Fall 2019, and after that, I feel that a lot of options will open up for me. I’m very grateful for having had the opportunity to work with you last year; it really helped jump start my research productivity and made me feel more optimistic about my career! 
Associate Professor, research intensive university

“I had to send a follow up email to thank you for the great training. I have gone to many classes for this type of training in my career and, until yours, they have consistently evoked the same “eye poking, can’t wait until it’s over” response from me.  It was new and exciting to learn your strategies for working within the existing (though clearly unfair) power dynamics and then focusing on making a difference when you find yourself at a place to do so.  In addition to your thought-provoking exercises and discussion, your acceptance of where everyone in the room was made this a tremendously useful day – it seemed like for all of us. So thank you.  I thought I would be struggling to stay awake and instead I was disappointed when 4 o’clock rolled around!”
Leadership Retreat participant                                         

“Amanda is incredibly gifted at finding powerful solutions for complex problems. She does this with three rare skills: (1) her ability to truly listen to others, (2) her ability to interpret/assess what she hears with an accuracy that is simply astonishing, and (3) her ability to turn that assessment into a clear plan of action, with meaningful input from co-workers.  I hired Amanda as a career coach and she helped me find simple, behavior-based solutions to problems that had been vexing my entire professional life. I use these solutions on a regular basis, now, and they have helped me to drastically improve my work life. I am now happier and more effective at my job.”
Sheryl Banks, Marketing and Community Relations Manager, Cleveland Hts-University Hts Public Library, Ohio

“I highly recommend working with Amanda Shaffer. As the CREW SF DEI Taskforce Leader, I can vouch for her insight, professionalism and exceptional ability to uncover unconscious bias and provide guidance for a growth mindset.”  
Molly Jans, Project Management, Fish Rock Management, LLC

“Amanda provided Career Coaching over phone and email during my job search 6 months prior to graduation from Miami University. She was outstanding at asking questions that uncovered my true motivation for wanting a certain job or what motivated me in life. She helped me strategize how to show potential employers that I am an intelligent, hard working, and dedicated young professional ready to be in the workforce. She also helped me become more self-aware and attentive to my language so I could improve my professional speaking skills as well as ways of communicating electronically. With Amanda’s coaching, I have achieved consistent results in the form of positive attention from potential employers including email contact, interviews, and job offers.”
High School science teacher

“Having an external coach has helped me to move beyond the roadblocks and to achieve the goals I have set as a professor. My friends who are professors or family can offer terrific support; however, Amanda Shaffer has helped me to transform many issues because she brings such valued insight as a neutral observer of the situation. In that role, she has helped me sort through issues that can be changed from those that cannot.  The result is that I am better able to distinguish between the two and act accordingly.” 
Associate Professor, research intensive university

“I was a little hesitant to try something as intimate as coaching over the phone or the internet, but Amanda is great at making a personal connection over digital media. She quickly offered me the right questions to help me approach a professional challenge with confidence and grace.  I so trust her judgment and professionalism that I now refer my clients who need coaching services to her.”  
M. Smith Consulting