Facilitation and Retreats

Trust is the root. Everything else grows from there.

The most successful teams aren't the ones that avoid difficult conversations.

They're the ones that use them as a way to build trust and strengthen alignment.

I help leadership teams and organizations create the trust, alignment, and clarity needed to move forward together.

Let's chat about facilitation.

Let’s end the “us vs. them” dynamic.

Especially now with so much rapid change and conflict, trust is frequently eroded, which leads to high risk for burnout and costly uncertainty. We can change that.

A group of women standing outside in a circle, holding hands, in a lush green park with trees and a small wooden playhouse in the background.

Let’s:

  • Reconnect your team with each other and your mission in a way that leads to lasting change, not just a temporary boost in morale.

  • Align your board, Executive Director, and staff on perspectives, priorities, and expectations.

  • Create alignment around priorities for your leadership team to eliminate confusion, frustration, and inefficiency.

  • Break down siloes for better communication, collaboration, and trust across teams, reducing friction, duplication of effort, and missed opportunitiePrioritize important conversations that lead to clear decisions, accountability, or meaningful outcomes.

  • Bring people together for a retreat or planning session that creates real momentum, not just a fun team-building experience away from the office.

Whether you're planning a retreat or a leadership workshop, my first step is to assess your team or organization’s needs. This may include interviewing key stakeholders, observing the dynamics in a meeting, or creating an anonymous survey. Every retreat and facilitation engagement is customized to the unique needs of your team and organization. I’ll design and facilitate an experience that helps your people engage in meaningful conversation, strengthen relationships, and leave with clear next steps.

Let's chat

How I Can Help

Facilitated Retreats

Whether you're bringing together a leadership team, an entire staff, board members, or a cross-functional group, I create experiences that help people step out of day-to-day operations and focus on what matters most.

Together, we'll create space to:

  • Strengthen trust and communication

  • Build alignment around priorities and goals

  • Clarify the values that guide decision-making

  • Navigate challenges and differing perspectives

  • Make thoughtful decisions

  • Develop clear action plans and next steps

The result is a team that trusts one another more, aligns around what matters most, and moves forward with greater clarity and confidence.

A woman standing and speaking to three seated women in a garden with trees and greenery in the background.
Four women sitting on a green sofa, participating in a discussion or panel. One woman is speaking into a microphone, wearing a denim jacket and a colorful skirt. The other women are listening attentively. There is a large decorative arrangement of colorful feathers or flowers beside them, and a screen and audio equipment visible in the background.

Leadership Development Workshops

Interactive workshops designed to help leaders build the skills that create healthy, high-performing teams.

Popular topics include:

  • Cultivating a Culture of Trust

  • Effective Collaboration

  • Inclusive Listening Skills

  • Building Psychological Safety

  • How to Delegate (even when it feels impossible)

  • Giving and Receiving Feedback

  • Holding Your Team Accountable

  • Remember Your Resilience

  • Leading Through Change

  • Leading Under Pressure

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Difficult Conversations

Some of the most important conversations that teams and organizations need to have are also the ones they're most tempted to avoid.

Whether you're navigating tension between groups, addressing a difficult issue, gathering stakeholder input, or working through competing perspectives, a skilled facilitator can help you create the conditions for honest dialogue and productive outcomes.

A few years ago, I facilitated a conversation with a team of managers after one of them mentioned burnout in a meeting. Leadership was nervous to open that can of worms, but avoiding the conversation wasn't making the issue magically disappear. As an external facilitator, I was able to create a neutral space where people felt safer to speak honestly about what was happening without worrying about how their feedback might be received. Together, we explored the root causes of burnout, identified what people needed, and discussed how concerns could be raised earlier moving forward.

I've found that the conversations we're most tempted to avoid are often the ones with the greatest potential to strengthen trust, deepen understanding, and build connection. An external facilitator can bring the objectivity, structure, and psychological safety needed for people to say what needs to be said and hear one another in new ways. When difficult conversations are handled well, teams can move from frustration and assumptions toward clarity, collaboration, and meaningful action.

I completed Basic Mediation Training with the New York Peace Institute in 2013 and am passionate about creating spaces where people can explore different perspectives, identify common ground, and move forward together.

Follow-Up Coaching

Any of these facilitation and retreat options can be supplemented with follow-up coaching so that the learning and progress sustains long after our session.

Let's talk about facilitation.

What People Are Saying

  • “The entire day was used productively. Stacy encouraged unfiltered and honest conversations about big picture items.”

    — Retreat Participant

  • “I feel like this was, by far, the most beneficial in person meeting/conference I have attended so far. It felt very dialed in to what we need to be working towards, and how we will get there. If we do this somewhat regularly, I think it will be a great way to judge our successes and goal plan for what’s next.”

    — Retreat Participant

  • "Your facilitation style created a space where ideas could be shared openly, and your guidance helped us connect the seminar’s theme directly to our day-to-day leadership challenges."

    — Retreat Participant

  • “I appreciated the open dialogue between all of us managers alongside the trust in our leaders to include us in big picture conversations and decision making/planning.”

    — Retreat Participant

My Approach

Trust is the foundation of every successful team, strategy, and partnership.

I create the conditions for honest conversation, meaningful participation, and thoughtful decision-making. As a coach and facilitator, I help teams navigate differing perspectives, build alignment, and move forward together.

Many teams struggle because they're operating without a shared compass. Through facilitated conversations, I help teams clarify the values, principles, and priorities that guide their decisions and shape how they work together. When people share a common understanding of what matters most, trust deepens, alignment grows, and action becomes easier.

One of my favorite parts of facilitation is seeing the ripple effect long after a retreat or workshop ends. Leaders return to their teams with new tools, new insights, and new ways of working together. One of the most common things I hear after facilitating is, “Can I bring that exercise back to my team?” To me, that's a sign that the conversation didn't just create a good experience in the moment. It created momentum that continues long after everyone leaves the room.

Person holding a compass outdoors with mountains in the background.

Why Work With Me

I bring a unique combination of leadership experience, coaching expertise, and facilitation skill.

Before becoming a coach and facilitator, I spent more than 15 years working in nonprofit organizations as a leader, fundraiser, staff member, volunteer, and board member. Today, I combine that real-world leadership experience with nine years of coaching and facilitation experience.

I understand that most team challenges aren't really about strategy or productivity. They're about trust.

As an external facilitator, I bring a fresh perspective and create a neutral space where people can speak honestly, listen deeply, and engage in conversations that might be too difficult to have on their own. Because I'm not part of the organization's history, politics, or reporting structure, I can ask different questions, challenge assumptions, and help people hear one another in new ways.

A woman with curly blonde hair smiling at the camera, wearing a black leather jacket and a blue necklace, against a green textured background.

Let’s Talk

If you're planning a retreat, offsite, or leadership workshop, I'd love to learn more about your goals.

Let's talk about what's getting in the way of your team's success and how a thoughtfully designed retreat, planning session, or workshop can help.

Let's talk about facilitation.