Our Team
Our team is made up of expert coaches and supporting staff. Together we empower physicians, healthcare leaders, and hospitals across North America.
Coaches
Associate Coach Debra Williams, MD, FACEP
Dr. Williams is a retired emergency physician after serving 15 years as the Medical Director of a high-volume Emergency Center in the Florida Panhandle.
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She is the former co-chair of the American College of Emergency Physicians well-being committee.
Dr. Williams has helped many physicians overcome charting inefficiency and is passionate about helping healthcare professionals navigate the rapidly changing, increasingly demanding landscape of their daily practice. Her coaching background includes in-depth training in neuroscience, positive intelligence, and heart math techniques.
Meeting with physician coaches helped define what that career transition looked like. Debra embarked on the adventure of coach training and certification in 2016, allowing her to live her values and achieve harmony in her life and career.
From Debra
Debra shares:
“I use a neuroscience base to collaborate with clients for their desired personal and professional transformations. I’m committed to working with clients, helping them identify their natural strengths and vision, and learning how to leverage that to reach their goals and find joy and meaning in their lives and careers. I provide a safe space for you to discuss your challenges, find your voice, honor your values, and express your truth. We will identify what is going well, even when the going is tough. On a personal level, I love the outdoors and the mindfulness it gives me.!”
Associate Coach Dina Markind, Professional Certified Coach M. S. Nursing and Certified Mentor Coach
Dina Markind is a coach for nursing professionals, nurse practitioners, and healthcare leaders. She earned her
initial coaching certification in 2011 from the Co-Active Training Institute, a premier coach training program.
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In 2015 she earned a certificate in Positive Psychology from the Whole-being Institute. Subsequently, she has earned certifications from a variety of other coaching programs.
Prior to becoming a coach, Dina worked as a clinical nurse for over 20 years. Dina holds a Master’s degree in Nursing from Pace University and a B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from Cornell University.
Nursing leaders who work with Dina develop strong communication and conflict management skills, clarity about their authentic leadership style, self-compassion, a clear vision for their leadership role, and the courage and a plan to pursue the vision.
Dina has worked with a variety of leaders helping them to tap into self-leadership in order to have a greater impact on their personal and professional lives.
Becoming a coach was a homecoming for Dina. She had always been interested in personal development.
After stepping away from nursing because of burnout in 2006 she hired a career coach with the thought of re-entering nursing in a different way. After several sessions, the coach suggested looking into becoming a health coach. Dina went to a top coaching program that offered opportunities to bring her nurturing style to people beyond issues related to health.
Dina’s initial focus as a coach and speaker was on burnout prevention and recovery. In In September 2016, she published Vital Signs of Well-Being which is available on Kindle. Prior to the pandemic, Dina was a speaker on topics related to well-being.
Dina supports leaders so they can regain passion and energy, tap into their strengths, and live meaningful and impactful lives. Since 2011, Dina has worked with a variety of people within and beyond healthcare. Dina has a wide variety of experiences with Life and Leadership coaching for mid-level leaders to Vice Presidents of organizations. Personal and professional development go hand in hand.
On a personal note, Dina has been happily married to a neurologist for over 30 years. They are the parents of 3 adults in their late 20s. Dina loves learning and has pursued varied knowledge related to coaching. Dina enjoys being with family, walks, yoga, and audiobooks.”
Duanna Pang, Certified Coach
Duanna Pang is a Certified Coach who specializes in leadership coaching and training for C-suite executives, physicians, physician leaders, directors, and managers.
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Since 2005, the organizations Duanna has worked in include
Children’s Hospital (Children’s of Alabama), University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Pediatrics, UAB School of Public Health, UAB’s Employee Assistance Program & Counseling Center, Yelp, the Federal Reserve Bank, American Red Cross, UPS Store, and BBVA Compass Bank.
Duanna obtained her coach certification through an ICF (International Coaching Federation) accredited coaching school where she studied with Dr. David Krueger MD, former clinical professor of psychiatry at Baylor College turned executive mentor coach.
Other coach training programs Duanna has trained in include Being a Leader and the Effective Exercise of Leadership, Systemic Team Coaching, Power and Influence Mastery, and Accelerated Coach Excellence’s programs. She is a Certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher (CMT-P) through the University of California, Berkeley, where she was trained by mindfulness veterans Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach.
Duanna’s coaching draws upon years of experience managing magazine publishing firms in her position as Magazine Editor. In addition, she was the Content Director of an Internet portal that spanned three countries – Singapore, Malaysia & Hong Kong. She is a two-term Past President of the International Coaching Federation’s North & Central Alabama Chapter. She is an Affiliate Member of Harvard Medical School’s Institute of Coaching.
From Duanna
Duanna shares:
“In my years of working with physicians and physician leaders, I’ve come to be deeply attuned to their challenges and frustrations. Amidst the at-times gut-wrenching pace of change in health care that has been significantly exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, physician leaders have had to skillfully balance clinical excellence with the effective leadership of their teams and organization.Unfortunately, many have not been trained nor developed for these leadership roles but are nonetheless expected to perform. In my work, I assist physician leaders with cultivating leadership mindset, behaviors, and skills that are pertinent to their organizational goals, without sacrificing their own well-being and fulfillment. And because leadership can be hard, I promise to infuse a lightness of being and a sense of humor in the coaching journey.”
In 2012 following a recession that left many of her fellow coaches’ businesses faltering, Duanna decided to help by gathering 11 successful coaches who had thrived despite challenging economic
times. Her book, Inspired and Prosperous: 11 World-renowned Coaches Reveal Their Success and Sustainability Secrets, chronicles their success stories.In her personal time, Duanna enjoys sculling, swimming, walks on the beach, as well as lighthearted conversations on the sometimes-absurd aspects of life.”
Associate coach Joe Sherman, MD, FAAP Board Certified Pediatrician and Master Certified Physician Development Coach
Dr. Joe Sherman helps healthcare professionals transform their relationship with the unrelenting demands of their jobs and discover a path toward meaning, professional fulfillment, and career longevity.
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He believes the key to personal and professional success lies in bringing “soul to role” in your medical practice.
Dr. Sherman is a pediatrician, coach, and consultant to physicians and healthcare organizations in the areas of cross-cultural medicine, leadership, and provider well-being. He is a facilitator with the Center for Courage and Renewal and a Master Certified Physician Development Coach with the Physician Coaching Institute.
Dr. Sherman has been in pediatric practice for over 35 years concentrating on healthcare delivery to underserved and medically complex children in the District of Columbia, Tacoma, Seattle, Uganda, and Bolivia. He has held numerous faculty positions and is currently a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington.
From Joe
Joe shares:
“In 2009, after spending 4 years living and working in Bolivia with my family, I returned to the U.S. and my career as a pediatrician at an academic health center. I soon found the institutional, educational, and patient care demands placed upon me to be overwhelming. This eventually led to burnout and a temporary departure from clinical medicine.After a year of reflection, discernment, and support from family and friends, I was able to identify my core values and integrate them into my future career decision-making. I returned to part-time pediatric practice while developing the skills to accompany other physicians, individually and in groups, to re-discover their passion for medicine.
Having experienced burnout, myself, I understand the day-to-day struggles health professionals face in trying to provide quality care to their patients while also dealing with the systemic dysfunction of healthcare institutions.
I provide a welcoming, confidential space for my clients to explore what brings them joy in their work as healthcare providers and how to integrate that into their daily lives and future career plans.
Associate coach Les Schwab, MD
Les Schwab, MD is a primary care physician with 40 years of experience in medical practice and healthcare organizational leadership. He earned a B.A. in Biology from Harvard University and an MD from Stanford University. He received his Internal Medicine training at the Harvard teaching institution, Cambridge Hospital.
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Les served as the Chief Medical officer at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, a 600-physician multispecialty practice in eastern Massachusetts. In this role, he was responsible for clinical operations, quality and safety, practice design, leadership training, and building the quality of the physician workforce. For five years, Les served as Hospice Medical Director for the Parmenter Hospice in eastern Massachusetts.
Les attained coaching certification from the Gestalt International Study Center and provides coaching and consulting focused on performance improvement and leadership development.
As a coach, he facilitates the ability of physicians to develop their capacities for successful medical practice: resilience to cope with burnout stress, organization and teamwork for efficient practice, skills for collaborative collegial relationships, and strategies for career development. He provides a particular focus on developing relational skills for effective strategy deployment and performance management.
Les is a Harnisch Scholar at the Institute of Coaching in Boston, serving as the principal investigator for a randomized controlled study of a coaching intervention to reduce physician burnout, establishing the value of brief coaching to reduce burnout and increase physicians’ psychological well-being, engagement, and job satisfaction.
Les is the host of MedPEP – the Medical Professionals Empowerment Program, a 20-episode podcast providing multifold answers to the physician burnout problem, with each episode featuring an expert’s dialogue about a particular solution. The podcast offers free CME at www.medpep.org.
Les is a standing member of the faculty for Managing Workplace Conflict and a member of the Standing Committee of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court for Lawyer Well-being.
Les lives in Newton, MA. He has 2 grown children, both in creative enterprises. For his leisure time, Les enjoys bicycling, gardening, drawing, and amateur astronomy.
Associate coach Dr. Suzi Aldwinckle, MBChB Certified Professional Coach
Suzi is a certified professional coach, yoga teacher, retired physician, mother, and international citizen. She practiced medicine in South Africa, Australia, and the UK.
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She worked as a general hospitalist in South Africa, practicing emergency medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics, and then as a resident anesthesiologist and intensivist in the UK and Australia.
When she and her husband moved to the US in 2006, she was pregnant with her first child. She committed to being a full-time parent as they navigated life and work with visa and green card restrictions.
Through coaching, she has overcome ingrained beliefs about what a career ‘should’ look like. In 2017, she became a certified yoga teacher, and two years later she earned her coaching certification through McLaren Coaching in Sacramento. Suzi lives in California, with her anesthesiologist husband and two teenage sons.
Suzi partners with clients to clarify their purpose and values and to support them in aligning their professional and personal lives accordingly. She knows that coaching enables clients to see more choices, empowering them to navigate challenges such as work pressure, clear communication, career transitions, and prioritizing self-care. She challenges self-limiting beliefs to support clients in taking committed action to bring about the changes, they need to live and work with intention and authenticity.
From Suzie
Suzi shares the following personal perspective:
“I understand what it takes to be a physician and the responsibilities and pressures that go with it. There is always more to learn. It is easy to feel like an impostor, or to believe that there is no option but to work harder and not take time for oneself, which can easily lead to burnout.When I practiced medicine I did not have a coach. If I had, I would have had someone in my corner who would take a stand for what I said I wanted when perceived obstacles made me doubt that I wanted it after all. Someone to
challenge my negative thoughts when they seemed so reasonable and convincing; to show me that there were more options than I believed possible; who could support me through interviews, impostor phenomenon, career advancement and making time for self care. Someone who would hold me accountable for taking courageous action
towards my desired outcomes, especially when it seemed daunting. This is why now, as a coach myself, I am drawn to helping health professionals thrive.”