Meet Our Faculty
Christi Byerly, MCC - founder and CEO
Christi's coaching process motivates you to build a community of empathy and grace around you — and to live your mission as part of something bigger than you are.
Christi has trained hundreds of new coaches in French and English since 2014 and has mentored dozens of coaches-in-training. She maintains a thriving coaching practice and has been coaching professionally since 2009, after graduating from the International Coach Academy.
Christi holds a Master NLP certificate, as well as certifications in spiritual direction, group coaching, depth coaching, Enneagram work and mentor coaching. She is a Certified Daring GreatlyTM Facilitator.
Married to Ben, she is the mom of three young people and lives in Alsace on the French, Swiss, and German borders.
Certifications:
- ICF - Master Certified Coach®️ and Mentor Coach
- NLP Master Practitioner
- Spiritual Accompaniment Certified
- Certified Daring Greatly™ Facilitator
- ORSC™ - Organization and Relationship Systems Coaching
- Certified Group Coach and Workplace Coach
Valeyne Grotrian, PCC
Valeyne is an “Inner Leader” Coach for legacy-minded and soul-centered leaders with over 20 years of experience in business operations and human resources leadership roles across 6 industries. She founded Agora Coaching & Training Solutions in 2017, a collective for leaders who want to trust themselves more fully and confidently stand in their inner power. As an Awaken Faculty member, Valeyne aims to create a learning environment where coaches can bravely bring their whole self to their practice with curiosity and play.
Valeyne holds a Psychology of Leadership certification through eCornell University, the PCC credential through the ICF and is a Triple-Certified Professional Coach; Awaken Coach Institute (2021), Gallup CliftonStrengths® Coach (2017), International Coach Academy (2012).
Based in the greater Chicagoland area of the United States, Valeyne is a pilot’s wife and dog mom. They all enjoy adventurous time outdoors together whether it be at the beach or mountains.
Certifications:
- ICF - Professional Certified Coach
®️ - Awaken Coach Institute Graduate, International Coach Academy Graduate & Certified CliftonStrengths® Coach through Gallup
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Certified Practitioner
- Psychology of Leadership Certification through eCornell University
- Ubuntu Coaching
Bob Armour, PCC
Bob is the founder of Armour Coaching and specialises in business transformation, executive performance and leadership development. His coaching style is direct, structured and results oriented. He's able to support a client’s natural thinking patterns to aid the design of practical frameworks, sharpen communication, unlock strengths and align goals with day‑to‑day behaviour.
An Awaken graduate (Class of 2023) with 20 years’ senior‑leadership experience and an ICF Professional Certified Coach credential, he works with emerging coaches with the same clear‑sighted strategy he once used to create high‑performing corporate teams and allow him to make the leap from newly certified coach to commercially active practitioner himself, Bob guides mentees to:
Based in the UK Midlands, Bob is a strong believer in healthy body, healthy mind, he brings a holistic approach to growth — creating space for honest reflection, sustainable development, and grounded personal resilience. Expect sessions that are candid, supportive, and firmly centred on your growth as a professional coach — without asking you to compromise who you are.
Certifications:
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ICF Professional Certified Coach
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Awaken Graduate
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BA Business Administration
Stacy Crawford, PCC
Stacy has been a strengths-based coach for teams and individuals since 2016. She founded Klear Water Coaching & Wellness in 2017 and incorporates Mind-Body Medicine into both her organizational work and individual coaching. Much of her career was spent in higher education as an educator, coach, and leader in student success. She is a proud alumnus of the Awaken Coach Institute program and is honored to step into a faculty role.
Stacy holds a Master’s degree in Counseling, with a focus on marriage and family. She has more than 300 hours of training and supervision from the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) in Washington, DC whose mission is “to help communities around the world to develop the tools they need to heal population-wide trauma.” She served as a mentor and supervisor to others navigating the CMBM certification process for two years and offers self-care groups focused on meditation, mindfulness, and more.
Her authentic and heartfelt approach helps to create a safe space for individuals to explore the possibilities that exist within themselves and to navigate challenges.
Based in Northern Minnesota, Stacy enjoys traveling, reading, laughing, knitting, live music, dancing, and spending time with her partner and two adult children on or near the water.
Certifications:
- ICF - Professional Certified Coach®️
- Awaken Coach Institute Graduate
- Gallup Certified CliftonStrengths Coach & Educator
- Mental Health First Aider
- Center for Mind-Body Medicine
Andrew Simpson, PCC
Andrew is a creative thinker, encourager, developer and catalyst for action. As a leadership coach, mentor coach and organization development (OD) practitioner, he has over 35 years of experience – primarily in the international development sector. In 2019, Andrew established Rising Sun Coaching, LLC with his wife and co-coach Sharon.
Andrew is passionate about walking with clients to gain clarity, confidence, courage and momentum towards a bright and fruitful future. He loves to create a safe space; listen deeply; be creative and playful; engage mind, emotions, body and spirit; integrate nature in coaching conversations; incorporate leadership development resources (including The Leadership Circle 360); and invite growth and compelling next steps.
Proficient in French and Wolof (Sénégal), Andrew holds a Bachelors in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a Masters in Organization Development from American University.
Based in Washington, D.C. he is the father of two young men. During his lifetime, Andrew has traveled to over 80 countries. He loves to witness the sunrise and inspire others with photos and sunrise reflections.
Certifications:
- ICF - Professional Certified Coach®️, Mentor Coach, Group Coach
- Georgetown University - Certificate in Leadership Coaching
- Leadership Circle Profile 360 Certified®️
- Nature as Co-facilitator Certified
Heather King, PCC
Heather completed her training as a Certified Professional Coach at the International Coach Academy in 2012 and became an ICF Associate Certified Coach in 2014. She is passionate about life-coaching because she believes it has the potential to help people thrive and live lives that are deeply fulfilling and meaningful.
One of her core values, as a coach, is to support and come alongside her clients as they align their lives with what they truly value. Heather also has a Master’s in Social Work and is bilingual in English and Spanish. She lives in PA with her husband and three teenage boys. She loves to read, hike in the mountains, play volleyball, and drink a good cup of strong coffee.
Certifications:
- ICF - Professional Certified Coach®️
Thomas Mundia, PCC
Thomas is a senior executive leadership coach, specializing in gender, social, moral and emotional intelligence. A professional coach since 2015, he coaches CEOs, executive and board committee members, senior leadership teams, business owners and social entrepreneurs, both as a personal and team coach in countries across Africa.
With a background in economics, Thomas holds a masters in applied philosophy and ethics. He has held senior positions in manufacturing, media, finance and NGOs.
Thomas combines coaching psychology with psychometric assessments to help his clients find their underlying drivers, move through their blocks, and achieve their goals. His creative tools, exercises, and African proverbs offer deeper awareness.
He's adventurous, creative, and curious. With his wife Hedaya, Thomas heads the thriving Pied Pipers Services, Ltd.
Certifications:
- ICF - Professional Certified Coach®️
- Master in Applied Philosophy and Ethics
- Institute for Social and Emotional Intelligence Coach (USA)
- Advanced Professional Skills Training (The Performance Solution, UK)
- LPI TPMA Certified Trainer (IFC, UK)
- Clarity 4D Certified Accreditor & Business partner (UK)
Joan Leteipa, ACC
Joan is an International Development professional with over 15 years of experience in product and project management across non-profits and multinational corporations. As an Associate Certified Coach with ICF and Social Innovation fellow with Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation in Canada, she applies a coaching mindset to all her work and approaches life as a process of continuous innovation.
She views coaching as a way of being and is fascinated by the daily transformation coaching brings in alignment with her core value of growth. She enjoys coaching conversations and facilitating professional coach training. She lives in Kenya with her husband Leteipa and two sons Lempiris and Lesiamon. She loves taking beach walks, swimming, quiet reflection and deep conversations over a cup of brewed Kenyan masala tea (chai).
Certifications:
- ICF - Associate Certified Coach®️
- LIFO®️ Certified Practitioner
- Success Teams Certified facilitator
Evelyn Wolf, ACC and Founder of Ewolve Coaching
Evelyn is a Somatic Coach who guides you to deeply connect with your body’s innate wisdom. By grounding in your truth, she fosters the mental clarity empowering you to expand your experience of meaningfulness and aliveness in various aspects of life. She works as both a business consultant and personal coach, specialising in embodiment, emotional mastery, and creative expansion. Her approach focuses on listening closely to what emerges from the body’s wisdom and guiding clients in creating strategies tailored to their unique inner resources and strengths.
Evelyn’s approach is informed and deeply rooted in her own personal journey of healing trauma that led her to deepen her trust in her own body's wisdom. Refining her approach with specialised certifications she enjoys holding space for deep, transformative processes. She supports her clients in cultivating a profound sense of self-knowing — cultivating their capacity to hold space for themselves and others, and navigating both personal and professional challenges with clarity and self-trust. Her coaching philosophy is rooted in the belief that each person has the innate wisdom to flourish on their path and enrich their environment with their authentic being.
Based in Berlin, Evelyn loves to express herself through dance and Kung Fu as well as different creative expressions like singing, painting and poetry. Her passion and joy sparks when tapping into intuitive movement and free expression together with others.
Certifications:
- ICF - Associate Certified Coach®️
- Certified NLP Practitioner
- Certified Practitioner of Body Psychotherapy
- Certified African Yoga Teacher
- Dynamic Breathwork Facilitator
- Intuition Training
Deb Ingersoll, PCC
Deb is passionate about facilitating leaders on their journey to creating a culture that works for more people and more varied people to thrive. In coaching individuals, she provides space for discovery of authenticity. Her website quotes, “When you’ve found your purpose, your ability to have an impact in positive ways will be transformed.”
Her work includes large corporations, small start-ups, and, more recently, humanitarian organisations. Deb's background in systems thinking, strategic leadership, culture curation, design, innovation, and technology has led her to a new venture; a master’s degree with research focused on creating the systemic conditions for behaviour-linked values.
She loves to talk with people who have been considering who their authentic self truly is. Deb's coaching provides a safe space so they can find their purpose to unleash a life they love.
Based in Germany, she is a 2020 graduate of Awaken and certified through the ICF. As a deep listener and lover of nature, adventure, and creativity, she enjoys exploring the world on her bike and hiking with her husband, kids, and friends.
Certifications:
- ICF - Professional Certified Coach®️
Rishi Rongala, MCC
Rishi is a Master Certified Coach (MCC) and the founder of Paradigm Shift Transformative Coaching, where he serves as a thought partner to corporate leaders and entrepreneurs navigating high-stakes complexity. He also authors The Awakened Leader, a newsletter for leaders navigating the frontier between inner stillness and outer impact. With a professional background spanning startups, financial consulting at Deloitte, and serving on the Board of the ICF Hyderabad Charter Chapter, Rishi brings a blend of the practical and the profound to the Awaken faculty. He is also the co-author of the book, The Rise of Manager as Coach.
His coaching approach is grounded in Ontology, Neuroscience, and the Three Principles, focusing on helping leaders shift from the "calculating mind" to a state of presence and clarity. Rishi is known for his ability to hold a safe, resonant space that allows for deep inquiry and the uncovering of wisdom beyond conditioned thinking. He advocates for coaching beyond the person and explores the cutting edge of transformative and transpersonal coaching.
As a member of the Awaken senior faculty, Rishi embodies our core spiritual values of Love, Courage, Trust, Depth, and Community. He is dedicated to the craft of coaching as a way of being, helping coaches and leaders worldwide move beyond surface-level strategies to achieve true spiritual and professional alignment.
Rishi lives in the beach town of Goa, India, where he embraces a lifestyle of lifelong learning and reflection.
Certifications:
- ICF - Professional Certified Coach®️- MCC
- Certified Organizational Development Coach
- Three Principles in Business Certification
- Certified Precision Coach
- Inspired Leadership Specialization
Ben Byerly PhD, PCC
Ben provides depth coaching and spiritual accompaniment for cross-cultural leaders, academics, and entrepreneurs across several continents. He enjoys evoking hidden or unconscious dimensions of a client and helping them discover new horizons in creative, sometimes unexpected ways. He welcomes the full messiness of life.
He holds a PhD in ethnicity and social identity formation and integrates multiple streams into his coaching practice, including Bowen Family Systems Theory, Internal Family Systems (IFS), depth psychology, contemplative spirituality, and memory reconsolidation. If you’re looking for a thoughtful book recommendation, he likely has one ready.
Raised in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia, Ben maintains a lifelong connection to African cultures and communal values. Outside of coaching, he enjoys mountains, sunrises, playing football (the global variety), exploring neurodivergence, and having meaningful conversations.
Ben lives in Alsace, France, near the Swiss and German borders, with his wife Christi. They have three adult children.
Certifications:
- ICF - Professional Certified Coach®️
- NLP Practitioner (Classical and New Code)
- Deep Coaching Intensive
- Spiritual Direction
