Getting to know Jaci

I created Jaci Anderson Coaching because I believe women of color lead best when we lead from our whole selves. Yet, in over 25 years of leadership and coaching, I consistently see the assets of race and gender neglected or damaged in the leadership development of women of color. This creates exhaustion and talent drain. In my own life, it took a crisis for me to recognize the worthiness and possibility of investing primarily in my passion to see women of color lead from our liberation and be the leader we never had. 

People know me to be confident, powerful, loved, insightful, highly educated, caring and compelling. Yet in my professional life, I found myself being ignored, dismissed, silenced, gaslit, isolated, “othered” and even threatened when advocating for others or myself. My response was typically the same: How was this happening to me? I was adored and loved by co-workers and those I led. 

As a mixed black person, for as long as I can remember, I was treated as the poster child of bridge building and racial reconciliation. I believed I would be listened to differently. I usually advanced because I knew how to play the game, even though I knew it was rigged against me. This weathering had me on the path to burnout like so many talented women of color I knew.

I began to address the intersection of race and gender in my leadership and name the ways I colluded with a demand to play small. I began to pursue life rhythms and relationships that nurtured the super-power of my leadership: being a woman of color. Leading from a path of liberation redirected my energy from survival to being the leader I needed and never had.

It would be my honor to guide you through the helpful and powerful tools I continue to use in my liberation journey. Together, we will interrupt limiting beliefs, identify assets and liabilities to defy burnout, and liberate the leader within you.