Four ways to move important work forward.
Speaking, retreats, coaching and board support. Use one or combine them. Every engagement starts with a conversation about your people and your goals.
Designed for
- CEOs & executive teams
- Corporate teams & leaders
- Associations, chambers & nonprofits
- Boards & leadership teams
- Professional & women-focused groups
- Administrative professional groups
Trusted experienceOrganizations and communities Carissa has supported
- The Hershey Company
- Cincinnati Children’s Hospital
- Diligent Corporation
- Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry
- NTCA - The Rural Broadband Association
- IAAP
- ASAP
- The Beacon Institute
- Girl Scouts of the USA
- The PA Way
Speaking & Professional Development
Leave the room with ideas you’ll actually use.
Keynotes, breakouts and team workshops, each one shaped to your audience. Carissa brings real-world stories, a lot of energy and an easy, approachable style.
- Keynotes for conferences and company events
- Conference sessions and breakouts
- Team workshops and professional training
Track recordHas spoken for IAAP, Diligent, Girl Scouts of the USA, EA Ignite and The PA Way, with a 4.87 out of 5 session rating at CCAP Conference 2026.
Strategic Retreats & Offsites
Step out of the day-to-day. Walk out with a plan.
Half-day to two-day retreats that get your team out of the day-to-day and into the conversations and decisions that matter.
- Board, executive and all-staff retreats
- Building or launching a new strategic plan
- Better communication, fewer silos and a healthier culture
- Listen firstCarissa partners with your leadership team, using staff surveys, feedback and one-on-one conversations to learn what your organization needs to succeed.
- Design the experienceAn agenda built around the decisions your team needs to make.
- Facilitate to a planCarissa runs the room, and your team leaves with a plan they own.
Track recordCarissa has planned, organized and led executive and board retreats from the inside, as part of the leadership team at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, Americans for Fair Treatment, the International Association of Administrative Professionals and other organizations. At the Chamber, she also ran the execution of each year’s strategic plan.
Leadership Development & Coaching
Lead with greater confidence and influence.
For leaders juggling tough relationships, competing priorities or a bigger role. Carissa draws on her own executive years to help you think decisions through and lead with more confidence.
- C-suite executives, CEOs and board directors
- Mid-level leaders and managers stepping into more
- Administrative professionals and Chiefs of Staff
- Leadership development programs for high-potential talent
Track recordAdvised a CEO day to day as Chief of Staff, and as IAAP Foundation Chair and President, led the board and its CEO’s annual review.
Flexible investmentCoaching is where Carissa keeps her pricing flexible, so the right support is within reach at every level.
Governance & Strategic Support
Stronger boards. Steadier follow-through.
Help for boards that want to work better together, make clearer decisions and govern with confidence.
- Board assessment, development and coaching
- Reorganizing committees, meetings and processes
- Onboarding programs for new board directors
- Fractional Chief of Staff or COO support for CEOs
Favorite boards to work withNonprofit, association and chamber of commerce boards.
Track recordRan a 65-member board with nine committees and six subsidiary boards, served as Board Secretary for two organizations, and served as Chair and President of the IAAP Foundation.
The 2026 International Chief of Staff of the Year, when you need one.
Not every organization needs a full-time Chief of Staff or COO. But every CEO needs the work done.
What Carissa takes off your plate
- Turning priorities into a plan, and making sure it happens
- Running meetings, agendas and follow-up
- Board prep and communication
- Operations: systems, processes, vendors and budgets
- Hiring and building the team around you
How it works
- Three to nine months, ongoing or for one project. Long enough to make real change.
- In person when it counts. Monthly in your office near DC, New York, Philadelphia, Harrisburg or Pittsburgh. Elsewhere, on site for key meetings and big events, remote the rest of the time.
- A planned handoff to your team or a new hire, written into every agreement.
A strong fit forChambers of commerce, nonprofits, associations and small to mid-size companies, especially women-owned and minority-led businesses and start-ups growing faster than their operations. Above all, leaders who want a real partner.
Track recordAs Chief of Staff at Americans for Fair Treatment, Carissa led a move to Salesforce, exited a major vendor with zero service disruption, hired six people in five months and helped grow membership from 350 to 20,000.
“You will never regret working with her.”
Competence. Excellence. These qualities are far too rare in today’s world, but Carissa has them in spades.
Special project? She will execute it right, and do it with ease. Off-site or other event? She has event planning experience. Major administrative headache? She has the experience and knowledge on how to get it done, so it’s no longer a problem.
Carissa takes problems and resolves them. She takes dysfunction and makes it work. She takes goals and achieves them.
She’s a guru. You will never regret working with her.