About Fran

My Journey

My work is grounded in love and in the sacredness of life. I believe that our extractive, hardening tendencies — hustle culture, disconnection, endless striving — come at a cost to our hearts and to the planet. By honoring our interdependence and caring for our bodies, relationships and communities, we reclaim wholeness. When you tend to your well‑being even a little more, your people and communities also benefit. This orientation guides everything I do.

My first love was art, performance and advocacy. Hardship steered me toward the business world, but I never stopped creating. Today I still perform in an occasional cabaret and sing whenever I can. Over more than 20 years, I’ve had the privilege of leading people and culture in roles like Managing Partner at Good Works and Head of People at GRAIL — guiding organizations through rapid growth, major financings, IPOs and acquisitions. This blend of creativity and strategy shapes how I coach.

Over the past decade I’ve been intentional about shedding the culture of hustle and returning to what keeps me whole — nature, family, artistry and stillness. Internal Family Systems (IFS) parts work — which teaches us to listen to and harmonize the different “parts” within us — has reshaped how I see and support others. Somatic practices, yoga and community herbalism ground me in the body and the natural world. These practices remind me that well‑being is not a luxury but a source of leadership. They inform the way I listen and guide.

I’m deeply involved with artist and activist communities and partner with public institutions committed to defending democracy. As a white, queer, non‑binary, Jewish parent, I navigate complexity every day while in pursuit of liberation for all with a focus on anti‑racism. In recent years, alongside neighbors and fellow organizers, I helped build networks across three neighborhoods, co‑led the FreeMN campaign and trained hundreds of people through FreedomTrainers in response to ICE’s Operation Metro Surge. This community work taught us solidarity, mutual aid and the power of collective care. My approach is also informed by Resmaa Menakem’s somatic abolitionism and anti‑racist teachings.

My relationship with grief, death and dying is personal as much as professional. I was guided into this terrain after the sudden loss of my mother, closely followed by tragically losing my ten‑year‑old cousin (truly, my niece) in a very public school shooting and then, in rapid succession, several other close loved ones including death by suicide. Teachers and communities have shaped my approach to tending sorrow: the death‑literacy work of Stephen Jenkinson, the rituals and storytelling of Malidoma Somé, Ahlay Blakely’s musical and communal grief work and Francis Weller’s invitation into the “wild edge of sorrow.” As a rebbitzen — partner to a rabbi — I am also grounded in Jewish traditions of mourning and the practices of the mekonenot, the wailing ones who tend our collective grief. These lineages remind me that grief is relational, that it is a skill to be learned, and that it can be a gateway to deeper love and leadership.

I understand what it means to lead while honoring your values, your body and your relationships. Those experiences — creative, professional, activist and ritual — are at the heart of my work with clients.

Credentials & Training

• BA, University of Southern California (Summa Cum Laude)
• MBA, UCLA Anderson — Organizational Behavior Fellow, Social Impact Track
• Certified Integral Coach, New Ventures West
• Professional Certified Coach, International Coaching Federation
• RYT‑200 Yoga Instructor, Integral Yoga Institute
• Internal Family Systems‑Informed Coach, Self Capacities with Bonnie Weiss MA, LCSW
• Trained Community Herbalist, The Peoples' Medicine School with Amanda David and Commonwealth Herbs with Katja Swift & Ryn Midura
• Trained in Leadership Embodiment (Somatics) in the Wendy Palmer lineage
• Trained Meditation Leader (various lineages)
• Certified in the Leadership Circle Profile and Leadership Curriculum, Full Circle Group