 Ellen Good President, Focus First |
Ellen Good brings extensive experience as a coach, consultant and business owner to her work with clients who are facing challenges in their careers, their businesses and their lives. Her ability to uncover and expertly navigate complex feelings and situations enables her to identify the source of problems, and then help her clients devise effective solutions. Ellen’s practical, holistic approach helps clients evaluate how one area of their lives affects the others so they can make the best professional and personal decisions. And her objectivity gives clients the comfort level they need to articulate their feelings, define their goals and then take concrete steps to achieve them while overcoming obstacles along the way. Her relaxed, responsive and committed nature provides a supportive environment in which to face change. Ellen’s professional background includes an impressive mix of qualitative marketing research work as well as business training and consulting. In 1986, Ellen started Focus First as a way to use her extensive education and professional experience to help organizations with qualitative marketing research. As a qualitative research consultant, she worked with a wide range of industries, including biotech, education, health care, hospitality, high tech, publishing, retail, telecommunications, travel and manufacturing. The firm then evolved to include more business training and coaching in the areas of conflict management and mediation. Prior to this, she was with Clark Jones Inc, a full-service marketing research firm, as a senior research associate. There she served a wide variety of clients conducting all phases of research projects, including focus group moderation, quantitative questionnaire design, data analysis and report writing. She also spent six years with the United Way of Greater St. Louis. In her roles as program consultant and executive director of the Illinois division, Ellen coordinated annual allocations of $27 million for 75 organizations, managed field projects and coordinated a 10-person staff assigned to allocations, fund raising and community services. Ellen earned a Master’s in Social Work from St. Louis University and a Bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University. In addition, she has completed professional training programs at The Coaches Training Institute, the American Society for Training and Development, the Public Conversations Project, Harvard Law School’s Program of Instruction for Lawyers and the Lancaster Mediation Center. She serves on the faculty of RIVA Training Institute, where she teaches Fundamentals of Moderating, and is active with the International Coach Federation and New England Women Business Owners. Contact Ellen Good and Focus First at ellengood@focusfirst.com. |