Executive Coaching at AFP ICON 2025

Frank Berry, Ph.D.

Are you seeking to unlock your full potential and achieve significant results? Are you an individual navigating a career transition and seeking clarity and direction? As an experienced and dedicated professional in coaching, I have a passion for guiding individuals and organizations towards success.

With over 30 years of corporate experience in manufacturing operations, financial management, quality, and general management, I have established a history of success as a resilient and innovative leader. I utilize this wealth of knowledge and expertise in the coaching sector. Additionally, I have a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership from Newburgh College. My educational background encompasses a wide range of disciplines, including Communications, Team Building, Managing Organizational Change, Principles of Management, and Organizational Commitment Building.

I possess a profound understanding of the challenges executives and business managers face daily. Having held pivotal roles with P&L responsibility, I am well-versed in driving growth, controlling budgets, and optimizing expenses to maximize organizational success. My firsthand experience in the trenches makes me an invaluable asset for clients seeking business guidance and strategic planning.

From an individual coaching perspective, I’m recognizable by my commitment that true success goes beyond professional achievements. As a Coach, I believe in aligning personal growth and development with career objectives, ensuring clients receive a valuable experience that fosters real and lasting career change and growth.

My coaching technique is grounded in empathy, compassion, and a client-first perspective. I serve clients as a trusted advisor and sounding board for executives, challenging blind spots, and providing actionable insights to move forward. Specializing in executive coaching, career and life coaching, and leadership development, I have assisted numerous senior leaders, business managers, and individuals in overcoming challenges, establishing meaningful goals, and achieving career growth. Further, my business management advising impact has been successful in the restructuring of organizations, guiding them towards their full potential and beyond.

Whether you're seeking to navigate career transitions, enhance leadership skills, or optimize business strategies, I am eager to serve as your go-to coach for transformative results. Embrace the journey of growth and unlock your true potential under the guidance of a trusted and experienced career coach. Let me be your partner in success and empower you to thrive in all aspects of your professional and personal life. Together, we will create the future you envision and embrace a life of fulfillment and accomplishment.

Kimberly Dickerson, MBA

Kimberly Dickerson's life mission is to live a bold and impactful life and to inspire others to do the same. As a servant leader, Kim enriches the lives of individuals and improve the organizations she serves. Ms. Dickerson accomplishes this mission by collaborating as a co-creator with her clients, implementing a clear, strategic, and tactical path to help leaders and organizations realize success. Her sharp listening skills and keen sense of discernment helps clients transform and execute their value proposition in the marketplace.

Kim has more than twenty years of executive coaching professionals in Fortune 500 firms. She is recognized as an expert in professional coaching, group facilitation, team training, and implementing professional development programs. Ms. Dickerson provides perspective, accountability, and insight to assist both rising professionals and established senior executives to effectively manage their career journeys.

Kimberly is a certified professional coach through the renowned New Field Network program. Kim is a certified trainer of Kenneth Blanchard’s Situational Self-Leadership, LHH’s Career Focus, and Talent Builder, and Coach University’s Professional Communication Style Inventory certified facilitator. Kimberly also received her Executive Business Series Certificate in Strategic Planning at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Ms. Dickerson serves on the Board of the 13th Man, a non-profit, youth leadership program for young men between the ages of 12-17. She is also an Advisory Board Member of NVOLVE, a non-profit which prepares minority women for careers in S.T.E.M.

Ms. Dickerson earned a B.A. in Economics at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA and an MBA from Fuqua’s School of Business at Duke University in Durham, NC.

Kara Exner, PCC, M.C.Ed.

Kara Exner has been a Professional Coach since 2005. She has worked diverse industries, with a particular affinity for the non-profit and public sectors: working with those who are making a difference for causes they care about. She has provided leadership coaching for fund development professionals and has been a team facilitator and presenter for fundraising groups on topics such as powerful listening skills, personal strengths development, and thinking like a changemaker.

Kara is a graduate of the Co-Active Coach Training Program, has earned the credential of Professional Certified Coach (PCC) from the International Coaching Federation, and has a Master's degree in Adult & Continuing Education and a B.A. in Psychology. She is a long-time volunteer global leader with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), currently serving as Director on the ICF Global Enterprise Board. Kara is the author of Be the Change(maker): Lessons from Those Who Are & A Catalyst for Those Who Will.

Nancy Racette

Nancy Racette is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of DRi. Driven by the belief that every person can have a fundamental impact on the world, Nancy spent decades designing innovative fundraising and communications programs to fuel the growth of sustainable non- profit organizations. In 2001, she began providing executive search and development consulting to help non-profits across the country build their own capacity to grow, thrive, and excel.

Nancy’s development consulting has helped numerous non-profit organizations design and fill powerful staff structures. Working with national organizations such as AAUW, the Armed Services YMCA, and Help Hospitalized Veterans, Nancy has advised Boards of Directors and CEOs on how to identify their most transformative initiatives and invest in staffing structures that advance them.

Nancy’s advice has turned strategic plans into strategic hires for start- ups and established organizations engaging a new generation of stakeholders in imaginative ways.

In addition to designing staff structures, Nancy has also led executive searches for more than 150 leaders who have reshaped critical non- profit operations. Some of Nancy’s most recent executive searches have placed executives who are creating new digital models of youth engagement at the award-winning public health organization Truth Initiative; reimagining national operations for Kids in Need of Defense, a rapidly growing legal services organization defending unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children; and building a development program from the ground up to support influential research at the Urban Institute.

Nancy’s commitment to social impact organizations has led her to build DRi‘s partnerships with major environmental organizations, such as Wildlife Conservation Society and World Wildlife Fund; top-ranked hospitals and healthcare organizations, such as MedStar Washington Hospital Center and the National Council on Aging; and to internationally recognized cultural institutions, such as George Washington’s Mount Vernon and the National Building Museum.

Nancy’s development consulting and executive search draw on her decades of experience developing initiatives that reshaped fundraising at the American Red Cross and Girl Scouts of America. A Certified Fund Raising Executive, Nancy has broad expertise spanning cause marketing, disaster fundraising, major giving, and fundraising campaigns, and she continues to mentor non-profit innovators today.

Beyond DRi, Nancy has been an innovative volunteer in the non-profit sector. She has been a past president for the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) – Washington D.C. Metro Area Chapter. She served on the Board of Directors of the AFP Foundation for Philanthropy, has chaired AFP’s Education Advisory Committee, and has been a member of the Professional Advancement Division committee. She also served on the Board of Directors of the Ellington Fund for the Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

Nancy is a graduate of Boston University’s School of Public Communications and attended the Executive Management Program at Harvard University.