Principal Coaches

Prism Coaching operates as a collective, consisting of core coaches and affiliate coaches. Our main decision-making body consists of six core coaches, who have cooperatively structured roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes based upon the type of work accomplished.

Core Coaches

Jennifer Crystal Chien, Certified NLP Coach, is a change consultant and coach with over 10 years of experience in the nonprofit sector. Her approach to coaching is spiritually-based and focuses on listening carefully to the underlying stories in people's lives and helping them to consciously reinterpret them, as well as working with them to stay present and aware. She uses the Creative Coaching framework she developed. Previously, she worked as a nonprofit consultant on fundraising, board development, strategic planning, and project management with more than 30 community-based and government agencies. She is a co-founder of the New Nonprofit Nexus, a multicultural community center for new and emerging nonprofits. She has a BA in Human Biology (Poverty and Public Policy) from Stanford University. For more about Jennifer, visit http://www.jenniferchien.com

Adriana Diaz brings 30 years of experience in adult education, counseling, and group facilitation to her Creative Life Coaching practice. She has taught in colleges and universities around the San Francisco Bay Area, and conducted classes and workshops across the U.S. and internationally. She has a Masters Degree in Culture and Spirituality and is a graduate of the Coaches Training Institute's Co-Active Coaching program. Adriana believes that through the clear determination of intention and the committed dynamics of the client-coach relationship, the client can develop habits and tools to achieve goals, increase creativity, and achieve harmony and balance in career and the ongoing process of life. A published writer, the author of Freeing the Creative Spirit (Harper San Francisco, 1992), and an exhibiting artist, Adriana utilizes the creative process as a tool and template for individual growth. She is bilingual, fluent in Spanish and English. For more about Adriana, visit http://www.yourcreativelifecoach.com

Donald Gerard, Certified NLP Coach, has been coaching since 2003, although, in reality, he has been supporting people on their path for most of his life. Donald is also the director of the Body Temple Institute, which offers holistic health education online, and is an Advisory Board member for both the Center for Global Silence and the Touch Health Association. Donald holds a BS in Business Administration and an MA in Holistic Health Education. Additionally, he studied life coaching with the NLP and Coaching Institute of California, trained in basic acupressure, Tui Na, Shiatsu, and reflexology at the Acupressure Institute, and studied hypnosis and NLP at the Center for Hypnotherapy. His philosophy is based on two concepts: holism and individuality. Holism suggests that all things in the universe are connected and that everyone is a whole person--body, mind, and spirit. Individuality suggests that each person has a unique constitution and experiences life in their own unique way. Together these concepts necessitate an approach to his work that considers each person's own unique place, potential, and purpose in the web of life. For more about Donald, visit http://www.donaldgerard.com

Belma González is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach and consultant with over 25 years experience in the nonprofit sector. She specializes in cultural- and assets-based coaching for nonprofit leaders and activists, prioritizing values, culture and history. Belma has been vetted and selected to be a coach for grantees of the French American Charitable Trust, WK Kellogg Foundation, the Packard Foundation, the AEPOCH Foundation, the Horizons Foundation’s Rickey Williams Leaders, the Haas, Jr. Foundation Flexible Leadership Awardees and fellows of the LeaderSpring leadership program. Belma has completed the Team Coaching International Intensive Systems Coaching Training and participates in the 7th Heaven Coaching Collaborative, which explores organizational and systems coaching. She also represents Prism on the Coaching and Philanthropy Project Think Tank. Previously, Belma worked with Women’s Health Leadership, a leadership program with 350 primarily women of color graduates throughout California and was Director of Women's Needs Center, a free clinic in San Francisco serving uninsured women. Belma is Chicana/Latina and lives in North Oakland. For more about Belma, visit http://www.bcoachingandconsulting.com

Wendy Chiyo Horikoshi, MS, Certified Coach is a guide for knowing and mastering others and oneself. Mastering oneself is a discipline that can lead to transformation. Growing up as the second daughter within a Japanese American farming community, Wendy learned the discipline of hard work and the value of family and community support. From these experiences she understands the importance of the collective. How people learn new things and work together as a group has always intrigued her. The economic, cultural and historical milieu of each individual's life is a fascinating way to understand the insights, wisdom, capacity and strengths that each person has to offer the world. Wendy helps people envision and achieve their goals, whether they be personal or organizational. She has trained and coached for more than 20 years. Her community-building experiences include facilitating multicultural group discussions at Children's Hospital in Oakland, helping Washington Elementary School on the west side of Alameda create a more caring learning community, spearheading multicultural leadership training programs/antiracism seminars; administrating, developing programs and relationships for the University of California Youth Program; codirecting the Migrant Education Summer School Program and teaching at JFK University in the Cross Cultural Counseling and Graduate School of Psychology Departments. Wendy holds a MS in Multicultural Curriculum, serves as adjunct faculty for the Association of Type's Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® program. Wendy has published several articles on leadership, diversity and human development and has also coauthored Teamwork Tools: A Revolutionary Approach for Managers and Trainers (Kagan, 2007). For more about Wendy, visit http://www.www.transformativeleadership.net

Alfredo Vergara-Lobo consults to nonprofit organizations and foundations on strategic planning, strategic partnerships/mergers, board development, and cultural competence. As a bilingual/bicultural professional, he has provided culturally competent educational, counseling, teaching, and coaching services in Latin America and the U.S. Prior to consulting independently, he served as a Projects Director at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services. He obtained his BSW and MSW degrees from San Francisco State University and UC Berkeley respectively and has taught as a guest lecturer in both programs.