Professional Certified Coach | PsyD, MBA
About Debra Doroni
When was the last time that you did something for the first time?
This is my personal mantra, honed through my unique life experiences.
I'm an organizational and leadership psychologist, certified executive coach, and leadership educator whose mission is to engage leaders to create human-centered and resilient organizations. Through individual and team coaching, keynote speaking, and leadership education, she supports professionals to elevate their impact, improve their professional and personal relationships, success, and satisfaction and be leaders others want to follow.
But this wasn’t the plan for my career.
I was the first person in my family to graduate from college, working full time through high school to finance my education. I lost my father to homicide when I was thirteen, became a ballet prodigy in my teens, advanced my career from administrative assistant to executive, and survived cancer.
Through the incredible gift of working with a coach, I felt compelled to transform my professional and personal life to help others use their unique life experiences to adapt, achieve and flourish both at work and in life. I'm passionate about supporting leaders to cultivate joy in their work, to thrive personally and professionally, and to promote human-centeredness in their teams and organizations.
Through my coaching certification, I was inspired by the contributions of social scientists like Brené Brown, Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Simon Sinek, and others whose research has led to important understandings of emotions and neuroscience in the context of organizations and leadership. I became interested in conducting research into the conditions and behaviors, including neuroscience-related factors, that enable transformational, individual, team, organization, and system-wide change to occur.
I completed a Doctor of Organizational and Leadership Psychology program to further understand the neuroscience of relationship-building, leadership, and coaching, and what is known about the role of neurochemistry in burnout and thriving.
Emulating the approach of the scientists who inspired me, I'm writing a book, "The Five Intelligences of Extraordinary Leadership and Organizations" based on my doctoral research and creating curriculum to help coaches, organizational development practitioners, educators and leaders to create more human-centered organizations.
My “happy place” is in my kitchen cooking for family and friends. I love hiking and other outdoor activities with my husband and our dog at home in Rhode Island, in New Hampshire’s White Mountains and the US National Parks. I feed my appetite for continuous learning through reading, yoga and adventure travel.
Professional Experience
I bring more than 30 years of executive experience to coaching, having held strategic and operational leadership roles in large and small physician practices, academic hospitals and for-profit healthcare settings, and I have over 1000 hours of coaching leaders and teams.
I teach leadership in graduate and continuing education programs at Harvard University Division of Continuing Education, Harvard Medical School and the Mass General Institute of Health Professions.
Education
I earned my Doctor of Organization and Leadership Psychology degree at William James College in Newton, MA, where my area of emphasis was the Neuroscience of Leadership.
I hold a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Biology from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA and a Master of Business Administration Degree in Finance from Boston College.
I am a member of Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in psychology.
Certifications
I completed my coaching certification at the Gestalt International Study Center in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, and achieved the Professional Certified Coach credential from the International Coaching Federation.
I'm certified in the Team Emotional Intelligence Survey® and am a Conversational Intelligence® for Coaches Enhanced Skills Practitioner.
Affiliations
I'm a member of the International Coaching Federation, American College of Healthcare Executives, and the Organizational Development Network, and I'm a fellow of the Institute of Coaching.
Honors & Awards
I’m honored to be recognized as one of Boston’s Top 15 Coaches by Influence Digest.
How I Give Back
I think each of us has gifts to share. What’s more, the more we share, the more we get back. One of the ways that I give back to my community and gain personal fulfillment is as a volunteer coach and consultant for Empower Success Corps (ESC) New England, a not-for-profit consulting firm dedicated to enhancing the impact of nonprofit organizations.