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The Women Leaders Association, the largest publisher and events organization for women professionals with 43,000 members and more than 130 regional chapters, today announced Shelley A. Smith as the first official Coaching Partner of its Milwaukee chapter. The appointment launches the association's Coaching Partners program in southeastern Wisconsin, giving members direct access to coaches screened for credentials, track record, and client results.
Coaching is one of the highest-impact investments a professional woman can make in her career, and one of the hardest to shop for. Titles are unregulated and quality varies enormously. Under Coaching Partners, the association does the screening on the member's behalf, vetting every coach for recognized certifications, verifiable experience, and excellent client reviews, so members can book a consultation with confidence.
Smith's guiding belief is that how we show up anywhere, anytime, impacts our ability to be effective in the moment. Executive Coach and Managing Principal of ElliotSmith LLC, she partners with clients who want to live, lead, and engage with purpose.
Her credentials are unusual in one specific way: she is a certified ICF Mentor Coach Specialist, working with and evaluating the coaching skills of other coaches by reviewing the coaching session recordings they submit for their own ACC and PCC credentials, and she serves on the faculty of an ICF-accredited coach training organization while mentoring coaches individually and in groups. In other words, she is one of the people who decides whether other coaches meet the standard.
Before founding her practice, Smith spent 14 years at Aurora Health Care, rising from Director of Employee and Organizational Development to Senior Director of Organizational Effectiveness, interim Senior Vice President of Employee and Organizational Development, and Senior Director of Leadership Development, where her team won the National Center for Healthcare Leadership's 2018 BOLD Award recognizing the best organizations in leadership development. She designed and built the system's Coaching Practice Center on the ICF core competencies, eliminating more than $100,000 in outside coaching costs in a single year by bringing the work in-house, and measured a 3.8 percent increase in desired leadership behaviors through a pre- and post-program 360 process. Earlier she spent nearly 18 years at Marshall & Ilsley, now BMO Harris, in corporate talent and performance management leadership.
As Managing Director of the Talent Management Practice at LAK Group, she grew the coaching community from fewer than ten local coaches to more than 35 ICF-credentialed coaches worldwide and created a Coaching On Demand service for employees that would not typically have access to executive coaching services.
Today she coaches executives and senior leaders, physicians and health care leaders as a Certified Physician Development Coach, teams and organizations building internal coaching capability, and other coaches seeking mentor coaching. She holds an MBA from Concordia University Wisconsin and a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and is certified in the Hogan suite, Korn Ferry Leadership Architect and KF360, Gallup CliftonStrengths, MBTI Steps I and II, and several 360 instruments.
"How we show up anywhere, anytime, impacts our ability to be effective in the moment," said Smith. "My work starts with relationships and trust, and then it gets specific: where are you, where do you want to be, and what is actually preventing you from getting there? Not what you already know about yourself, but the thing underneath it. Once that is on the table, we turn it into realistic actions that create the change you want. I am honored to bring that to the Women Leaders Association's Milwaukee members."
Milwaukee-area members can view Smith's full profile, including her focus areas and credentials, book a free consult, or send her a private note through her page at
https://MilwaukeeWomenLeaders.org/coaching.html?coach=ShelleySmith
"Our members ask how they can tell whether a coach is genuinely good," said Lydia Price, 2026 Volunteer Chair of the Women Leaders Association. "Shelley is one of the people who answers that question professionally: she reviews and evaluates the coaching recordings other coaches submit for their credentials, and teaches in an accredited coach training program. Add 30 years building leadership development inside major organizations, and Milwaukee could not have a stronger first Coaching Partner."
The Milwaukee launch is part of a national rollout extending Coaching Partners across the association's network of more than 130 chapters, pairing each city's members with coaches selected for that market.
Coaching Partners extends the association's mission of giving professional women both structural transparency and individual support. Research from Pew and others estimates that women still earn roughly 15 percent less than men on average, and most have little visibility into which employers advance women fairly. The association's Glass Ceiling Score project scores most major U.S. employers on how fairly they promote women into management and executive roles. Coaching Partners adds the personal dimension: once a member sees the landscape clearly, a proven coach helps her move through it.
About Shelley Smith
Shelley A. Smith, MBA, BCC, PCC, is Executive Coach and Managing Principal of ElliotSmith LLC (elliotsmithllc.com), providing executive coaching, mentor coaching, assessments, and consulting to leaders and organizations across health care, financial services, manufacturing, law, hospitality, academia, and senior care. A Professional Certified Coach credentialed by the International Coaching Federation and a Board Certified Coach, she is a Mentor Coach Specialist, a Certified Physician Development Coach, faculty at Positive Coaching Solutions, and a group mentor with several organizations. Her career includes Managing Director of the Talent Management Practice at LAK Group, 14 years at Aurora Health Care in organizational effectiveness and leadership development leadership, and nearly 18 years at Marshall & Ilsley. She holds an MBA from Concordia University Wisconsin and a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
About the Women Leaders Association
The Women Leaders Association is a non-profit committed to the development and advancement of women in the corporate arena. With 43,000 members and more than 130 chapters in major cities, it is the largest publisher and events organization serving women professionals, producing conferences, leadership programs, original research, and daily publications for its members. We also celebrate the top 50 business women in each city, publish a Glass Ceiling Score ranking how well most employers advance women, and then recognize the best women's employers in each city from these rankings.
Events Near You: https://WomanLeaders.org/r/
Best Employers Near You: https://WomanLeaders.org/r/GlassCeiling
Visit the Milwaukee chapter: https://MilwaukeeWomenLeaders.org
Media Contact: Women Leaders Association, Service@WomanLeaders.org
Media Contact:
Lydia Price
Milwaukee Women Leaders Association
Service@MilwaukeeWomenLeaders.org
