Explore Our Commitment to Empowering Personal Growth
Meet our dedicated team at Root and Branch Collective, where personalized coaching meets integrative strategies to foster clarity, balance, and purposeful living.
Discover Our Expert Life Coaching Services
Explore personalized coaching options designed to foster growth, clarity, and fulfillment in every aspect of your life.
Nina Garfield
Nina Garfield, ICF, ACC Certified Life and Career Coach
Become the Leader Your Next Chapter Requires.
I am a transformational leadership and transition coach who helps leaders and professionals navigate disruption with greater clarity, confidence, and purpose. I believe the greatest career transition isn’t changing jobs—it’s becoming the leader your next chapter requires.
For more than 35 years, I led nationally recognized initiatives at NOAA at the intersection of science, conservation, education, and public policy. I guided organizations through complex change, coached mid-career professionals through leadership and career transitions, and developed a deep understanding of what it takes to lead with resilience and purpose in times of uncertainty.
When unexpected federal workforce upheaval transformed her own career, I experienced firsthand the identity shifts that accompany major life transitions. That experience inspired me to dedicate my work to helping others use disruption not as an obstacle, but as a catalyst for growth, renewed purpose, and new possibilities.
Today, I combine executive leadership experience with transformational learning methodologies, adult developmental theory, and Immunity to Change® coaching to help clients create lasting change from the inside out. As an ICF Associate Certified Coach (ACC) and certified Immunity to Change® facilitator, I help individuals and teams uncover the hidden assumptions and competing commitments that keep them stuck so they can lead, live, and grow with greater authenticity, resilience, and confidence.
I partner with environmental professionals, public-sector leaders, executives, and other professionals navigating career transitions, organizational change, leadership challenges, burnout, or retirement. Whether coaching clients through pivotal life decisions, facilitating transformational workshops, or preparing leaders for high-stakes interviews, I help people show up as their authentic selves, communicate a compelling vision, and inspire confidence in others.
Because when you become the leader your next chapter requires, you don’t just change your career—you change what’s possible for your life.
Sharon Gaskins
With 25 years leading change across school districts, state agencies, and nonprofit organizations, Sharon has walked in the shoes of the leaders she works with today. She’s built teams, navigated complex organizational challenges, and faced the personal crossroads that surface when professional and life priorities collide. She’s learned that transformation happens at the intersection of clarity, courage, and connection.
That insight led her to found Aligned Education Solutions, where her work centers on helping individuals and organizations across sectors move through change together. Whether you’re stepping into a new leadership role, navigating a career pivot, building a stronger team culture or structure, or reckoning with what’s next for your future, Sharon brings both deep expertise and genuine presence to the work.
She specializes in one-on-one coaching for individuals and strategic facilitation and organizational development for teams ready to transform. She designs and facilitates leadership development programming rooted in assessment and authentic connection.
What drives her work is a conviction that no one must navigate big transitions alone. Bold leadership, authentic growth, and real connection are possible. Sharon works with individuals and organizations ready to step into that possibility.
Sharon’s background includes a Master’s in Education from the University of Pennsylvania, expertise in leadership assessment and facilitation tools, including DiSC and Five Behaviors. Sharon is also a trained Co-Active coach.
Lisa Schwarz, M.Ed
Lisa Schwarz, M.Ed., is a licensed psychologist, clinical consultant, international educator, executive coach, and the developer of the Comprehensive Resource Model (CRM)™. She also serves as Founder and Executive Director of the CRM™ Foundation and is the primary author of The Comprehensive Resource Model: Effective Therapeutic Techniques for the Healing of Complex Trauma. Since 2009, she has presented at numerous international professional conferences.
For the past 40 years, Lisa has pioneered innovative treatment methods for working with severe dissociative disorders, attachment disorders, in‑utero and ancestral trauma. She is also the originator of CRM Executive Coaching; CRM EQUUS; the CRM Sports Dissociation Model for sports performance; and has developed specialized approaches for Military PTSD and the spouses of military veterans/first responders. Her work bridges neuroscience, spirituality, and consciousness through a blend of traditional psychotherapy and coaching concepts, somatic therapy, equine-partnered therapy, and indigenous healing practices.
Since 2014, CRM™ has expanded globally and is now offered in 14 countries. Lisa maintains a private practice in Pittsburgh, PA, and West Middletown, PA, with opportunities for residential ocean-side retreats, virtual/online therapy, and executive/life coaching with or without equine‑assisted participation.
Lisa is a certified practitioner of Colin Ross’s Trauma Model and Robert Schrei’s Source Point therapy. She is trained in Usui Reiki, transpersonal healing, and has studied the breathwork and somatic concepts of Richard Brown, MD, Jeremy Youst, and Barbara Barnett. Lisa is also a certified TRH® Practitioner through The Reflective Horse® (TRH) Mastery Program developed by Cassandra Ogier.
Lisa is dedicated to ongoing learning, education, creation, and both professional and personal development. She is currently enrolled in an international equine training program, the TRT Method, created by Tristan Tucker. She is also developing a freedom-based partnership/training protocol specifically for Off-Track-Thoroughbred rescues with Billie Lindquist of Arrowhead Equestrian and offers equine-assisted coaching services for business executives and organizational leaders. Lisa’s work is rooted in connection: to self, to nature, and to the deeper intelligence that moves through all life.
Our Coaching Approach
Discover our personalized coaching journey designed to empower your growth and unlock your full potential.
Step One: Initial Consultation
Begin with a comprehensive session to understand your goals and craft a tailored coaching plan that suits your needs.
Step Two: Guided Coaching
Engage in focused sessions that provide strategies and support for navigating challenges and enhancing your development.
Step Three: Sustainable Growth
Experience lasting transformation as you apply new insights, gaining clarity, balance, and a renewed sense of purpose.