Biography
Deborah Thompson is a leadership and wellbeing coach who partners with leaders, teams, and organizations to help them thrive—both professionally and personally. Her coaching and consulting work focuses on strengthening leadership capacity, aligning purpose and values, creating clarity and focus, and building personal and collective resilience in complex, fast-changing environments.
Deborah brings deep experience in executive leadership coaching, team facilitation, and organizational development. She integrates assessment-based insights with practical, human-centered coaching approaches to support sustainable performance and meaningful growth. In addition to her private coaching practice, she serves as a governance and strategic planning specialist for Arizona State University’s Lodestar Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy.
Prior to becoming a professional coach, Deborah held senior executive leadership roles across nonprofit and corporate sectors, where she led enterprise-wide initiatives, developed high-performing teams, and coached leaders through adaptive challenges, change, and organizational complexity. Her work is grounded in a leadership philosophy that prioritizes collaboration, accountability, wellbeing, and long-term impact.
Coaching Focus Areas:
- Executive leadership coaching for senior leaders and emerging executives
- Team facilitation and leadership team effectiveness
- Nonprofit leader and board coaching, including governance and strategic alignment
- Burnout prevention, resilience, and sustainable leadership practices
- ADHD coaching for adults, with a focus on executive functioning, focus, and overwhelm
- Early career and high-potential leader development
Areas of Expertise:
- Leadership development and executive presence
- Strategic thinking and decision-making
- Organizational culture and team dynamics
- Change leadership and adaptive challenges
- Wellbeing, energy management, and resilience
Certifications & Assessments:
- ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC)
- National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC)
- Gallup Certified CliftonStrengths Coach
- Everything DiSC Certified Practitioner
- Five Behaviors of a Team Certified Practitioner
- Hogan Assessment Certification
- Leadership Circle Profile Certified Practitioner
Deborah lived in Arizona for 28 years before relocating to Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2022. She has served in multiple leadership roles within the coaching profession, including on the boards of ICF Arizona and ICF New Mexico, most recently as President of ICF New Mexico.
