About Us

Founded in 2015. Established in Northern Virginia (USA)

The only way to make sense of change is to plunge into it, move with it, join the dance. - Alan Watts, the Wisdom of Insecurity

At Change Essentials we believe in change that works...

Inclusive change that involves the right stakeholders

Change that lasts and change that generates your desired results

Founded in 2015 by Sara Keenan, Change Essentials LLC is a woman-owned small business (WOSB) established in Northern Virginia dedicated to managing change effectively. Our DUNS number is 079875780.

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Organizations we have helped
Verisign logo
USDA logo
Eagle Hill logo
Georgetown logo

Why chooose us?

We specialize in supporting leaders navigate complex changes at the individual, team or organizational level

While ensuring they have the capacity and resilience to thrive rather than merely survive the changes coming at them. 

Report

Sometimes you want to change to make things better for yourself or your organization and sometimes you have to change to survive. We have all faced changes that were executed poorly and seen or experienced the debilitating and demoralizing results.

As human beings, most of us don’t like change – it has a strong emotional component to it that can be stressful, scary and confusing so we resist.

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Methodology: GRACE™

Over many years of experience at Change Essentials we have defined and refined our approach to managing change. We believe that to enable effective change you need: GRACE™

Click below to learn more about our methodology:

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Sara Keenan

Founder

Experienced management consultant and leadership coach with more than 20 years of experience leading change and delivering results in large and small organizations. Sara founded Change Essentials in 2015 to provide effective change management support to senior leaders in federal and commercial organizations.

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Sara Keenan
Profile
Experience
Executive Leadership

Sara Keenan has 20+ years of experience running teams and business units in fast growing organizations, and supporting leaders who drive change in their organizations. She partners with clients in practical ways to deliver results that last.

She specializes in strengthening employee engagement and commitment, and solidifying organizational alignment and resilience when an organization or team faces significant change.

She has led large change management, leadership development and performance improvement programs while working for various consulting firms, federal agencies and international corporations.

Education
Specialties
Leadership coaching

Trained in change management, organization development and leadership coaching through Georgetown University, Sara can seamlessly navigate from building out high level strategic change plans to cascading down what those changes mean to individuals.

Sara integrates strengthening resilience into all her work to cultivate stronger individuals and organizations. She listens deeply to allow people to open up and share their thoughts and feelings in a safe, non-judgmental fashion. She builds meaningful collaborative relationships built on honesty, trust and respect.

Childhood
Background
Organizational change and human rights

From a young age Sara was fascinated by how people interact with one another as she watched her large family’s dynamics in their small kitchen in Ireland. Interested in understanding human behavior and committed to human dignity, Sara specialized in studying organizational change and leadership coaching in Georgetown University, and human rights in her Master’s in Law Program.

She is committed to enabling people to be more effective as individuals, as team members, as leaders and as human beings. She partners with leaders to ensure change is managed in organizations in ways that generate desired results and a better work experience for everyone. Sara’s organizational work on communications and teams has been published in Jossey-Bass’ consulting annuals in 2003 and 2009.

Home office
Education
Ulster University logo
BA Honors Degree in European Business Studies

University of Ulster at Coleraine, Northern Ireland

Queen's University logo
Master’s Degree in International Law Specializing in Human Rights and Emergency Law

Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Business success
Certificates
  • Resilient Leadership® Certified Coach
  • Radical Collaboration® Certified Facilitator
  • The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™ (Certified Practitioner)
  • Conflict Dynamics Profile (Certified Facilitator)
  • Emotional Intelligence EQi 2.0® & EQi 360® (Certified Practitioner)
  • Myers-Briggs (MBTI®) (Certified Practitioner)
  • Center for Creative Leadership 360 Suite of Assessments
  • PDI’s 360 Assessment: Profilor

Consulting team

Charles Kemp
Charles Kemp
COO (Chief Operating Officer)

Charles Kemp is a Senior Executive with 30+ years of management and IT consulting, IT and Financial Operations, and Program Management in commercial and federal sectors.

He served as Deputy CFO at the Peace Corps for 5 years. Charles led large IT implementations for PwC Consulting for 8 years and was a Director for PwC’s Data Center Operations for 5 years.

He also served as the Program Manager for a large cross federal agency IT transformation initiative. Educated at Virginia Tech in Accounting and Information Systems, Charles enjoys wrestling with complex problems, building value-based service models, and energizing organizations. In his spare time, he plays squash, rides bikes, and loves to travel.

About Charles
Rhonda Hess
Rhonda Hess
Executive Consultant

Rhonda Hess, MA, PCC is an ICF certified coach. She brings over 25 years of experience working with senior leaders, executives and their teams across a broad range of industries in the public and private sectors to cultivate transformation and resilience in changing times. Rhonda devotes her energy and expertise to coaching leaders who want to inspire and engage people in purposeful work. Rhonda is motivated to help leaders expand their capacities for creative thinking, emotional intelligence, and cultivating resilience. She blends leading science and research from the fields of biology, positive psychology and nature with innovative practices to ground her coaching work. Her clients experience Rhonda as knowledgeable, down to earth and dedicated to their success.

Rhonda’s approach to working with leaders and their teams is centered on purposeful conversation. Rhonda helps leaders explore their core values, the way they think, speak and present themselves in order to build self – awareness and team collaboration. Rhonda has expertise and passion for using tool to help people embrace their talents, discover ways to use them effectively, and transfer insights into concrete leadership practices. Her ultimate mission is to build humane, dignified places for people to live and work.

Rhonda likes to explore the natural world, hike and cook with family and friends.

About Rhonda
Tracey Cairnie, MS, PCC
Tracey Cairnie
Executive Consultant

Tracey Cairnie, MS, PCC brings over twenty-five years of experience working with executives, managers, supervisors, and teams in the financial, scientific, legal, technological, and educational fields for both public and private sectors. She specializes in coaching, conflict resolution, facilitation, group dynamics, and management and leadership optimization. Tracey is an adjunct professor at George Mason University and a guest instructor at Georgetown University where she teaches collaborative communication, mediation, and negotiation skills as well as conflict theory and alternative dispute resolution. She holds a BS in Public Administration and an MS in Conflict Analysis and Resolution.

As an ICF-certified coach, Tracey provides coaching to senior and mid-level leaders, teams, and individuals, and mediates resolutions. She works closely with her clients to clearly articulate goals, issues, interests, and desired outcomes. Tracey uses a client-centered approach that is non-directive and non-judgmental. She provides one-on-one and team coaching to help her clients develop clarity of purpose in their thinking, actions, and language. She enhances their understanding of their own management and leadership styles (including their conflict style, motivational values system, and learning style). This understanding enhances her clients’ capacity to engage in more effective communication and achieve more satisfying results. She works with individuals and teams to expand their observation and awareness while engaging with their managers, peers, teams, and direct reports – noticing their different styles, assumptions, and uncovering unspoken expectations. Her clients gain a better understanding of their group dynamics and the systems in which they live and work.

Tracey lives near Charlottesville, VA with her husband, Hilary, and two Havanese dogs. They have five grown sons. Her passions are swing dancing and hiking.

About Tracey
Marialane Schultz
Marialane Schultz
Executive Consultant

Marialane Schultz is a respected business executive with more than 25 years of successful leadership experience managing major business operations, Information Technology, strategy, and policy in Fortune 100 and defense organizations. Her prior executive roles include, vice president of Fannie Mae’s Mortgage-Backed Securities (MBS) Program Office supporting a $2.5 trillion MBS portfolio. Prior to that, Marialane was the deputy executive director of the Defense Contract Management Agency’s business operations, workforce development and strategic planning. In this role she oversaw a distributed workforce of over 14,000 with a book of business valued at $900 million. She also served as a senior staffer to the Clinton Administration.

Clients frequently cite Marialane’s fluency in business, leadership, and her heart-centered results orientation as key reasons she is so often entrusted as an executive coach and advisor. She is described as an effective thinking partner that helps clients lead with clarity, compassion and impact. Her clients include major universities, law firms, business start-ups, EdTech groups and various Federal and Fortune 100 organizations operating in a variety of industries.

During her free time, Marialane enjoys reading, golfing, landscaping, gardening, and hiking when traveling in her RV with her two doggies, Little Louie and Little Oliver.

About Marialane
Tom Finn
Tom Finn
Executive Consultant

Tom Finn is an ICF certified executive coach and organization development consultant.

Tom has thirty years of experience consulting with private and public sector clients on organization system change efforts, coaching leaders, leading team building efforts, and training thousands in leadership and cultural diversity. Tom offers a unique leadership development system called LifeLine, which is designed for leaders under pressure. The LifeLine approach links personal biography and history to the leader’s ability to handle pressure and overload. LifeLine is designed for turbulent times, and develops non-anxious courage, influence, and a wider range of skills in collaboration, assertion, and high-level accomplishment.
Tom ran a retail business from startup to sale in the 1990s. He is the author of Are You Clueless? 7 Clues to Profit, Productivity, and Partnership in a Multicultural World. In 2022, he will publish a book on how small shifts in attitude and behavior improve leader performance, based on his coaching clients’ stories.

Tom enjoys exploring his Irish ancestry, travel, and really good conversation.

About Tom
Marion Smith
Marion Smith
Executive Consultant

Marion Smith is a professionally certified Leadership Coach and Facilitator bringing more than 20 years of business knowledge and skills to enrich her work with clients. Prior to working in consulting and coaching, her career included leadership positions across a range of functions including product quality and marketing. Building on an early career in scientific research in biosciences, she has directed Manufacturing Continuous Improvement Education Programs and Business Process Improvement Analysis engagements in the Technology sector.

Educated at the University of West of Scotland in Microbiology and Information Technology, she holds Chartered Biologist status with the Royal Society of Biology. Her Certificate in Leadership Coaching was awarded by Georgetown University. Focused on Leadership Excellence, Innovation and Results, her work is driven by the will to advance methods, systems and the development and growth of people.

Marion relaxes by enjoying time with family, walking her dog and watching movies on the IMAX big screen.

About Marion

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