Anne’s Bio

Anne Oliver was born and raised in Washington, DC among national leaders in the intensity of the 1960’s.

Early on she learned that politics is really about communicating well and reciprocal relationships. She got to see first hand what both worthy leadership and what hypocrisy look like. Her first job was as a teen ambassador for the State Department. She loved helping to welcome and orient families and children of diplomats from around the world.  She learned that in order to function people need to feel included and to know what’s going on. This simple truth still profoundly influences Anne’s practice.

Each phase of Anne’s life and work has offered up nuggets of wisdom that contribute to her work:

  • As a life skills teacher of developmentally delayed adults, she grasped the importance of breaking down learning tasks into manageable chunks and of tapping into her clients’ hidden assets and non traditional kinds of intelligence.
  • As the leader of a high profile violence prevention program in schools, she gained expertise in negotiating among conflicting interests and teaching dispute resolution and communication skills to people of all ages.
  • As a mediator , she has come to see that, with skilled astute help, people in conflict CAN get more of what everyone wants. And preserve vital connections needed in communities.
  • Restorative justice mediation  showed her how “right”  real justice can be when accountability is co-designed. Being part of the transformative moments when people in dispute see that they have better options and new possibilities for constructive relationships  … that is a privilege and an inspiration.
  • As director of three small merged non profits she  found out what downsizing, collaboration and merging different organizational cultures really entails.
  • As a one-stop Organizational and Staff Development Manager in local government she discovered what works when it comes to shifting bureaucratic mind sets and structures and to encouraging staff growth inside complex systems.
  • And her many years teaching professional development skills (she rejects the notion of “training” people!)  have yielded her ability to design learning experiences that provoke insight and  practical competencies WHILE having fun together.
  • Coaching hundreds of clients in diverse situations has proven to her that people want to ‘show up’ and be part of positive impulses. They have often become discouraged. Once they get clearly focused, they can truly contribute. People have tremendous inner resources and helping them tap those to do what matters is transformative.

Anne has worked to keep her perspective fresh and well rounded by working within organizations, not just as an outside consultant and trainer. There is nothing like working in the trenches to keep things real.  Recently she was Organizational Development and Training Specialist for the City of Santa Rosa, CA.

This was a delightful experience where she had full access to 1300 eager clients in 12 departments. She found it most fulfilling to accomplish

  • an affordable and energizing mentoring program
  • intelligent reorganization of services within budget constraints
  • successful cost saving mediations between staff, community groups and departments
  • executive and staff retreats that produced feasible plans and stronger teams
  • a collaboratively built  popular training program that included multi-module leadership academies
  • staff coaching at all levels including  restorative communications around organizational change and lay off

She has high regard for local governments struggling to provide core services in a public climate reluctant to fund them. Anne hopes people will come to appreciate local government. She wishes that others could experience what it’s like NOT having local governance, as she did growing up in our Nation’s Capital.   Anne has signed on with Regional Government Services (www.rgs.gov) through whom local government, agencies, districts and joint powers authorities can access Anne’s services in an efficient and affordable way. For RGS she and her colleagues are creating a ‘new wave’  staff learning model that combines onsite group learning with customized coaching for applying new skills to work situations.

She continues to provide a full array of coaching, organizational and leadership development, training and dispute resolution services to businesses, individuals and groups. Currently she consults with Regional Government Services offering her talents and experience to local governments in Northern California.

Anne earned her Masters in Education from St. Mary’s College and her undergraduate degree at the University of California at Berkeley.

Training and Credentials

Anne has over 1500 hours of coursework related to the fields of coaching, facilitation, mediation, and creativity including:

  • Completed Coaching Certification Coursework, The Coaches Training Institute
  • Certified Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator, Company of Experts
  • Mediation Certificate, Humboldt State University
  • Certified Community Mediator, Restorative Justice & Family Group Conferencing Facilitator
  • Certified Trainer/Consultant Self-As-Mediator™ and Manager as Mediator™
  • Certified Senior Instructor of Technologies for Creating™
  • Standard California Teaching Credentials in Learning Handicapped and Administration