Instructor Biographies

Fern is the Founder and Director of the Life Purpose Institute, Inc. Prior to working as a coach, she was a mental health counselor, social worker and career counselor. She developed her unique coaching method in 1984 and has assisted thousands of people in her coaching practice in making positive life and career changes. Fern developed a strong and compelling vision to help people discover their purpose, move forward in all areas of their life, and create a life they love.

After serving for many years in her private practice as a Life Coach and licensed therapist, she began training coaches internationally to perform this important work.

Fern wrote and developed the comprehensive manuals and materials for the Life and Spiritual Coach Training Programs. Our students appreciate her wisdom depth of knowledge and skill, as well as her warmth and kindness and willingness to help each student that needs extra help.

Leah is the Training Director and an instructor for Life Purpose Institute. She has been coaching service-based business owners and executives for almost 20 years. She is one of the leading coaches for high-level financial advisors and advisory teams in the US through her work with ClientWise LLC. She is also a Certified Emotional Intelligence Practitioner, and a Certified NLP Practitioner.

Leah approaches her role as a coach strategically and holistically by helping her clients develop leadership qualities, create dynamic teams incorporate meditation and other healing practices, integrate effective communication skills, and increase profitability. Through her powerful intuition, she is able to identify both their potential and the source of their limitations. Some of her management-level clients have worked for Google, Walt Disney, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Microsoft, and Northwestern Mutual.

Leah has been designing and delivering coaching skill trainings internationally for over 15 years. Her students rave about her Socratic-like teaching style that evokes their wisdom and encourages peer-to-peer exchanges as well as her brilliance and holistic view of coaching.

Gretchen is an Alumni instructor for the Life Purpose Institute. She is a Master Coach through the International Coach Federation and Certified Life Coach. She specializes in Life, Executive, and Coaches Coaching and is also a professional speaker, and nationally syndicated advice columnist. She helps people from all walks of life ready to make significant and substantial changes.

She has a highly successful coaching practice working with individuals and corporations. Her clients include Universal Music, University of Southern California, and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. Gretchen has spent the past ten years working, hands-on, with individual clients, name brands, and notable companies providing entrepreneurial tools, public relations acumen, and real-world practical coaching to produce unprecedented results. She is a go-to expert for the press and is frequently featured in A-list publications such as Fast Company and the Chicago Tribune.

Gretchen’s students report she is a dynamic, inspirational and excellent teacher who really models success and how to coach effectively.

Julia is the founder of her successful coaching practice, Your Greatest Day, LLC., company that serves diverse clients throughout the world. Julia’s goal is to guide her clients on a path towards total transformation in every aspect of your life. Julia has over a decade of experience in tapping into and unleashing the true potential of over a thousand clients. She attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) Los Angeles, California going on to spend more than 15 years working as an International Design and Training Manager, as well as a health and nutrition coach. She decided to pursue her true life purpose and moved into doing coaching full time.

Julia’s students report Julia is a positive, warm, and good hearted and totally dedicated to every one of her students.

Juliette lives in San Diego with her three children and is an alumna of the Life Purpose Institute. She is an Empowerment Coach for Life & Business and the founder of her own coaching practice. She is also a speaker, an educator, a course creator, and an instructor for new life coaches. She supports her clients through life transitions and helps them to discover their life purpose. She also helps busy women reduce stress and overwhelm so they can create an empowered life that they truly love.

Juliette is a Certified Life Coach through the Life Purpose Institute and a Professional Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation. She also holds a BA in Theatre Performance, a California Multiple Subject Teaching Credential, and an MA in Mathematics Education.

Juliette’s clients and students report that she is passionate, warm and approachable, and always willing to go above and beyond to support them in any way possible.

Rhonda is an Alumni of the Spiritual Life Coaching Certification course. She brings 33 years of experience as a successful psychotherapist in private practice facilitating healing at all levels of body, mind and spirit. She utilizes a variety of techniques that help clients reach their full potential. Rhonda is certified in biofeedback, family therapy, Energy Psychology and trained in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy.

Rhonda teaches the Universal Spiritual coaching and Jewish Spiritual coaching programs. She believes that as each of us reaches our full potential we are healing the world. This Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam, healing the world and Tikkun Ha Nefesh healing the spirit, is central to Jewish Spiritual coaching and Universal Spiritual Coaching Programs.

Rhonda is known for her ability to create a truly sacred and healing space that allows people to feel safe and learn and experience things on an extremely deep level. Her students appreciate her warmth, intuitiveness and ability to guide her students through complex and meaningful concepts.

Jenn is a San Diego native and an alumna and instructor at Life Purpose Institute.  She is a Certified Life Coach and a Professional Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation.  She also holds a BA in English, a California Teaching Credential, and an MA in Education.

As an Intuitive Life and Career Coach, Jenn is dedicated to helping her clients transform their lives from the inside out.  She spent fifteen years as a teacher and is a trained Mindfulness Educator and Reiki Practitioner.  Jenn is passionate about helping her clients use their mind-body-spirit connection as a guide to living their best life.

Jenn has a thriving coaching practice and works internationally with clients throughout the United States and Canada.  She serves clients from all walks of life and empowers introverts, creatives, and highly sensitive people to live authentically inspired lives.

Jenn is known for her ability to create sacred space for her clients and students to learn and grow. Her gentle and kind nature makes her approachable and easy to connect with.  She is committed to supporting all of her students on their journey to becoming successful life coaches.

Allynn is the founder of her thriving coaching practice, Sip Of Positivitea, that serves clients throughout the globe. Allynn’s goal is to help her clients to decrease their stress and incorporate more "fun" in their life. Allynn teaches an eight-week life transformation course derived from Stanford University Business master's program called Creative Catalyst Journey. Allynn's students are able to learn practical self-mastery tools to overcome their obstacles and get out their own way. She graduated from Hampton University with a bachelors in psychology, going on to get certified as a life and career coach. She decided to pursue her calling and moved into doing coaching/teaching full time.

Allynn's students report Allynn is upbeat, energetic, warm, and open to helping her students to achieve success.

An LPI alumnus, Samantha has been a life and business coach since 2006 with clients around the world. She loves supporting clients to have breakthroughs and to actualize their dreams. One of her favorite niches is coaching new life coaches to launch successful practices and market effectively so they can thrive. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner and two cats.

Kimberly Haynes is an LPI alumni as a Certified Life, Spiritual, & Relationship Coach, as well as an Associate Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation. The founder of her own coaching practice,
Kimberly has also launched and operates a successful music career in the new age genre, and is the founder of The Yoga of Voice & Vibration. She is also the cantorial soloist at Ahavat Torah synagogue in Los Angeles, a speaker, performer, and entrepreneur with a bachelors in business from The University of Phoenix.

A long time practitioner of mindfulness, meditation, and body awareness practices, she is known for her warmth, presence, and intuitive coaching style. Her ability to create sacred space for her clients allows them to uncover profound insights & truths that sets them on a path to a life of purpose and passion.

Kimberly lives in the mountains of Topanga, CA with her two boys, two cats, and one dog

Jennifer Anderson, PCC, PMC, DTM, fell in love with the concept of Life Coaching in 1997, when she was a young wife and mother struggling to find career happiness. Upon finding the coaching profession and a coach training program, she signed up immediately and paid for the program with her very first clients. Since that time, Jen has gone on to become a highly sought trainer of coaching skills, a Professional Certified Coach and a Professional Mentor Coach.

Jen is the author of the Amazon bestselling book for career advice, “Plant Yourself Where You Will Bloom: How to turn what makes you unique into a meaningful and lucrative career.”

Jen’s students call her smart, intuitive, fun and an inspiration and a catalyst for new coaches’ success. She routinely receives evaluations where students call her “my favorite instructor, by far.”

Mark Danzey, PCC., is an alumni of Life Purpose Institute. Mark has been coaching professionals in a variety of industries for the last 25 years and founded Wisepath Coaching to coach executives, directors, managers, and individuals to better lead, equip, and inspire.

He is an International Coaching Federation Professional Certified Coach, a certified Gallup’ Strengths finder coach, and an Enneagram trainer for individuals and teams. Prior to training as a coach, he was a minister and had his own church for a number of years.

Mark and his wife, Tammy live in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Together they have four grown children and one amazing grandson! He is known to be kind, extremely perceptive, and capable as an instructor and coach.

Carrie is a Certified Professional Life Coach and Health & Wellness Coach, an Associate Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation, and an alumna of the Life Purpose Institute. She has a private practice in Northern California, where she lives with her husband and their Bernese Mountain Dog, Murphy. She works with clients in transition to regain their footing, reevaluate what they want and redesign their lives to reflect who they truly are. She also creates custom life coaching/mountain biking experiences for women to support them in becoming their bravest, boldest selves.

Carrie holds a B.S. from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and brings 15 years of project management, people management and program development skills into her coaching and teaching. She is also an inspirational speaker, sharing her powerful story of recovery. Over the past 20 years, she has been acknowledged by medical professionals, educators and a former U.S. president for sharing her experience, strength and hope in service to others.

Katie Kanowsky is a certified Life Coach and expert in evidence-based coaching techniques with a grounded spiritual approach to her practice. Serving as the Director of Program Development on the Sacramento ICF Chapter board, she is dedicated to the growth and development of the coaching industry. With a passion for reducing stress, overwhelm, and anxiety, Katie combines her expertise as a coach and cognitive scientist to help clients find peace, clarity, and joy while increasing calm, focus, productivity, and overall well-being.

Katie has completed coach training through the Life Purpose Institute and the University of California, Davis, and holds a PCC credential. Her clients long for the confidence and follow-through to go after their dreams and create a life they love. She is also a dynamic educator, business consultant, and focus coach. Her grounded spiritual approach to coaching allows her to guide clients toward a deeper understanding of their inner selves and connect with their true purpose.

With a BS in Organizational Behavior and Leadership from the University of the Pacific, Katie also holds multiple certifications in the coaching field, including Values2Wellbeing, HeartMath, and Sovereign Mind. She believes coaching is the key to transforming the world into a healthier place to live and is dedicated to the coaching industry's growth and development. As a passionate and knowledgeable teacher, she is excited to share her expertise with others through the Life Purpose Coach Specialty Certification program.

Natasha's passion, purpose, and profession is helping entrepreneurs reach their highest potential not only in business but also in health and wellness. Natasha earned
her Master's in Business Administration (MBA) before becoming a published author, Professional Certified Coach, Fitness Nutritionist, Pilates Instructor, Energy Leadership Master Practitioner, and dually licensed Financial Advisor and Investment Advisor Representative.

With over 14 years of business development consulting, life coaching, and keynote speaking in the areas of business strategy, and branding, Natasha's zone of genius is helping entrepreneurs break the feast or famine cycle every business experiences and communicate their brand's purpose to the right people.  

As a result of her dedication, leadership, and professional excellence, she has been recognized by Cambridge Who's Who. Natasha has a diverse background that gives her coaching relationships a creative and insightful perspective.

The Executive’s Life Coach, Speaker, and Founder of Humessence LLC, a coaching and development firm elevating the workplace human experience.  John’s coaching is not just about setting and executing goals.  It goes deeper, targeting the root of a client's issue—the core behaviors and beliefs—elements that show up in multiple areas of their lives.  By coaching the core, John helps his executives and emerging leaders not just improve their businesses and careers, but transform their lives in the process.  The core tool of his coaching process is the Enneagram.  As an iEQ9 Assessment Accredited Practitioner, he utilizes the Enneagram’s ancient wisdom to help his clients chart a path toward deeper self-awareness and integration.

Through interactive keynotes and workshops, John has helped thousands of professionals find more meaning and balance in life by developing self-awareness and taking values-driven action.  With nearly a decade of prior global sales and business development experience, he can empathize with employees about an enterprise's demands and give them a framework to navigate them mindfully without compromising their values.

John also provides a free personal and professional development platform as the cohost of The Present Professional Podcast.  Lastly, being an experienced yoga and mindfulness teacher is at the core of his style, and he continues to teach weekly as a publisher on Insight Timer.

Lois Payne is a seasoned Health and Wellness Coach, as well as a Certified Professional Coach with the International Coach Federation.  She has created workshops, retreats, lifestyle programs and worked individually with clients since 2014. She is also a HeartMath Clinical Practitioner and a Rapid Transformational hypnotherapist. She recently published her first book called, MY EMOJINAL INTELLIGENCE, an emotional resilience resource book.

Along with being on the LPI faculty, she works as the health coach at one of the largest Functional Medicine clinics in the US, focusing predominantly on mental/emotional health practices. She is passionate about her work in maximizing the Functional Medicine process by partnering with patients to achieve their health objectives and deeply change their lives.

Some of her favorite testimonials are, “If I were to fall, Lois would catch me like a cloud”, “That warmth! Don’t underestimate that warmth.”, “Instead of feeling stuck, I now feel empowered. Working with Lois has changed my life in powerful ways.”

Astra Fox is an alumna of the Life Purpose Institute and a seasoned Spiritual Life Coach. In her own practice, Astra has a passion for empowering creatives and artists to share their gifts and live their Joyful Purpose. Astra is also a Master Practitioner of NLP, MER®, and Hypnosis, bringing a wealth of expertise to her coaching and teaching.

In addition to coaching, Astra is also a positive singer-songwriter and the Musical Director at the Napa Valley Center for Spiritual Living. Her uplifting music and coaching practice uniquely integrate her musical background with her deep commitment to personal and spiritual growth, offering transformative experiences that support people in breaking through limitations and unlocking their full potential.

Astra’s teaching style is recognized for its warmth, intuition, and the creation of a sacred space where students can explore and embrace their own life purpose.

Astra lives on a 40-acre apple orchard in Northern California with her 7-year-old son and cat, Marshmallow.