Consultants committed to growing the capability of our clients.
The People Group is a national network of consultants committed to building the capacity of people, organizations, and our society. Seth Hufford, our founder, assembles a team based on client needs so that you get the best expertise for your unique situation.
Seth Hufford | President
Seth (he/him) combines his diverse experiences to build individual and organizational capacity. Working across the business, government, and nonprofit sectors, he has engaged diverse groups of people from community activists to business executives. Seth has facilitated teams both large and small to tackle complex challenges, address inter-personal dynamics, and produce results.
Prior to founding The People Group, Seth managed global executive education programs at Carnegie Mellon University’s Business School, directed Coro’s Leadership New York program, and facilitated Leadership Pittsburgh’s Leadership Development Initiative. He gained valuable experience as chief of staff to an elected official, directing economic development at a Chamber of Commerce, and serving as a consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton. Seth holds a Master of Public Policy and Management from the University of Pittsburgh and a Bachelor of Arts from Dickinson College.
BASED IN: PITTSBURGH, PA, USA
Dorie Taylor | Partner Consultant
Dorie (she/her) has 20 years of experience as an arts management and special events professional. She creatively marries the art and the science of event management through a thoughtful process of: 1) conceptualization 2) orchestration and 3) evaluation. She is also the principal of Taylor Made Consulting.
Dorie combines her arts management education from Carnegie Mellon University and years of eclectic work experience with nationally recognized institutions to assist clients in making smart event choices. She has conducted events for premiere arts, media, and educational organizations such as ABC Television, ESSENCE Magazine, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, A+ Schools, Remake Learning, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Quantum Theatre, among others. Working with adventurous clients allows Dorie to plan unique special events that include friend and fundraisers, film and fan festivals, interactive marketing and audience development campaigns, and black-tie dinners with event budgets ranging from $10,000 - $500,000. Dorie looks forward to the distinctiveness of every event and the opportunity to work with creative minds to plan a successful occasion or campaign befitting the organization’s mission and vision.
BASED IN: PITTSBURGH, PA, USA
Ivette Mongalo-Winston | Partner Consultant
Ivette’s (she/her) work focuses on urban design, consensus driven community engagement, planning and facilitation. She works with public and private clients to actively engage the communities they serve through an inclusive, transparent planning process that is respectful of all the parties involved. She is also founder of Mongalo-Winston Consulting. She specializes in complex, multi-faceted projects that entail a diversity of issues and require extensive community interface and a broad range of stakeholders. Ivette is focused on helping clients achieve success through the interface of urban design and authentic community engagement.
Her training as an architect, as well as subsequent graduate work at the University of Miami, led her to work with Urban Design Associates (UDA). During twelve years with UDA, her leadership contributed to the effectiveness of widespread public processes and to the success of highly collaborative efforts among design professionals, public officials, and participating public/private partnerships in distinctly different places. These projects shared a design process rooted in collaboration, transparency, and inclusion. In particular, her experience working on transforming public housing into mixed-income communities fuels her commitment to neighborhoods experiencing disinvestment. This commitment now grounds her practice and informs her work as a designer, facilitator and community mediator.
BASED IN: PITTSBURGH, PA, USA
Ellie Hall | Partner Consultant
As a consultant, facilitator, and executive coach, Ellie (she/her) draws from her 30+ years of experience - primarily at Development Dimensions International (DDI) and The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) - to help mid and senior-level leaders improve performance. She brings a systematic and collaborative approach to the design and implementation of culture change, leadership development, talent strategy, and executive coaching.
Ellie is highly experienced in the design and implementation of leadership models and large-scale developmental systems. She has a deep interest in innovation and creativity and brings the practice of User-Centered Design to her consulting approach. She has consulted for several Fortune 100 large and mid-sized companies across a variety of major industries. In addition to working with executives, Ellie has coached MBA students at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University and served as Senior Consultant at The Neuroleadership Institute.
Ellie received a M.A. degree in Organizational Communication from Wake Forest University and completed additional post-graduate studies at Georgia State University and the Fielding Institute. Ellie holds a B.A. in Organizational Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
BASED IN: CHARLOTTE, NC, USA
Saidah Nash Carter | Partner Consultant
Saidah (she/her) has a passion to build better businesses through the prism of inclusion, innovation and impact. She spent much of her professional life in the digital space and uses her expertise to help businesses leverage technology to create new opportunities that will increase profits and create better outcomes for humanity. She began her career with Reuters NewMedia during a period of profound digital transformation and went on to build and launch some of the first online news services for internet pioneers like Yahoo! and AOL.
She thrives pushing the boundaries of corporate thinking and business development through emerging technology, co-creation, and a focus on sustainability. She has an eye for identifying opportunities to stretch businesses to new frontiers while remaining connected the company’s core DNA and value proposition.
Saidah is passionate about diversity, equity and intrapreneurship, co-founding the Black Employee Network and later serving as global co-chair. She works to identify, empower and connect intrapreneurs who are driving positive change necessary to make their companies more sustainable.
BASED IN: CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
Suzanne Anderson | Partner Consultant
Suzanne (she/her) is a master facilitator and Professional Certified Coach whose past career as a group and family psychotherapist, and training as an emotionally intelligent executive coach and organization development consultant provide background as she skillfully facilitates the engagement of members of communities across differences, morale/ climate concerns, emotionally charged situations in organizations, and in situations where there is conflict and disconnection between members of groups.
Suzanne has traveled the world and been responsible for the planning of retreat experiences for groups from around the world in different parts of the world. She is experienced and highly skilled in facilitating difficult conversations across diversity. She holds a Master’s of Education degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, Bachelor of Arts from Duquesne University, and certifications in Organization Development, Executive Coaching, and Mediation.
BASED IN: BETHESDA, MD, USA
Kaye Craft | Partner Consultant
Kaye (she/her) is an organization development consultant, a practitioner of transformational change, a master facilitator/trainer, and an executive coach. For each engagement and work assignment, Kaye keeps her eye on each level of system: individual, group, team and organization, knowing that sustainable change, the best project and business results, and the best work relationships come from the integration and alignment of the work throughout the system. Kaye’s current work engagements are focused in four areas: transformational cultural change, diversity, equity and inclusion, leadership and team development, and executive development through coaching. Her work engagements have been in a variety of cultural contexts including US, Asia, Africa, Caribbean, and Europe. Some of the organizations that she has worked with are: Air Products, MTV Networks, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Open Society, Viacom, Nickelodeon, US Justice Department, BP, SEIU and NIH.
Prior to starting her own firm, Kaye was employed as an OD Consultant at ExxonMobil Corporation and as a Training Consultant at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company. Kaye holds a B.A. from Hampton U, an M.S. from Columbia U, and an M.B.A. from NYU. In addition, she completed the Certificate Program in Organization and Systems Development at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. She holds the ICF designation of Professional Certified Coach and is thrilled to co-lead a cutting-edge, extremely timely, Coaching and Race Workshop.
BASED IN: BETHESDA, MD, USA
Antoine Johnson | Partner Consultant
Antoine (he/him) is a results-oriented Organization Development professional with over 15 years of experience in Organization Effectiveness, Talent Management, Leadership and Workforce Development, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in several organizations such as Boeing, Clorox, Americold and MTA New York City Transit and as an independent consultant.
Antoine has led large scale change and process improvement initiatives, and consulted to senior leaders on business imperative projects across the Americas in aerospace, consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, logistics, public transportation, and non-profits. He is a Certified Executive Coach known for guiding executives, high potentials and teams through managing change and career development in corporate, public and non-profit arenas. Antoine received his Master of Science Degree in Organization Development from the American University/NTL Program and his BS in Management from St. John’s University. He lives in Acworth, Georgia where he enjoys spending time with his family as well as mentoring youth as a member of 100 Black Men.
BASED IN: ATLANTA, GA, USA
Kathia Castro Laszlo | Partner Consultant
Kathia (she/her) is an international educator, researcher, consultant and coach committed to facilitate transformational processes that lead to cultural healing and social innovation. She is professor at Saybrook University in the Department of Leadership and Management and a faculty member in the Cross Sector Leadership Program at the Presidio Institute of San Francisco. She has taught leadership, organizational development and strategy in the sustainability oriented MBAs of Presidio Graduate School (San Francisco), Bainbridge Graduate Institute (Seattle), Dominican University of California (San Francisco), EGADE Business School (Mexico), and Universidad del Medio Ambiente (Mexico). Kathia is a certified coach in the Leadership Circle ProfileTM and is the co-founder of Syntony Quest, co-founder of Global Leadership Lab, founding partner of The Journey Network, and has her private consulting and coaching practice, Magenta Wisdom.
Her interdisciplinary research and publications spans the fields of systems thinking, organizational change, leadership, and innovation. She is engaged in action-research on the design of new business and organizational models that support authentic leadership and collaboration for social impact. Through her understanding of adult learning, group creativity, mindfulness and dialogue, Kathia has facilitated numerous learning and design processes in business, academic, nonprofit and community contexts in North America, Latin America and Europe and has coached hundreds of socio-ecological entrepreneurs seeking to blend business, ethical responsibility and higher purpose. Kathia was born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico where she earned a BA in Marketing and a M.Ed. in Cognitive Development and came to the US as a Fulbright Scholar to earn her PhD in Human Science with specialization in Social and Institutional Change at Saybrook University.
BASED IN: VALLEJO, CA, USA
Allyce Pinckback | Partner Consultant
Allyce (she/her) specializes in helping organizations become smarter and better at their work. Her areas of focus include project management, capacity building, and strategic thought partnership. Prior to consulting, Allyce held several leadership roles in the education and non-profit sectors, including Chief Program Officer for Gwen’s Girls, Director of Professional Development for Pittsburgh Public Schools, and a Program Officer for the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh. Her clients include Catapult Pittsburgh, Alliance for Police Accountability, YouthPlaces, Remake Learning, Trying Together, PULSE, Highcliff Elementary School, and the University of Pittsburgh.
A major area of interest for Allyce is improving educational outcomes for Black children in the Pittsburgh region through her work with Black Women for a Better Education, a group she and several other Black women started in 2020. She has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Japanese from the University of Pittsburgh, a master’s degree in Public Management from Carnegie Mellon University, and is pursuing a doctorate in the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh.
BASED IN: PITTSBURGH, PA, USA
Mary Parker | Partner Consultant
Mary (she/her) consults and coaches organizations and individuals to identify their values, amplify their voice, and design a more inclusive vision. As a certified professional life coach, international leadership trainer, and dialogue facilitator, Mary has written curriculum and led trainings on leadership, power and privilege in the workplace, dismantling structural racism, and applying improv to everyday micro-aggressions for students and communities in Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Seattle, and Zimbabwe. Her process focuses on client relationships that are vulnerable, honest, collaborative, bold, and considerate.
Prior to consulting, Mary was the Director of Training and Learning Development for Coro Pittsburgh. There she trained and coached over 100 participants on leadership development using adaptive leadership as a framework with a concentration on growing and developing women leaders. She is also an AmeriCorps Alum and One Young World Ambassador. Mary was raised in Stone Mountain, GA and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a minor in Ethics from Emory University and is a certified Professional Coach (PC) through an International Coach Federation-accredited Coaching Program at Duquesne University.
BASED IN: PORTLAND, OR, USA
Tim Edris | Partner Consultant
Tim (he/him) is a team and leadership development specialist. He has over 15 years of experience designing and implementing corporate and university training programs ranging from 10-person team-building sessions to 120-person leadership programs. Tim is also the principal consultant at Emerging Leaders Institute. He has a deep passion to develop people who will transform the world around them.
He has a Master of Science of Organizational Leadership as well as certifications in various OD tools and instruments. Tim has coached people at various levels of organizations - from CEOs to middle managers - with a focus on developing the potential of people. He has a knack for creative design and the execution of organizational learning experiences that are both memorable and effective in transferring learning to peoples’ hearts and minds. Tim also has the ability to uncover the truth about the culture of an organization that illuminates the way to healthy leadership development. In addition to highly creative means of program design, he has taught in more traditional settings at the collegiate level and other adult environments for over 12 years.
BASED IN: PITTSBURGH, PA, USA