About Cathy

Cathy Robinson, President, Allium Consulting Group Inc.

Education, Training and Certifications

  • Integral Master CoachTM (Integral Coaching Canada)
  • Certified Integral Facilitator® (Ten Directions)
  • Facilitating Action Learning Groups Intensive (Coaching@theEdge)
  • Leadership Agility 360o (Changewise) – training completed, accreditation in progress
  • Master of Arts (Public Administration) Carleton University
  • Bachelor of Arts (Geography) Carleton University
  • French language training (Alliance Française) — on-going
  • Professional Certified Coach (PCC)TM – International Coach Federation

Consulting Experience

For 25 years Cathy has provided program, project and process management and advice and to a range of government, private sector and not-for-profit organizations. Her work spans a range of social and environmental issues and calls on her to manage both people and processes. A major theme of Cathy’s work and expertise is communication—to support policy, to support team capacity and to influence. A few highlights demonstrate the range of Cathy’s experience and expertise:

  • Managed intact and special-purpose teams through program reorganizations and refocus exercises—including serving as interim executive director of a non-profit agency.
  • Developed courses for practicing professionals on communication skills, including managing issues, communicating difficult news and active listening.
  • Designed and carried out numerous national and local stakeholder and public consultations on regulatory and other policy issues—followed by analysis and presentation of results.
  • Conducted dozens of focus groups across Canada and hundreds of interviews to inform policy and program change.
  • Designed and implemented large-scale qualitative research projects (including development of surveys).
  • Completed hundreds of writing assignments—from research, to writing, editing and publishing—in a wide range of social and economic policy areas—and presenting complex information in a logical, clear and concise style.

Coaching & Facilitation Experience

Cathy has been providing leadership coaching in the private, government, academic and not-for-profit sectors since 2010. Her various coach training and credentials are supported by a solid background in leading her own thriving business, as well as in developing and co-managing strategic initiatives programs with clients for 25 years.

Cathy has developed her coaching work into a major component of Allium’s offerings. She has completed over 1200 hours of direct coaching, including:

  • Executive and leadership coaching to develop capacity of managers and emerging leaders who want to increase their leadership capacity and impact.
  • Group (peer-to-peer) coaching for managers at a similar level to support learning from each other AND strengthening their interpersonal and problem-solving skills as managers.
  • Intact team coaching (two or more team members) to improve team capacity (including for managing diverse teams) and to reduce the impact of conflicts on team performance and individual well-being.
  • Group facilitation to navigate organizational cultural issues (such as diversity) and organizational change and strategy.
  • Personal/life coaching including corporate clients dealing with personal crises (such as illness/death of a spouse, divorce) that affect their capacity to work
  • Mentoring coaching students (Integral Coaching Canada and Maryland University of Integrative Health), providing coaching leadership and modelling in a group setting to coaches in training.

Cathy’s clients range from federal government departments, agencies and Crown corporations, to national and local non-profit organizations, academia and private sector organizations.

Cathy is an active volunteer in her communities. For example, she was an active member of a volunteer organization that provides coaching free of charge to leaders in CARE International who are supporting refugees worldwide. In her life coaching work, she keeps an opening for pro bono coaching to an individual or family that would benefit from coaching but for whom it is not financially possible. She contributes her skills regularly to a local non-profit agency that supports marginalized and criminalized women.