Leadership Through A Different Lens

High performance and human sustainability aren't competing values.

What We Do

RWS offers integrated support for organizations and leaders as they navigate complex times. Our faculty aren't theorizing about leading through uncertainty; we have walked alongside organizations through economic downturns, restructuring, professional crises, and political uncertainty.

We bring nuanced perspective and real-world experience to sustain leaders and organizations when everything else is under strain.

  • Wellness for the Legal World

    Attorneys, Judiciary + Court Interpreters: Professionals who dedicate their lives to protecting others often lack strategies to protect themselves from the harm inherent in their work.

    The Cost of Ignoring Professional Burnout? High turnover, compromised client care, substance abuse, and careers cut short. It is not just exhaustion - it is talented attorneys leaving the profession, impaired judgement in critical moments, and a legal system weakened by the very people it depends on.  The ripple effects touch every case, every client, every courthouse.

    We provide what has been missing: practical education, CLEs ongoing support, and proven resources—delivered to change your career trajectory.

  • Caught between harm and healing in workplace crises.

    Traditional HR approaches weren't designed for today's workplace trauma challenges; from pandemic aftershocks, return to office, increased workplace incivility, to systemic workplace stress.

    We all know the signs: increased turnover, rising mental health claims, disengagement spreading through your teams.

    Our programs help you move beyond reactive crisis management to proactive, human-centered workplace cultures.

  • National and in-house cohorts that build capacity, train crucial skills and techniques, and build lasting lasting peer networks across the country. Our flagship programs have a high 90% satisfaction and repeat customer rate because they work. Leaders and managers emerge with crucial trauma-informed skills and leadership techniques, and a renewed sense of spirit and connection to their colleagues and workplace community.

  • Coaching and Restorative Team Engagement - we help repair leadership and team dynamics that pressure and uncertainty have fractured. Led by psychologists and physicians and coaches with decades of success in repairing workplace harm.

  • Every First Responder Deserves a Second Responder.

    Lodestar’s national-recognized 2nd Responder Program works behind-the-scenes to bolster and supplement the mental health, wellness and peer networks of First Responders. We also provide much-needed help to City, County and State Officials, Environmental Response and PH workers facing wide-scale events.

  • Most strategic planning fails because consultants ignore the people who must implement them. We integrate workforce sustainability into every strategic planning engagement because organizational strategy and workforce capacity are inseparable.

    Our clients have ranged from Fortune 100, to judicial systems, and Federal Agencies

    We sculpt your vision into tangible progress made in hiring, streamlined workflows, reorganization and workforce wellness, budget reallocation, mission efficacy, and the perennial strategic application of limited resources.

    Our Difference? We bring a trauma-informed and expert professional lens to every engagement. We understand the cumulative and compounding pressures that can degrade workplace cultures and derail strategic planning. 

Our Help Helps Your Bottom Line

For every dollar spent on programs like ours:

Medical costs decrease ~ $3.27

Absenteeism costs drop ~ $2.73

Productivity increases ~ $4.00

BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL →

Who We Are

We have a deep bench. Our programs are live-taught by over 50+ Physicians, Attorneys, PhDs, Military Leaders, Nurses, Clinicians, and Government Executives drawn from your background and profession. We bring tested wisdom and practical application from professionals who have navigated the same high-stakes complexity you face now.

Our Clients

  • Leaders and Managers in Government & Private Sector

    Leading through uncertainty and rapid change while bolstering your teams.

  • Attorneys, Judiciary + Court Interpreters

    Carrying the weight of every case and client story. The legal field is facing tremendous upheaval.

  • Employee Relations + Human Resources

    Caught between the harm and helping in every workplace. Holding the line when systems fracture.

  • First Responders + Environmental Health

    Lodestar’s 2nd Responder Program (L2R) standing behind every first responder and environmental crisis.

Meet the Team

  • Kiana S. Joersz, JD, TIPC, SCP

    Principal & Founding Partner

  • S. Tennaile Timbrook, JD, TIPC

    Principal & Founding Partner

  • Kemia M. Sarraf, MD, MPH, CCC, TIPC

    Principal Advisor + Lodestar CEO

  • Ann V. Deaton, PhD, PCC, TIPC, CTPC

    Director, Faculty Development

  • Michael Forlenza, PhD, MPH, PCC, TIPC

    Director, All Of Us Program

  • Antoinette DuBois Ayers, CPCC, RCC, TIPC, CTI

    Director, Training

  • Luis Rodriguez, JD, LLM, TIPC, MS, USArmy COL (Ret.)

    Senior Faculty

  • Kerri Lockhart, MD, FAAP, TIPC

    Director, Client Engagement

  • Sunny Nakae, PhD, MSW, TIPC

    Director of Professional Development

  • Greg Pawlson, MD, MPH, FACP, AGSF

    Senior Faculty

  • Jean Johnson, PhD, RN, FAAN, TIPC

    Senior Faculty

  • Lawrence Henderson PhD, MSHRD, PCC, TIPC

    Senior Faculty

  • Floyd Carlson, MS, ORSCC, TIPC, CNTC, PCC

    Senior Faculty

  • Lynn Black, MD, MPH, CHWC, TIPC, CEC

    Senior Faculty

  • Michael Hersh, MD, TIPC

    Senior Faculty

  • Dianne Rizzo, RN, PCC, TIPC

    Senior Faculty

  • Ken Jenkins, MA.S, ACC, TIPC

    Senior Faculty

  • Kate Deaton, MS, PCC, TIPC, CPCC, OTR/L

    Senior Faculty

  • Liz Peintner, MSW, PCC, CPCC, TIPC

    Senior Faculty

  • Stephanie Byerly, MD, CLC, ACC, TIPC

    Senior Faculty

  • Lydia Johnson, MD, TIPC

    Senior Faculty

  • Laura Berenstain, MD, FASA, ACC, TIPC

    Senior Faculty

  • Steve Wendell, PhD, ACC, TIPC

    Senior Faculty

  • Debbie Beardslee, RN, BSN, TIPC

    Senior Faculty

  • Ann-Gel Palermo, DrPH, MPH, TIPC, ACC

    Senior Faculty

  • Kelly Hurst, Ed.D., M.Ed, TIPC

    Director of Data Analytics

  • Eliza Humphreys, MD, MPH, TIPC

    Associate Faculty

  • Rikeesha Phelon, MA, TIPC

    Associate Faculty

  • Ashlea Winfield, MD, MSPH, TIPC, TMMC

    Associate Faculty

  • Jill Wener, MD, TIPC

    Associate Faculty

  • Eliotte (Ellie) Hirshberg, MD, TIPC

    Associate Faculty

  • Julia Huber, MD, TIPC, ACC

    Associate Faculty

  • Neil Gordon

    Director of Communications

  • Suzanne Maxwell, PhD, PCC, TIPC, CTPC, CTIPC, WBECS, CCIC, CCM, ACC

    Associate Faculty

  • Maiysha Claireborne, MD, TIPC, MCNP

    Associate Faculty

  • Jo Deaton, MS, APRN-BC, TIPC

    Associate Faculty

  • Sookyung Suh, PhD, TIPC

    Associate Faculty

  • Tyler Moore

    Technology

  • Ivy Grisham

    Administrative Assistant

  • Joseph Goldstein, BA

    Senior Associate

  • Samuel Collins, BS

    Special Assistant to the COO

VIEW ALL FACULTY

Our Value Proposition: Incomparable Experience

Transformational help requires more than just credentials, it also requires having stood where you stand. Our nationally recognized experts understand burnout and organizational dysfunction, they too have lived the unique pressures of your high-stakes profession.

Burnout Gets Blamed

And burnout is not the (only) problem

The Irony Explains Itself:  Professionals who dedicate their lives to protecting others often lack strategies to protect themselves from the harm inherent in their work.

The Cost of Ignoring Professional Burnout: High turnover, compromised client care, substance abuse, and careers cut short. It is not just exhaustion - it is talented professionals leaving their chosen careers, impaired judgement in critical moments, and corporate, legal and critical infrastructures weakened by the very people upon whom our society depends. 

RWS + Lodestar provide what is missing:  practical education, ongoing support, and proven resources - delivered to change your career trajectory.

BOOK A DISCOVERY CALL →

Billable hours won’t pay for your wellbeing.

How We Help: Our Difference Makes the Difference

  • You wouldn't hire a consultant who's never worked in your industry. Why accept leadership training from them?

    RWS operates on a foundational principle: meaningful guidance requires shared experience. Our teams have spent decades in fields like yours—law, medicine, military leadership, federal service, corporate operations and HR. Our work with your organization genuinely moves the needle, leadership development through impactful national cohorts, team restoration for complex dynamics, and HR programs for modern workforce challenges. The difference isn't just expertise—it's credibility earned in the arena.

  • Leadership through the Lens of Legacy. The best leaders don't just achieve metrics and outcomes. They develop the people around them to lead through whatever comes next.

    This requires more than traditional executive training. It demands insight from those who've led through genuine uncertainty—who understand what breaks teams, what restores them, and what builds resilience and culture that lasts.

  • Coaching is not therapy, and great coaching can be incredibly therapeutic. One-on-one coaching with 40+ experienced professionals who understand your unique pressures.Coach with professionals who genuinely understand the pressures of your profession.

  • Great leadership isn't just developed—it's forged in connection with peers facing the same impossible challenges.

    RWS creates these crucibles deliberately. Our national leadership cohorts bring together emerging leaders across sectors for programs that blend tested wisdom with contemporary challenges.

  • Leadership development from people who've actually led. Team restoration from people who've repaired their own. Executive coaching from people who've done your job.

    Restorative Workplace Solutions bridges the gap between traditional consulting and real-world credibility. Our consortium includes attorneys, physicians, military leaders, federal agents, neuroscientists, and PhDs—all with decades navigating the same high-stakes environments where you're building your leadership. We offer embedded 1:1 coaching worth the investment, leadership programs taught in impactful national cohorts, team restoration for fractured dynamics, and HR development for the modern workforce paradigm.

“This was the most valuable training I’ve taken in the past decade, possibly in my career. We immediately set our entire agency on the path to procurement to get as much of this as our budget will allow. This is what has been missing ”
— Human Resource Director, CA State Gov

Client Impact & Success

“The small-group discussions with other attorneys were invaluable. A year later and we all still keep in touch. ”
— Trial Counsel

The depth of content exceeded my expectations. By far the best CLE I attended in the past few years, and was one that I registered as a one-off.   Original and authentic and compelling speakers.   — Criminal Defense Attorney

“I’m surprised by the sheer number of actionable tools packed into three days. The guide provided will serve as a long-term resource throughout my career.”
— Employment Law
“They really understood the secondary trauma we interpreters experience each time we are working. I left with more hope ”
— Bilingual Court Interpreter
“The originality of this curriculum really stood out. ”
— Magistrate

I feel like I have been gifted 5 new best friends. The small cohorts have been so impactful, and being led by someone trained as a psychologist was a counterbalance we found intimidating at first, and then she was one of the absolutely best parts of our time together.

Our group gets together once a month still.

“What impressed me most was the faculty’s credentials - and everything they did for us was centered on what we needed. ”
— Anonymous
“I’ve changed how I lead my team. Understanding the symptoms of secondary trauma in a workplace context shifted how all of us work together and we are in a more positive place.”
— Managing Partner

This entirely reframed how I view employee disengagement not as lack of interest, but as possible stress or trauma. 

— HR Director

REACH OUT & CONNECT

Spend some time with us to see if we are the right fit for your team

LET'S TALK →