Team transformation for lasting organizational transformation
We’re a team of true believers

Our goal is to strengthen the nonprofit sector by ensuring that nonprofit teams have access to well-researched, accessible professional development opportunities.


We’re dedicated to advancing education and leadership practices that enable organizations to address the increasingly complex social challenges they face. 

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Follow our progress

the agate team

Everyone connected to this initiative is deeply committed to supporting nonprofit teams and building awareness for systemic team coaching.

picture of two women against a brick background

Betsy Block,
Agate Team Coach

With over thirty years of experience in the private, government, and nonprofit sectors, Betsy helps teams navigate emerging changes as a team coach, mentor coach, and credentialed coach supervisor through her coaching practice, B3 Coach. She describes herself as a “ people weaver” who connects people, builds community, and ensures a strong inner fabric within organizations; and as someone who performs something like “exorcisms” (though not as scary!), bringing unseen obstacles into the light and guiding teams through and beyond them. Betsy’s deep belief in team coaching led her to found Agate Initiative, to help more nonprofit organizations become aware of its extraordinary benefits. Learn more about Betsy and her coaching practice at B3 Coach and LinkedIn.

    • BA Boston University.  

    • MPP, University of California, Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy

    • Global Individual Accreditation (EIA)-Senior Practitioner; Individual Team Coaching Award (ITCA) - Senior Practitioner; and EMCC Supervision Individual Award (ESIA), European Mentoring and Coaching Council

    • Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and Advanced Credential in Team Coaching (ACTC), International Coaching Federation

    • ORSC and Team Diagnostic Certified

Michelle davis,
agate team Coach

Michelle Davis, Agate Team Coach: Michelle Davis is the Director of Organizational Impact and Development at the Kempe Center, University of Colorado–Anschutz, as well as the Director of Worldwork Reimagined and a member of the CRR Global Faculty. Her work centers on developing people in service of healthier systems, from relationships and teams to organizations and society. Michelle provides leadership, team, and relationship systems coaching as a certified relationship systems coach to maximize the passion, dedication, and unwavering commitment of professionals in the human services disciplines. Learn more about Michelle at CRR Global and LinkedIn.

    • ORSC certified

    • MS, Counseling

    • Professional Certified Coach (ICF)

    • Former Dare to Lead facilitator

    • Licensed Professional Counselor

Edwin Vega,
Leadership Coach

Edwin Vega is a certified executive and leadership development coach and facilitator who specializes in working with corporate leaders to maximize their presence and impact through one-on-one and team coaching, experiential workshops, and retreats. His work is heavily focused on scaling leadership from a place of authenticity, to create stronger interpersonal relationships and increase leadership effectiveness. As a consultant, he serves as a Senior Leadership Consultant and Executive Coach with the Full Circle Group (The Leadership Circle 360), a member of the Coaching and Leadership Faculty at the Co-Active Training Institute (CTI), and the Lead Trainer for The Edge Foundation.​ Edwin is also a Grammy-winning opera singer.

    • 10-Month Immersive Leadership Training, Co-Active Training Institute

    • Certified Professional Co-Active Coach

    • Leadership Circle Profile and Leadership Circle Culture Survey

Astrid Corvin-Brittin,
Program Manager

Astrid directs the day-to-day operations of The Agate Initiative. With a background in corporate social responsibility, community development organizations, and corporate volunteer facilitation, she’s a masterful project and program manager and well-positioned to bring Agate Initiative to life. As a longtime team member in the nonprofit world, she’s excited about the promise of team coaching — for teams, for their organizations, and for the communities they serve.

    • MA, International Affairs, The New School

    • BA, International Affairs, The American University of Paris

Our Advisory Committee

Coaching Advisors

  • Karen Benoy Preston, President, EMCC USA
    Member Centre for Excellence in Team Coaching, EMCC Global

  • Marita Fridjhon, Co-Founder, CRR Global

  • Cherie Silas, MCC, CEO, Tandem Coaching
    ED, Center for Non Profit Coaching

  • John Sandahl, Team Coach, CO2 Coaching
    Former Chief Coaching Officer, Team Coaching International

  • Julia Wilson, Coach & designer of cohort-of-teams coaching

Sector at Large

Clarifying the terms

“Coaching” by itself is a poorly understood term. Paired with “team,” it’s even murkier—that’s what we aim to clarify.

While team coaching is on the spectrum of team development modalities, it is not: mentoring, consulting, facilitation, advising, training, or organizational development (a bigger investment). It’s also not a one-off experience.

Instead, team coaching:

  • Creates a safe space for open, honest conversation

  • Helps the team surface its own insights and collective wisdom

  • Supports reflection and dialogue rather than giving instructions

  • Builds shared accountability and alignment on shared goals

  • Focuses on relationships, not just tasks—so the team can work together effectively in the long term

A team coach doesn’t tell a team what to do. Instead, they guide the team in discovering solutions together.

Why Agate?

Like an agate stone reveals its stunning layers when polished, your team’s brilliance can shine through intentional transformation. It also metaphysically shifts energy from negative to positive—a shift we see regularly in team coaching.

Want to work with this talented team?

Check out our Team Transformation Intensives.

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apply to join an upcoming cohort