Team

Kathleen Brucher

CFO/CTO

Kathleen Brucher has had a long and distinguished career in the world of Finance that has traversed a wide array of skills areas including team management, venture funding, analytical financial strategy and forecasting, contract negotiations, project management, and technology implementation. Her investment experience also includes specialized research in the retail e-commerce arena. Her life mission is to utilize these skills to affect change within companies to become environmentally sustainable while being financially successful.

After graduating from the University of Colorado with dual degrees in marketing and finance, Kathleen began her career at Morgan Stanley in retail sales. Two years later, she was recruited by Hambrecht & Quist to work in Institutional Sales where she covered some of the largest mutual funds. As her talents blossomed, Kathleen was invited to join a colleague to act as vice president and portfolio manager at an aggressive growth hedge fund called Glovsky-Brown Capital Management. It was here, that she honed her financial acumen by analyzing the feasibility of future economic growth of individual companies.

In 1999, Kathleen joined the Netkitchen, an Internet strategy and design firm, where she served as the chief financial officer and chief operations officer. She spent the next four years consulting with Fortune 500 companies including Applied Materials, IBM, Electronic Arts, and VISA. During that time, she also managed a team of forty-five employees and opened up a London office to meet the needs of the growing clientele.

In 2003, Kathleen rejoined Morgan Stanley in their elite Ultra High Net worth division, where she managed the largest team in the country with over $16 Billion in assets and whose financial advisors are annually listed in the top 20 of Barron’s Top 100 Financial Advisors. Kathleen utilized efficient frontier analytics to implement asset allocations for foundations, endowments, and clients including Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs, top executives of Fortune 500 Companies and venture capital investors. It was at this time, that Kathleen realized that she needed to utilize her talents to create a world she believed was attainable. She left her lucrative position at Morgan Stanley to utilize her vast capabilities in the creation of Smart Soul Academy.

She currently is a founding member of the Ahuma Institute, is an extreme skier, avid hiker, tentative scuba diver and mother of Chase and Reese.

Mary Earle Chase

Development Director

Mary Earle Chase is a professional coach and workshop leader whose life work has been dedicated to inspiring and empowering people in their personal lives, in their work, and in their service to humanity and the planet. Her life is informed by a spiritual perspective gained from a lifelong study of religion, metaphysics, meditation, and paths to higher consciousness.

Mary has coached and trained many executives, managers, and entrepreneurs, as wel,l as, individuals and couples. She has developed and led personal growth workshops and has provided leadership and management training for small businesses, corporations, and non-profits.

Prior to becoming a coach and consultant, Mary worked as an educator, therapist, writer, and media producer whose projects include two PBS documentaries and an Academy Award nominated short film. She began her writing career by launching a periodical on ending world hunger that was circulated to more than 1.6 million households. She is the co-author of two books, "The Trimtab Factor" with Neal Rogin and Harold Willens and "Fifty and Fabulous" with Zia Wesley-Hosford. In addition, she is the author of "Waiting for Baby: One Couple’s Journey Through Infertility to Adoption."

Mary graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Duke University and received her Masters in Teaching from Harvard University. She received coaching certification and leadership training from the Coaches Training Institute and is a member of the International Coach Federation.

Verland Beard

Operations Director

In my previous life in this body I was doing what I thought I was supposed to be doing. I received a BBA in Business Administration at Texas A&I University. I worked in all aspects of the business world, from salesman at Xerox Corporation to a successful business owner and manager. I worked as Production Manager for Talk Radio Network where we produced Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell which became the third largest talk show in the nation.
I became a husband and father for 33 years. I was enjoying a good life and working very hard to do it.

Then my wife died. I learned that life is short and you better enjoy it today. I made a conscience decision to start doing what I desired to do instead of what I “should.” To my amazement things started happening that I never could have imagined. Everything I wanted seemed to be coming to me.

A friend of mine even made a statement that I will always remember; “How come magical things happen every time you are around?”

Then I happened into an Internal Guidance System Intensive seminar with Zen. Everything she said was exactly what I had been doing. I knew then that I wanted to work with her and teach her work to others. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Lisa Powell Graham

Communications support

Lisa Powell Graham is a consultant and writer specializing in strategic planning and marketing communications. For more than a dozen years, she has helped community organizations, small companies, and local governments align around a common vision, creating strategic and action plans to achieve their policy and performance goals, and create compelling marketing communications pieces to convey a strategic message.

Ms. Graham joined the team at Smart Soul three years ago, inspired by the organization’s mission, vision and incredible impact on clients’ lives. She is excited to continue to bring the message of Smart Soul Academy, and the powerful practices of the Internal Guidance System, out into the world. She uses her IGS daily and credits this practice for helping her to transform her own life – living with more joy, less stress, and in alignment with her greater purpose in the world to make an impact and change the world through her words.

In 2005, Ms. Graham earned her Master in Public Administration degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where her focus was on best practices in local government and political leadership. At the Kennedy School, she was one of ten students honored in a class of more than 200 as a Lucius Littaeur Fellow for her academic excellence, contributions to her class and community, and commitment to public service.

Following graduation, Ms. Graham was hired to write a strategic plan for Phase II of SFStat for the City and County of San Francisco. She conducted extensive best practices research on Stat models, interviewing more than 25 Stat directors and performance management experts around the country. She also interviewed 80 employees of the City and County of San Francisco through focus groups and individual qualitative interviews. The final recommendations were synthesized into a simple plan with immediate, short-term and long-term goals, and concrete action steps to achieve these goals. Ms. Graham also contributed to a report exploring Stat models and a 311 Call Center for the City of Washington, D.C.

Reggie Weisenbach

Mentor

Reggie became a member of Smart Soul Academy in 2008. She is currently enjoying her role as mentor and is excited to be on the allowing team. Semi-retired, and living in Southern California with her fiance, she has made numerous life transitions: personally, geographically, spiritually and along her career path. Work took her from the classroom to the corporate arena to coaching as service was always the calling. She trained at the Coaches Training Institute completing Leadership and Certification programs.

Learning and personal growth and development have been a driving force in her life leading to spiritual exploration and transformational work. Formal trainings include Excellence in Leadership, Train the Trainer, Emotional Intelligence and a variety of courses through WorldWorks, Inc.

Her commitment to service has been demonstrated in professional organizations as well as her community. Reggie has served as Chapter President and Division Lieutenant Governor of Toastmasters International, President of the Women’s Economic and Career Advancement Network, and Chapter President and Conference Chair of the Professional Coaches and Mentors Association. She has served as tutor through the Literacy Program and mentored women at a shelter. These days she’s a hospital volunteer and works at election polls.

Travel is a passion of Reggie’s, Europe being a favorite destination. She treasures time with special girlfriends and belongs to two groups that have been getting together regularly for over 25 years.