Elisa has over 25 years experience in global People & Culture executive leadership and coaching roles. Her experience spans working in or consulting for organizations from startup to Fortune 10. She has held high-impact leadership roles in multiple industries such as healthcare, food and beverage, technology, manufacturing, and retail. Her portfolio of organizations include executive leadership positions at UnitedHealth Group, Brown & Toland Physicians, Cargill, Datacard, and Donaldson Company, Inc and Wilson’s Leather. Her global leadership experience includes working in Singapore, Paris, Tokyo, and Seoul where she led regional Human Resources and transformation projects for APAC/Australia/EMEA and Brazil. In addition to living abroad, she has also lived and operated in many rural locations in the U.S. Her global and rural life experiences brought a macroeconomic and unique leadership perspective to all her engagements.
As the Chief Human Resource Officer, People & Talent at Brown & Toland Physician Services, one of the country’s last Independent Physician Association networks she led several company transformation initiatives: process for restructuring Board of Directors governance practices, maturing the organization’s People & Culture operations, increasing employee engagement from 40% to 80%, standing up drive through COVID testing sites for public safety and health workers and leading successful HR strategy and execution for the sale of the company to Altais, ensuring a smooth transition and positive employee experience.
While at UnitedHealth Group, she led the enterprise wide talent and culture strategy for all the top talent executive development, emerging leaders, and functional leadership to build the organization’s bench strength of Physician and Nurse Leaders. She modernized the organization’s learning approaches by bringing in strategic learning measurement impact and partnering with innovative thought leaders from the world’s top business schools and think tanks inclusive of: the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, Harvard University, University of Chicago, London School of Business, Indian School of Business and Northwestern University. Key contributions of UHG being awarded Top Leadership Development in North America by Aon were due to top talent program architecture and business impact results.
Elisa is a lifelong learner of leadership who continually evolves through bold, intentional strides. Recently, she embarked on an enriching executive sabbatical, a journey to rediscover her purpose for the second half of life. This period was dedicated to deep professional development in executive coaching, establishing healthful practices for midlife, and restoring leadership capacity. It was also a time for rekindling bonds with friends and family, giving back through volunteering, and laying the groundwork for Purpose, Balance, Journey (PBJ) People Consulting & Coaching LLC. Her vision for the next two decades is to infuse the world with PBJ’s purpose: Inspiring leaders to grow themselves, unite others and improve the world.
Elisa has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Language Arts, Secondary Education from Bethel University and did her graduate course work at The University of St. Thomas in Human Resource Development. She holds several certifications in leadership assessments, personality profiles, coaching and team performance. She is a certified executive coach from The Hudson Institute of Coaching and holds her International Coaching Federation, Associate Certified Coach credential.