Teresa Cowan Jones
Teresa Cowan Jones formed TC Jones Coaching in 2001, developed the CIT coaching program, and is our Director of Coaching. Teresa is an executive and personal coach and founder of the Breakthrough Leadership Institute, a transformational leadership and community development initiative. As such, she directs its premier program, Sacred Space, a secular and interfaith community that builds skills of compassion through contemplative practices to fuel social justice.
Teresa holds a B.S. in Psychology and a Master of Divinity from Vanderbilt University, both with highest honors. A professionally trained graduate of Coach U, she also completed advanced training in Executive Coaching. This ten-year formal study of human development reflects her love for behavioral science and translates into a keen ability to facilitate the change process for individuals, organizations and communities.
Author of over 100 tools of effectiveness, Teresa has served as coach and faculty at the Center for Progressive Leadership (a national, bipartisan organization focused on political leadership and policy, the Center for Integrative Medicine, and the Hesychia School for Spiritual Direction. She has served as Chief Executive Officer, Program Coordinator and consultant to nonprofit organizations, taught university courses in sociology, and led numerous retreats and workshops as Spiritual Director. As a progressive, ordained, interfaith minister, she created several developmental and social programs and has twenty years of professional experience in leadership development in both the public and private sectors. A love of learning keeps her engaged in continuing education, which occurs through her reading of current research and membership in the International Coach Federation (ICF), which is the premiere coaching credentialing agency that establishes industry standards. Teresa’s approach is based in the science of human development; the neuroscience of behavioral change; contemplative practices that help the mind manage the brain and circumvent burnout; cultivation of total intelligences (cognitive, emotional and contextual/spiritual); and a combination of neocortical (conceptual) and limbic (emotional/sustained) learning for long-term results. Through insight, compassion and humor, her integral, holistic approach emphasizes awareness and action.