Dana Theus, Speaker & Facilitator

An engaging speaker, meeting facilitator and workshop leader, Dana Theus motivates and outfits audiences to lead change and explore the highest potential in themselves and their organizations.

In her coaching practice serving on the front lines of business, Dana equips emerging leaders with tools and strategies that shortcut their journey to personal and career success. She helps  established leaders activate the power of their career brand to engage their organizations and access new levels of confidence and impact. And she coaches women aspiring to greater leadership responsibility, helping them retell the stories they must heal to emerge into their full potential and find their authentically confident voice.  With her support leaders become well known for the things they like best about themselves.

Dana also helps organizations unlock the power of their people by designing culture-shift coaching and training programs for team leaders, which leverage scaleable online InPower Coaching methodologies and extensive video/workbook libraries.

Dana has spent her career helping individuals and organizations succeed as they venture into new territory, working inside and alongside fortune 50 companies, entrepreneurial technology startups, government agencies and non-profits. Her functional experience spans coaching, management consulting, leadership development, change management, executive team facilitation, strategic planning, marketing, branding, communications, product development, product management and international government affairs. 

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“I highly recommend working with Dana for speaking and group coaching. Dana and I recently collaborated on a remote workshop for early to mid career professional women. Dana’s presence, content, interactive exercises, and humor shone through for this global, virtual audience. The women were highly engaged and provided overwhelmingly positive feedback. I look forward to continuing to partner with Dana on more of these initiatives!”

Laurie Kuhn

Founder, Confid*nt

“Dana was great at TEDxMassAve and she has fresh new ways of looking at the challenges professional women face. Loved her actionable insights!”

Donita Prakash

Program Manager, Gartner

“The PRIMES Leadership Lab we did with Dana is really about taking projects and diverse teams, breaking down those projects into areas to discover synergies, differences, and misconceptions. It helps us come up with an integrated approach to making sure we’re working on the same version of the truth.”

Mike Howard

Chief Security Officer - ret., Microsoft

“Dana’s practical advice, engaging presentation style and connection to her audience made her Keynote Speech a highlight of the Virginia Government Communicators’ conference. Dana’s presentation on tapping into self-respect to earn respect in the workplace was both motivating and inspiring.”

Paula Otto

Trainer & Consultant, Otto Training & Consulting

Select Speaking & Workshop Engagements

  • PepsiCo Women of Color ERG – Purchase, NY
  • Microsoft – Seattle, WA
  • American Marketing Assoc. – Washington DC Chapter
  • Women Impacting Storebrand Excellence (WISE) – Chicago, IL
  • Interagency of State Employed Women – Olympia, WA
  • Virginia Government Communicators – Loudoun, VA
  • U.S. Joint Forces Women’s Leadership Symposium – Arlington, VA
  • Exxon-Mobil Women’s Leadership Forum – Houston, TX
  • SHRM – Loudon, VA
  • Women in Technology — Northern Virginia
  • NASA Marshall Space Flight Center – Huntsville, AL
  • National Association of Women MBAs – Washington, DC
  • The Power Conference for Women – Bethesda, MD
  • DataRobot – Boston, MA
  • The Washington Network Group Women’s Leadership Forum – Washington, DC
  • TEDxMassAve 2012 – Washington, DC
  • The Washington Network Group – Washington, DC
  • Girls in Technology – Rockville, MD
  • Legacy Women’s Conference Northern Illinois University – Chicago, IL
  • Women in Electronics/VentureSource – virtual
  • Interagency Committee of State Employed Women (ICSEW) – Washington State

Facts About Dana

  • Negotiations Training – PepsiCo Women of Color
  • Professional Development provider for Women In Storebrand Excellence – Chicago, IL
  • Advisory Board – American Marketing Assoc. Mentor Program – Washington DC Chapter
  • Webinar instructor for Business Management Daily and Lorman Education
  • Certified in Leadership Circle Profile for teams and executives
  • Former Washington DC Host, Executive Leader’s Radio (#1 business talk radio station in the mid-Atlantic)
  • Forbes Top 100 Women’s Leadership Blog – InPowerWomen.com
  • Leadership blogger on Medium/The Mission, Smartbrief on Leadership and Lead Change.
  • Top 100 Most Socially Shared Leadership Blogs
  • Top 25 Blogs: HR Examiner
  • Top 75 Human Business Champion
  • Former Instructor George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership
  • Certified Lean Six Sigma Champion
  • Hobbies: Pottery, Knitting, Creative Writing, Fantastical Things
  • Launched 2 successful sons into the world

Lynn Borton
COO, NAMI (ret.)

I am a leader of PepsiCo’s Women of Color employee resource group and in this capacity have developed programming to raise the bar on diversity and talent. In 2023, we focused on developing relationships with HR partners and building value-add capabilities. Dana spoke to our 100+ participants about techniques to improve our negotiation skills.

Dana’s presentation proved to be more than informative! Her delivery was very engaging and interactive. Our participants requested that we bring Dana back into PepsiCo’s Women of Color 2024 agenda for an even longer session. She is phenomenal. 

Lynn Borton
COO, NAMI (ret.)

We brought Dana in, on very short notice, to facilitate formation of an advisory group at a time of important organization transition. She quickly proved to be an exceptionally able and eager student of the organization and culture, making it her business to really understand us before she stepped into the meeting room. Her efforts paid off. She led an effective, engaging and very productive session at the close of which at least one participant not known for his enthusiasm declared it the best such meeting in which he’d been involved. Another participant marveled that “Dana didn’t feel like an outsider. She clearly ‘got’ us and even speaks our language!” As her primary point of contact, I thoroughly enjoyed her responsive professionalism, warmth and great energy. Her process suggestions and gentle guidance as we felt our way toward articulated goals for the event were invaluable. We look forward to another opportunity to work with her.” 

Mike Poerksen
SHRM-CP

“Dana Theus delivered an insightful presentation to our Loudoun SHRM chapter on the subject of HR’s role in change management and change leadership. She engaged our audience by sharing rich content, soliciting our perspectives, and getting us out of seats near the conclusion to demonstrate her content, giving us actionable takeaways. She conveyed the executive mindset during change, helpful for executives and non-executives. Dana’s presentation resonated given how change is constant for HR professionals. Thank you Dana, hope to see you again at a future Loudoun SHRM event.” 

Isabel Einzig
Leadership Coach
WIT Speaker Liaison

Dana Theus has a presentation style that is inspiring, connecting, and enthusiastic, and we’ve had her back to participate in several programs. Her presentation to Women in Technologies, the mentor group, was to impart best practices for mentors who work with proteges in our organization. She impressed upon the group, the need to use leadership acumen when working with the proteges, as well as empower the proteges to consider their alternatives to solutions. The interactive breakout sessions encouraged participants to share their experiences as mentors and weigh their own leadership style. I look forward to Dana’s future presentations for our women, both mentors and proteges, who are always motivated by her thoughtful leadership tips that can be employed at work or life situations.”

Speaking, Webinar & Workshop Topics

Want to bring motivational, practical and powerful insights to your organization? Dana speaks powerfully and inspires inpowering insights on a variety of topics in both speaking and workshop formats. Dana can speak to your whole group, conduct a half-day workshop, advise and facilitate your planning committee, support leaders in running team meetings – and all of the above! All sessions are appropriate for women-only and mixed-gender audiences. 

 

  • Building Emotional Intelligence for Maximum Impact
  • Change Leadership for Teams & Team Leaders
  • Organizational Culture-Building
  • Navigating Unconscious Bias
  • Communicating with Confidence for Women
  • Networking Skills for Busy People
  • Building Influence With Thought Leadership
  • Self-Respect for Influence and Impact
  • Building an Authentic, Feminine Leadership Presence
  • Managing & Dealing with Difficult People
  • Personal Brand – What is it and How Do You Get One?
  • How & Why to Develop a Coaching Leadership Style

Jen Linke

VP Brand Management, Federated Group
Board Member, Women Impacting Storebrand Excellence (WISE)

“Dana delivers! Dana put together a wonderful webinar that discussed the topic of the communication gap between genders. She really stressed the importance of perceptions verses reality in gender communication and how people need to be aware of the silent messages we send. The topic resonated with many of the webinar attendees based on the responses we got back. We had 130 people on the webinar, which was a record for us and we’re discussing what we can do next on this topic. Dana delivered an impactful message for women and WISE benefited from her expertise.”

“Dana is a fantastic speaker. I had the pleasure of working with Dana when she spoke at a highly popular seminar for the WNG Women Leadership Forum on personal brand management and thought leadership. Dana is an effective communicator, and inspiring teacher and coach. She has the quality of being a great listener which makes her into a more dynamic and engaging speaker. I always look forward to Dana’s new topics and projects that are always interesting and informative.”

Silvia Dumitrescu

VP Communications, IFIC Foundation, Chair, Washington Network Group's Women's Leadership Forum

“I’ve had the pleasure and blessing of collaborating with Dana, a fellow career coach, to help people discover their “hire purpose” through live workshops and webinars. Dana is passionate about unlocking the greatness within her clients so they can find their WHY and let their professional light shine. She is insightful, compassionate and gifted in asking powerful questions that release those “Aha!” moments…when breakthroughs are born.”

Shira Harrington

Coach & Founder, BoomerWorks

Speaker’s Information (Bios & Pics)

[To Corporate Audience]

As an executive and organizational coach Dana Theus supports individual executives, leadership teams and organizational/cultural design efforts. She helps emerging and established leaders activate their highest potential to succeed, to shine and to motivate their teams to greater productivity and purpose. With her personal support and extensive library of leadership development videos and workbooks, clients quickly access their power to lead lasting change and transform their business cultures into a competitive advantage. She has worked for Fortune 50 companies, entrepreneurial tech startups, government and military agencies and non-profits and she has taught graduate-level courses for several Universities in the Washington DC area. 

[To Individuals]

Dana Theus is an executive and career coach specializing in helping you activate your highest potential to succeed and to shine. With her support emerging and established leaders take powerful, high-road shortcuts to developing their authentic leadership style and discovering new levels of confidence and impact. Leveraging a 25+ year career on the front lines of business, Dana has worked for Fortune 50 companies, entrepreneurial tech startups, government and military agencies and non-profits and she has taught graduate-level courses for several Universities in the Washington DC area. She writes on multiple leadership sites to bring an INPowered voice to leadership development.

[To Women’s Audiences]

Dana Theus is an executive and career coach specializing in helping you unlock your highest potential to succeed and to shine. With her support, women aspiring to greater levels of leadership and entrepreneurship learn to retell the stories they must heal so that they can emerge into their full potential and find their authentically confident voice. Leveraging a 25+ year career on the front lines of business, Dana has worked for Fortune 50 companies, entrepreneurial tech startups, government and military agencies and non-profits and she has taught graduate-level courses for several Universities in the Washington DC area. She writes on multiple leadership sites to bring an INPowered voice to leadership development.

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Use the form below to contact me about coaching, speaking or consulting opportunities. To submit an inquiry about writing for the blog, please use the Pitch Form at the bottom of the Contact Page.

I look forward to connecting with you soon!
Dana Theus

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