CounterPart Consulting, LLC
Biography
Kathleen Crabbs
Work Email: kathleen@counterpartconsulting.co
KATHLEEN E. CRABBS is a leadership and equity educator and coach and a partner in organizational and cultural systems change. She collaborates with people and groups to clearly hear themselves and each other and create strategies to partner and move through the world with clarity of purpose and commitment to justice. She partners with individuals and systems to bring an explicit equity lens to their work, hone communication and leadership skills, develop strategy and implementation plans, confront decision-making and disagreement, and hold themselves accountable to their plans and vision. Kathleen brings her deep listening, discernment, and counseling skills to her work with individuals and the systems in which they live and work. She is a skilled partner in determining vision and direction. Kathleen is Co-Founder and Principal of CounterPart Consulting with Sterling E. Freeman and an Associate with OpenSource Leadership Strategies, Inc., both North Carolina-based national consulting practices. Through these entities, she and her colleagues partner with individuals and systems to integrate an explicit racial equity and adaptive change lens to their work and planning. Kathleen served as Lead Faculty and Coach with the William C. Friday Fellowship for Human Relations for 17 years, where she co-designed and facilitated a two-year cohort leadership program and provided one-on-one coaching to adults on developing leadership that is increasingly authentic, mindful, and responsible. Through this work, she has coached over 80 adults, whose diversity spans all lines of identity, discipline, and sector, in individual engagements spanning from 3 months to two years. Prior to coming to North Carolina, Kathleen began her career with the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science, where she worked for 8 years designing and delivering programs in collaboration with NTL members and staff. Kathleen holds a BA in English from Randolph-Macon College and an MA in English, with a concentration in teaching writing and literature, from George Mason University. She is currently a candidate for a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from North Carolina Central University. She lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with her partner, Craig, and their children, Eliza, Annie and Henry.
Sterling Freeman
Work Email: sterling@counterpartconsulting.co
STERLING E. FREEMAN is a leadership coach, organizational and cultural change agent, facilitator, counselor, and public speaker. All his work is grounded in an equity lens and motivated by a desire to create spaces where Black and Brown people have full freedom to thrive so that all people can thrive. His worldview and the foundation of his social and cultural critique are heavily influenced by Womanist thought. Having been in Christian ministry since 1996, Sterling also brings a pastoral orientation to this work and is inclined toward deep listening, holding empathy, and meeting people where they are. Sterling has worked with leaders whose diversity spans all lines of identity and across multiple sectors in the nonprofit world. Along with Kathleen Crabbs, Sterling is a Co-Founder and Principal with CounterPart Consulting, LLC and Associate with OpenSource Leadership Strategies. Through both entities, he and his colleagues work with client-partners to help them apply an explicit racial equity lens to their work. Sterling is a founder of BREATHE: A Whole Black Experience, which makes space for Black people to freely discuss their racialized experiences, grapple with the impact of those experiences, and affirm themselves and one another. He is also the founder of The Wisdom & The Work podcast, which focuses on the topic of racial justice. Sterling serves on the board of the African American Heritage House at Chautauqua Institution in New York, the vision of which is to contribute to a more vibrant Chautauqua community and enrich the Chautauqua (CHQ) community through the inclusion of African American history, culture, and the contributions of African American intellectuals. He is a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. Sterling lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wife, Michelle. They have an adult daughter, Joia.