Anne Wallestad

Anne Wallestad is an executive leadership coach focused on helping social change leaders turn their attention to themselves so that they can do more good in the world. Working primarily with nonprofit and foundation CEOs and executive directors, Anne serves as both a coach and advisor, helping leaders bring intentionality and focus to their leadership practices and serving as a safe, confidential space to discuss thorny board, staff, and strategic issues. 

Prior to launching a coaching practice, Anne spent nearly 25 years as a nonprofit executive, including almost a decade as President & CEO of BoardSource, a globally-recognized nonprofit focused on strengthening the board-staff partnership within nonprofit organizations and foundations. While at BoardSource, Anne transformed the organization’s programmatic and business model – a change that resulted in BoardSource being named a Top 10 Finalist for the prestigious Drucker Prize for Innovation. These structural changes made it possible for BoardSource to dramatically expand its leadership role in the social sector, leveraging its unique role to challenge boards to lead with purpose and center equity. She is the author of the widely-disseminated article, “The Four Principles of Purpose-Driven Board Leadership,” which makes the case for board-level change that centers purpose, ecosystem, equity, and community voice. 

Anne is a graduate of Georgetown’s Leadership Coaching Certification Program and an Accredited Associate Coach with the International Coaching Federation. She is also a certified practitioner of both the iEQ9 Integrative Enneagram and the DRiV Assessment.  

A native Midwesterner, Anne moved to Washington, DC in her mid-twenties to build a career working to create positive change in the world. In 2019, she and her wife relocated to Baltimore, living in the delightfully quirky neighborhood of Hampden. Anne is passionate about urban renewal and reinvestment, racial equity, LGBTQ equality, and all that it takes to create sustainable communities where all can thrive. In her personal time, she enjoys traveling, reading, listening to records, exploring Baltimore’s food scene, and being in the company of interesting and curious people who stretch her thinking and make her laugh.