Peter Anderson, Ph.D., ACC

Peter is a leadership coach with over 20 years of experience in higher education and broad exposure to academic leadership and faculty governance. He specializes in strategies for a mindful approach to work, life, and a full engagement with work/life balance through emotional intelligence. His long practice in mindfulness is supplemented by modern research in leadership and mindfulness, as well as the understandings and practices of Stoic philosophy.

A humanist and entrepreneur at heart, Peter has always looked for the next challenge. After more than two decades in academia—with publications, local and national awards, and academic leadership experience in higher education and in a global education organization—Peter burnt out. After taking a leave to reflect, Peter retrained to build a consulting and coaching firm that integrates his passion for higher education, people development, mindfulness, and evidence-based emotional intelligence development. His conviction that good, careful inner work can make lives better and more fulfilling has been at the core of his efforts to point people and organizations in the right direction. Building on his skills as a dialogue facilitator (he is a UN Habitat certified facilitator) and his training in conflict resolution, Peter specializes in helping individuals, teams, and organizations notice, engage, and empower emotional intelligence and mindful leadership strategies in order to increase effectiveness, reduce conflict, promote diversity and inclusion, and build healthy relationships within or to our workplaces.

A dynamic and award-winning teacher, Peter offers group workshops, individual emotional intelligence development planning, faculty coaching, and long-term coaching for leaders. Peter holds a PhD in Greek and Latin Philology from the University of Cincinnati. Peter was Chair and Associate Professor at Grand Valley State University. He was also Chief Examiner for the International Baccalaureate, where he collaboratively managed a global, distributed team, and was Executive Director for a four-institution higher ed consortium. 

Testimonials

“The center point of the guidance I received from Peter was time and task-flow management. I was feeling overwhelmed by the multitude of responsibilities landing in my inbox, and the absence of time for focused thinking. Peter listened to my challenges intently and I felt heard during my interactions with him. What I really appreciated in his style was that Peter asked me insightful questions along the way that made me think about my situation at a deeper level, and as a result of that I was able to develop a personalized solution to address my challenges. Peter created a safe space for our interactions that was free from any form of judgment. Thus, I felt comfortable to share my problems, which rendered the coaching process more genuine. My working practices have changed considerably after this coaching experience. I can manage my time more effectively, get work done, and also create space for uninterrupted time to engage in deep scholarly work.” – Dr. Ozan Akus, Kent H. Smith Professor of Engineering and Director of the Office of Faculty Development, Case Western Reserve University 

:Peter is a fantastic coach!  As a person of color, I was concerned that I wouldn’t find a coach that understood me.  I chose Peter because his background matched the best and found him to be an excellent listener who gained my trust with his caring nature and insights.  He allowed me to set the agenda to our meetings and would appropriately push me when needed.  He would bring in different resources to help reinforce a point that was being made and assigned homework that was meaningful.  Since we spent time getting to know each other and clearly setting expectations, we were able to accomplish significantly more than I expected.  I would highly recommend Peter since he is a knowledgeable, caring, open, and humble individual.” – Dr. Edwin Toshio Hamada, Assistant Vice President for the Residential Experience,  Colorado College