Women Leaders Association Adds Lara Anderson as Portland Coaching Partner

The Women Leaders Association, the largest publisher and events organization for women professionals with 43,000 members and more than 130 regional chapters, today announced Lara Anderson as the newest Coaching Partner of its Portland chapter. The appointment brings the chapter's Coaching Partners roster to three rigorously vetted coaches, each with distinct specialties.

The Coaching Partners program was created to solve a problem the association's members raise constantly: coaching is one of the highest-impact investments a professional woman can make in her career — and one of the hardest to shop for. Coaching titles are unregulated, quality varies enormously, and a leader evaluating coaches on her own has little way to verify who is genuinely proven. Under the program, the Women Leaders Association does much of that screening on the member's behalf. Every Coaching Partner is vetted for recognized certifications, verifiable experience, and excellent client reviews before being presented to members, so each chapter's professionals can book a consultation with confidence, have a great experience, and keep rising in their careers.

Anderson partners with leaders at pivotal moments of growth — stepping into greater responsibility, navigating change or complexity, leading through difficult people dynamics, or recognizing that what got them here may not be what takes them forward.

An Executive Leadership Coach, she brings nearly three decades of experience in human resources, talent, and leadership development, including 28 years at Nike. There, she coached emerging and senior leaders, led global leadership programs spanning the U.S., Europe, Southeast Asia, and China, and helped design and deliver leadership development initiatives across the organization.

Her Nike career also included co-creating the company's first enterprise-wide employee engagement survey, reaching more than 30,000 employees and presenting the findings to the CEO and executive leadership team; helping create Nike's first week-long global manager development program; and earning the Bowerman "Remember the Man" Award for impact and innovation in talent strategy.

Today, through Leadership Collective, Anderson partners with executives, emerging leaders, teams, and organizations to navigate the human side of leadership with greater courage, clarity, trust, and intentionality. Her work spans executive and leadership coaching, leadership development, team effectiveness, organizational culture, and change.

An ICF Professional Certified Coach, Hudson Institute Certified Executive Coach, SPHR, and Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator with Harvard Business School executive education, Anderson is known for a pragmatic, grounded, and deeply human coaching style. She helps leaders understand themselves and their impact, navigate the conversations and decisions that matter most, and translate insight into meaningful change.

While Anderson works with leaders across industries and genders, she has a particular passion for helping women grow their confidence, voice, and impact without losing themselves in the process — creating success that is meaningful and sustainable in both their careers and their lives.

"The leaders I coach are often at the moments that matter — stepping into greater responsibility, navigating a pivotal decision, or leading through a season of change," said Anderson. "Throughout my career, I've seen that the human side of leadership — courage, clarity, trust, and intentionality — is what carries leaders through those moments. I'm passionate about helping leaders navigate these pivotal moments, and I especially enjoy helping women lead with greater confidence and authenticity while creating success that is meaningful and sustainable — in both their careers and their lives. I'm honored to join the Women Leaders Association's Portland Coaching Partners."

Anderson joins LauraLynn Jansen and Steph Saffer on the Portland roster, giving members a choice among three proven coaches with complementary strengths. Members can view Anderson's full profile, book a complimentary 30-minute discovery conversation, or send her a private note through the page, at https://PortlandWomenLeaders.org/coaching.html?coach=LaraAnderson

"During her 28-year career at Nike, Lara helped develop leaders preparing for greater responsibility and enterprise impact," said Lydia Price, 2026 Volunteer Chair of the Women Leaders Association. "Her specialty is the pivotal moment — the promotion, the stretch role, the season of change — and that is exactly where our members most want a proven partner beside them. Portland's roster of three shows the caliber this program attracts."

The Portland expansion is part of a national rollout, with the association extending the Coaching Partners program across its network of more than 130 chapters, pairing each city's members with coaches selected for that market.

The Coaching Partners program extends the association's broader mission of giving professional women both the structural transparency and the individual support they need to advance. Research from Pew and others estimates that women still earn roughly 15 percent less than men on average, and most women have little visibility into which employers actually advance women fairly. The Women Leaders Association has invested heavily in closing that information gap: its Glass Ceiling Score project, uses big data to score most major U.S. employers on how fairly they promote women into management and executive roles, and its chapters publish Best Women Employers rankings, compensation studies, and annual Top 50 Women Leaders awards. Coaching Partners adds the complementary, personal dimension: once a member can see the landscape clearly, a proven coach helps her move through it.

About Lara Anderson

Lara Anderson, PCC, SPHR, is the founder of Leadership Collective and an Executive Leadership Coach specializing in talent, teams, and organizational effectiveness. Grounded in the belief that empowered leaders create courageous cultures and enable transformative growth, she partners with leaders and organizations to navigate the human side of leadership with greater courage, clarity, trust, and intentionality.

An ICF Professional Certified Coach and Hudson Institute Certified Executive Coach, she is a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator, ORSC™ practitioner, Certified Integrative Enneagram Practitioner, Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, and CQ® Certified Facilitator, with Harvard Business School executive education in Authentic Leader Development, Leading Change and Organizational Renewal, and Leadership for Senior Executives.

Her 28-year Nike career spanned HR, talent, and leadership development, including global leadership programs; helping create Nike's first week-long global manager development program; Talent Centers of Excellence; employee engagement and workforce intelligence; global employee relations; and leadership of Nike's U.S. immigration program. She served on the Board of Directors of Linfield University's Women in Leadership initiative from 2024-2026. Portland members can connect with her through her profile above.

About the Women Leaders Association

The Women Leaders Association is a non-profit committed to the development and advancement of women in the corporate arena. With 43,000 members and more than 130 chapters in major cities, it is the largest publisher and events organization serving women professionals, producing conferences, leadership programs, original research, and daily publications for its members. We also celebrate the top 50 business women in each city, publish a Glass Ceiling Score ranking how well most employers advance women, and then recognize the best women's employers in each city from these rankings.

Events Near You: https://WomanLeaders.org/r/

Best Employers Near You: https://WomanLeaders.org/r/GlassCeiling

Media Contact: Women Leaders Association, Service@WomanLeaders.org

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