My coaching services are intended to help clients find or rediscover work that’s fulfilling, sustainable, and meaningful. Learn more about me here:

All my work is informed by a feminist, social justice-oriented worldview. I aim to create a space that is 2SLGBTQIAA+ friendly, anti-racist, anti-ableist, and anti-colonial. I understand that power structures in academia and beyond affect our work, minds, and bodies in different ways that are often outside our control. Coaching can’t fix the institution or change systems of power. What it can do is help you find greater clarity of purpose and take back the things that are within your control.

I was an associate professor in geography and environment and feminist and gender studies at Mount Allison University from 2009-2024, before leaving to focus on coaching, writing, and consulting. I have a doctorate in gender, feminist, and women’s studies from York University. My pronouns are she/her. I live in Cambridge, ON.

About me: Photo of Leslie Kern standing against a dark grey wall, wearing an olive green shirt and black pants.

The experience I bring to academic coaching includes:

  • surviving graduate school
  • publishing my dissertation as a monograph
  • working as an adjunct, contract, tenure-track, and (eventually!) tenured professor
  • publishing multiple peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters
  • writing in many different formats (for textbooks, encyclopedia, book reviews)
  • publishing three successful trade non-fiction books
  • working and publishing with multiple collaborators and students
  • conducting peer review of dozens of scholarly books and articles
  • writing successful national multi-year research grants and a visiting scholar grant
  • raising a child while attending grad school and working as early career faculty
  • organizing conferences
  • extensive award-winning teaching experience
  • directing an academic program
  • surviving three prolonged labour strikes
  • sitting on many academic hiring committees for faculty and admin role
  • making and executing a plan to leave academia

My coach training

My training is through Erickson International. For academic editing services, I have completed training on Developmental Editing for Academics with Dr. Laura Portwood-Stacer, offered through the Editorial Freelancers Association. Please feel free to ask more about me in a free Strategy Session or contact me here.