Leslie Kern, PhD

Leslie looking up at a painting of a snake with fangs out.
Dr. Leslie Kern. “Snake” by Jon Claytor.

Summer 2023 marks the 5 year anniversary of Leslie Kern Coaching!

My coaching services are intended to help clients find or rediscover work that’s fulfilling, sustainable, and meaningful.

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’m an associate professor in geography and environment and women’s and gender studies at Mount Allison University. I have a doctorate in gender, feminist, and women’s studies from York University. I do research on gender and cities, gentrification, and environmental justice. My pronouns are she/her.

The experience that 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 two 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
  • getting an international 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
  • wide variety of university service experiences, including hiring
  • surviving three prolonged labour strikes

My coach training

My coach training is through Erickson International. I have also completed training on Developmental Editing for Academics with Dr. Laura Portwood-Stacer, offered through the Editorial Freelancers Association.