Suzanne Lahl, MSOD
Suzanne, co-founder of SyncUp Leadership Group, is an expert in mindset development – the kind that inspires greatness in leaders who are making the world a better place.
The SyncUp Leadership Group
We teach you to grow your mindset.
We help you discover and develop new capacity.
The SyncUp Team
Co-Founder of the SyncUp Leadership Group, Suzanne Lahl, MSOD is a specialist in growing mindsets in service of wise and inspired leadership, sustainable value creation and thriving organizations who live in transformative partnerships with their communities and the environment.
At SyncUp Leadership Group - Suzanne, Terri and their associates are recognized as pioneer educators, researchers and practitioners in vertical development – growing mindsets to meet the opportunities of a world emerging and grappling with the most profound and necessary disruptions to life as we knew it. They are uniquely qualified to liberate organizations from the limitations that prevent them from doing what they most want to do in service of a better world.
The SyncUp team uniquely integrates neuroscience, interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB) adult development theory and Internal Family Systems (IFS) into their engagements. Each of these theories has a solid foundation in practice and wisdom traditions and moves clients into working with their unconscious beliefs, assumptions, blind spots, and autopilot behavior.
In addition to Suzanne’s international consulting and executive coaching practice, Suzanne is an adjunct faculty member in the globally ranked MSOD program at Graziadio Business School at Pepperdine University.
She holds an MS in Organization Development from Pepperdine University and an undergraduate degree in Communications from the University of Minnesota.
Outside of Syncup Suzanne can be found swimming in the ocean – sometimes up close and personal with wild dolphins and whales off the coast of Maui.
Co-Founder of the SyncUp Leadership Group, Dr. Terri Egan uses her interdisciplinary training and experience to create dynamic programs that bring out the best in individuals inspiring them to collaborate in creative and innovative ways. She is known for her ability to translate cutting edge science into powerful and practically useful tools for leaders and organizations.
As an Associate Professor of Applied Behavioral Science at Pepperdine University and former Director of the #1 ranked Masters of Science in Organizational Development program, Terri has taught graduate and executive courses in personal development, leadership, team effectiveness, organizational change and development, creativity and innovation and international organization development. She is also an Affiliated Research Scientist at the University of Southern California’s Center for Effective Organizations.
Her award winning research has been published in a number of top journals including Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Human Relations and the Journal of Public Administration. She is on the advisory board of the Clearinghouse for Information on Values and Ethics in Organization and Human Systems Development, and the Paulo Freire Democratic Project.
Terri holds a B.S. degree in social sciences, an MBA and a PhD in organizational behavior all from the University of California, Irvine and is a guild-certified practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method of Somatic Education.
Outside of SyncUp Terri can be found playing bass guitar in a rock band and hanging out in the kitchen with her food loving family.
Terri Egan, PhD
Terri Egan, co-founder of SyncUp Leadership Group, is known for her ability to translate cutting edge science into powerful and practically useful tools for leaders and organizations.
SyncUp Group Associate Dr. Julie Chesley is an Associate Professor of Organization Theory at Pepperdine University where she is the Director of Pepperdine’s top ranked Masters of Science in Organizational Development (MSOD) program. Julie’s teaching focuses on personal and group transformation as well as the critical thinking and analysis required to successfully lead change. Julie has also been on the faculty at the United States Air Force Academy and at Colorado College.
Julie has over twenty-eight years experience, including twenty years of service to the United States Air Force retiring as a Lt Colonel. During her Air Force career Julie had the opportunity to lead critical strategy implementation and change efforts including strategic planning for a major government agency which led to national recognition.
Julie has numerous publications and presentations including articles in California Management Review, Journal of Business Research and the Journal of Leadership Studies, as well two texts: Applied Project Management for Space Systems and Strategic Thinking: Today’s Business Imperative.
She holds a B.S. in Management from the United States Air Force Academy, and an M.B.A and Ph.D. in Organization Theory and Management from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado.
Outside of SyncUp Julie can be found walking on the strand looking at the ocean or dancing in the kitchen with her husband.
Julie Chesley, PhD
Julie Chesley, retired USAF Lt. Colonel, integrates personal and group transformation with strategic thinking. She is recognized for leading strategy implementation and change efforts.
SyncUp Leadership Associate Amita Schmidt has been leading mindfulness workshops nationally since 1998. For six years she was the resident teacher at Insight Meditation Society, one of the largest mindfulness retreat centers in the world. Amita was a consultant for the UCLA Mindfulness Research Center Program (MARC) and is the co-founder of Southwest Sangha, a non-profit meditation training center in New Mexico.
Her personal training includes over two decades of meditation and mindfulness practice, including many months of silent retreats. Amita has worked as a clinical social worker since 1984. She has a certification in Internal Family Systems (IFS) and has been training and supervising others in this modality since 2016. She is also certified in EMDR (a form of trauma therapy), and somatic movement. Amita is an internationally published author and cartoonist.
Outside SyncUp Amita can be found swimming with manta rays.
Amita Schmidt, LCSW
SyncUp Leadership Associate Amita Schmidt has been leading mindfulness workshops nationally since 1998. For six years she was the resident teacher at Insight Meditation Society, one of the largest mindfulness retreat centers in the world.
SyncUp Group Associate Dr. Kent Rhodes is a core faculty with Pepperdine University’s Doctoral Programs in Organization Leadership and the Master of Science in Organization Development. A politically savvy guide, Rhodes is an Organizational Development expert who cultivates emotional, social and business intelligence, helping senior-level leaders become more effective.
An expert in the field of family owned businesses, Kent brings firsthand experience equipping family executives and sibling/cousin management teams with leadership skills that build value, diminish discord and increase personal effectiveness. He also maintains a successful executive coaching practice for a variety of privately held and family owned enterprises both domestically and internationally. He is the lead author of “Managing Conflict in the Family Business: Understanding Challenges at the Intersection of Family and Business”, published by Palgrave-Macmillan.
Rhodes founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of OnCourse Network, Inc., an Internet Education Company. Kent’s business background combines with a unique appreciation of the links between personal development, giving back to the community and fulfillment in life and work. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors for several organizations.
Outside of SyncUp Kent can be found hiking in the wilderness park by his house or riding his bike to the beach.
Kent Rhodes, PhD
Kent Rhodes is an expert in the field of family owned business equipping leaders with skills that build value, diminish discord and increase personal effectiveness.
SyncUp Leadership Associate John Childers is a nationally recognized consultant whose curiosity about what kept clients from implementing strategic recommendations led him to an investigation of how organizational change actually happens and ultimately to a Master’s Degree in Organizational Development. John wrote his Master’s Thesis on partnership mergers and culture clash.
John is listed in Lawdragon’s 100 Consultants You Need to Know, and he is adjunct faculty at the Justice Leadership Institute at the U.S. Department of Justice and at Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business. In addition to a law degree from UCLA and a Master’s of Science in Organization Development from Pepperdine University, John has training certifications from the Strauss Institute (mediation) and the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland (executive coaching.)
Outside of SyncUp you’ll find him surfing and enjoying time with his family.
John Childers, JD MSOD
John is known for helping leaders optimize the results of change initiatives by aligning organizational context, leveraging powerful models and tools and implementing strategic collaboration.
Our world needs leaders with bigger mindsets.
Are you ready to develop an uncommon mindset to become a remarkable leader?
We believe the most important resource you have under your control for navigating complexity in the workplace is your leadership mindset—the collection of beliefs, values, assumptions and experiences that inform how you interpret the world and take action. We are a team of practitioners and academics committed to the art and science of growing mindsets. We make science practically useful in service of thriving organizations and a better world.
We get at the root of behavior change by helping leaders get comfortable with the discomfort of growing their mindset. Using what we know about the brain and the mind we teach you to write a new internal operating system… one in sync with the realities of a complex world.
This is how we do it.
Consulting
We help organizations integrate MINDSET development into People development strategies and programs for bottom line impact.
Educating
We engage leaders and managers in dynamic education that uses brain science to impact thinking, performing, and relating.
Coaching
We individualize mindset development to the unique greatness in every leader.
Speaking
We share neuroscience discoveries that can make a difference in your leaders and your organization.
The SyncUp Story
The SyncUp4 Model was born in the Summer of 2004 at the Haleiwa Cafe on the North Shore of Oahu when co-founders Suzanne and Terri discovered that each had skills the other wanted and appreciated in a collaborator. Together they brought decades of consulting experience, award winning academic success, and some interesting twists and turns to the entrepreneurs journey. They share a commitment to human growth and development in service of a better world and have been fortunate to find colleagues who share that commitment and bring their own unique set of skills and artistry to the firm.
Some Of Our Clients
