ABOUT US
Adisa partners with organizations and individuals creating positive change around the world. We’re passionate about transforming your teams into leaders capable of accelerating performance and uniting members to tackle our planet’s most critical concerns—together.
We’re the global leaders you need to clear your path toward lasting impact by transformational leadership development, executive and team coaching, volunteer engagement, and planning your future.
OUR STORY
Adisa is a West African word meaning “one who sees clearly.” The Sankofa icon is a Ghanaian symbol, a bird turning to retrieve an egg from its back. In a mission-driven organization, the push to shape the future is complex. Seeking clarity, our team views the egg as hatching new ways to perceive challenges and opportunities for individual and collective action. Sankofa tells us to “reach back and get it,” clearing the path to a better world.
MEET THE TEAM
Adisa is comprised of professionals with complementary skill sets and shared values along with other specialists who are engaged when the assignment would be well-served by the addition of a particular expertise.
Laura Maloney
Laura specializes in executive and leadership development, team and organizational effectiveness, and strategic alignment of organizations. She has a special interest in expanding the capacity of leaders to build thriving enterprises and high-performance teams and has worked to inspire and drive social change in the field and communities of Washington D.C., New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Diego, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia, among others.
Laura enjoys a rare perspective, a result of serving in diverse leadership roles ranging from entrepreneur to roles in the executive office of a Fortune 500 company to the CEO of a multi-million-dollar organization to the COO of a $180MM national and a global non-profits operating in 50 countries.
She brings deep experience managing complex operations including emotionally charged, large-scale initiatives, which required the ability to work across government, non-profit, and for-profit sectors to achieve results. As a coach, Laura’s perspective is formed by a belief that each person has the ability to transform and awaken possibilities, moving them in the direction of massive yet focused action.
Laura is a frequent spokesperson including keynotes for organizations as wide-ranging as Deloitte to the Australian Institute of Animal Management. Awards include Social Entrepreneur of the Year by Tulane University, New Orleans City Business Woman of the Year; ASPCA Presidential Service Award; top Best Community/Environmental Activists; Top 10 Female Achievers, New Orleans Magazine, among others. In 2015, Laura was awarded a reflecting pool on the campus of the Louisiana SPCA for her commitment to leadership.
Laura holds an M.B.A. from Tulane University and a B.S. in Secondary Science Education from West Virginia University. She has also earned certifications from The Neuroscience Academy in how to implement evidence-based neuroscience strategies in the workplace, and Georgetown University in Executive Coaching and Change Leadership. Laura is an advanced certified administrator of The Team Diagnostic Survey™, the most rigorous and widely validated assessment on team effectiveness in existence, and the The Leadership Circle 360 Assessment with advanced training in vertical development, entrepreneurship, mastermind group facilitation and compassion fatigue. She is a member of the International Coaching Federation, serves as the board chair of Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education (GRACE) Center in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and is a strategic advisor to the International Rhino Foundation.
Betsy McFarland
Betsy McFarland is a strategist and problem-solver who has forged a unique professional niche focused on empowering staff and volunteers committed to tackling challenging societal issues.
She spent 18 years at The Humane Society of the United States where she devoted her energy and passion to supporting and collaborating with the tens of thousands of animal shelters and rescues working to save homeless pets. Betsy led the growth and transformation of one of the largest programs as vice president of companion animals, winning accolades for developing a series of pioneering programs.
Passionate about engaging the community, Betsy is a Certified Volunteer Administrator and has extensive experience in engaging and growing volunteers within organizations large and small. She began her career developing the first-ever volunteer program for a local animal shelter and went on to spearhead the launch of The Humane Society National Volunteer Center, the first broad-scale coordinated volunteer effort in the history of the organization, which now engages thousands of volunteers globally. Betsy specializes in providing training, coaching, and assessments in effective volunteer engagement and guides organizations through strategy development to ensure program effectiveness at all levels. She is also a facilitator for the new National Alliance for Volunteer Engagement.
Betsy also leads Energize, now a program of Adisa, which provides training, resources and consulting in volunteerism. Energize was founded by Susan J. Ellis in 1977 and has assisted organizations of all sizes and types to start, expand, or strengthen volunteer involvement — whether in nonprofit health and human service organizations, cultural arts groups, professional associations, schools, government agencies, businesses — anywhere volunteers are found.
Betsy is the author of Volunteer Management for Animal Care Organizations and has published research on staff-volunteer relationships. She worked with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to develop a research-supported Volunteer Program Assessment model that serves nonprofit volunteer programs across the U.S. and Canada.
A collaborator and bridge-builder with a proven track record of navigating diverse viewpoints, often in emotionally charged situations, Betsy is skilled at gathering input and synthesizing it to identify common ground and implement innovative solutions. She is a trained facilitator, with an Executive Certificate in Facilitation through Georgetown University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership.
Betsy holds a degree in psychology from George Mason University, is a Certified Animal Welfare Administrator (CAWA) and has completed an Executive Certificate in Organizational Consulting and Change Leadership through Georgetown University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership.
Heather Cammisa
Heather has two decades of experience serving in leadership roles at not for profit organizations, including more than a dozen years as chief executive officer leading excellence in strategy, program development, fundraising, fiscal management, communications, relationship building, legislative affairs, board relations and broad cause advocacy. She joined Adisa as a consultant in 2018.
She has worked with national, regional and local entities. She has scaled organizations and revitalized organizations. She led the creation of an 80 member network for impact and efficiency from Puerto Rico to Canada and she is a popular speaker at regional and national conferences in addition to being a trusted colleague to companion animal, wildlife and farmed animal advocate organizations. She is a Certified Animal Welfare Administrator (CAWA), trained disaster responder, Animal Control Officer (ACO), Animal Cruelty investigator (ACI) and is currently pursuing a graduate certificate in Wildlife Forensics and Conservation from the University of Florida. She has taught and developed curricula for more than a decade with Career Development Institute and taught mathematics and economics as an adjunct at Rutgers University.
Heather holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from Rutgers University and worked in both financial and social economics before devoting her career to not for profit management and cause advancement.
Heather shares her Colorado mountain home with adopted pets and her husband, Stefan. When not working, she can be found skiing, touring national parks by bicycle and growing food year-round in a geodesic growdome.
Jyothi V. Robertson, DVM
Dr. Robertson is an internationally recognized specialist in shelter medicine who has spent the past fifteen years focused on creating efficient processes, improving organizational structure, utilizing statistics to influence policy choices, and enriching facility design to minimize animal stress while improving overall animal health and well-being. Pre-veterinary medicine, Jyothi studied anthropology and education, examining cultural and race dynamics while performing fieldwork in Asia. This work has influenced her approach to conversations in animal welfare as she consults with organizations. It also led to her designing her life to allow for international travel while custom-schooling and creating curricula for her three children and other youth. Her passion project for the past 2 years has been the development of the Journey You Own, a platform for weaving spirituality and awareness through highlighting social injustice, animal welfare, the climate crisis, and education reform. Jyothi is a principal consultant for the firm Adisa.
Dr. Robertson possesses extensive board and management experience at both the state and national level. Jyothi is on the Diversity Equity Inclusion (DEI) committee for the Human Animal Support Services (HASS) and on the Executive Committee of HASS which is reframing animal sheltering within a One-Health and DEI context. As Chair to the national Animal Welfare Committee for the American Veterinary Medical Association she has the opportunity to guide animal welfare policy nationally and also co-chaired the subcommittee on Access to Care. She served on the Executive Board of the Association of Shelter Veterinarians for six years and is currently on their DEI task force. Her passion for statistics earned her a position with the Advisory Board of Shelter Animals Count in its early stages. Jyothi was a Delegate to the House of Delegates for the California Veterinary Medical Association for two terms and continues to be on their Animal Welfare Committee. These volunteer appointments, along with her other contributions in national endeavors, have guided her in her collaborations with diverse populations to impact change.
Dr. Robertson was the Medical Director for Oakland Animal Services for multiple years during the pursuit of a Residency in Shelter Medicine through the Koret Shelter Medicine Program and while starting her consulting business as JVR Shelter Strategies. She completed her veterinary degree and residency from UC-Davis and her undergraduate degree from Princeton University. Jyothi conducted research for 20 years on topics ranging from Lyme disease to obesity. She is boarded with the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners in Shelter Medicine. Jyothi resides on Ohlone and Ramaytush land with her husband, three children, two dogs, one cat, and tortoise.
Dr. Steven Rogelberg
Dr. Steven G. Rogelberg holds the title of Chancellor’s Professor at UNC Charlotte for distinguished national, international and interdisciplinary contributions. He has over 100 publications addressing issues such as meetings at work, team effectiveness, leadership, employee engagement, and organizational research methods. His research was profiled on Public Television, Radio (e.g., NPR, CBC, CBS), Newspapers (e.g., Chicago Tribune; LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, London Guardian) and Magazines (e.g., National Geographic, Scientific American Mind). Other awards and honors include being the inaugural winner of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Humanitarian Award, receiving the SIOP Distinguished Service Award, the Psi Chi Professor of the Year Award and the Master Teacher Award. He is the Editor of the Journal of Business and Psychology and the Talent Management Essentials book series. Companies for whom he has provided consulting services include: IBM, Family Dollar, Grace Cocoa, Vulcan Materials, VF Corporation, Lonza, TIAA CREF, Procter & Gamble, Brush Wellman, Marathon Ashland Petroleum, Siemens, Gilbarco, and North Highland. He founded and currently directs two large outreach initiatives focusing on nonprofit organization health and effectiveness. Over 200 nonprofits have been served. He has been a visiting scholar and guest speaker at universities and professional associations around the world including: Reykjavik University (Iceland), Hong Kong Baptist University, Peking University (China), The University of Sheffield (England), The University of Zurich (Switzerland), The University of Tel Aviv (Israel), Technion University (Israel), Concordia University (Canada), the University of Vienna (Austria), the University of Mannheim (Germany), BI Norwegian Business School (Norway), and Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium).
Kristin Floyd
Kristin Floyd has worked with Energize – which became a program of Adisa in 2020 – for over 30 years, starting as a publications director and ultimately directing the development of Energize’s strong online presence.
Experienced in strategic planning and online development of web platforms, Kristin developed the original learning platform for the Energize online training program and continues to develop and support the platform. Kristin works with the team to strategically meet volunteer engagement training and resource needs.
In the 90s, Kristin founded her own online development firm. One of her projects involved partnering with IKEA to test the viability of a global network of country-based employee websites. She trained and supported project managers in 13 countries on the platform. The platform was eventually adopted for the entire company.
Early in her career, she worked at the Center for Literacy in curriculum development, developing the “Learning for Life” series to train adult literacy volunteer tutors to use real-life materials when teaching reading and writing. She also worked with an instructional development firm writing self-paced instructional manuals for U.S. Foreign Service officers, researching regulations, interviewing key State Department officials and writing user-friendly text, exercises and case studies.