MEET THE TEAM

erin passons, President & Founder

As the president and founder of Passons Consulting, Erin Passons has spent her career helping business leaders, managers, and employees improve their performance and effectiveness through professional development workshops and coaching.  Erin is an expert in training and coaching using the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment, and she works with organizations to create a Strengths-based approach to performance, leadership development, and team building.  Her goal is to help people do what they do best, at work and in life. 

Prior to launching her own consulting practice in 2011, Erin worked as a Management Consultant for Gallup, the research and consulting firm known for creating the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment and for their work with global public opinion and workplace polling.  During her tenure at Gallup, Erin worked with a variety of large companies to provide training and coaching in the areas of management effectiveness, leadership development, Strengths-based performance management, employee engagement, and talent-based hiring.  Erin has certified over 500 coaches in the Strengths-based approach.  

Erin earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of California-Santa Barbara and received her MBA from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.  She is a certified Executive Coach and a certified MBTI practitioner.  Erin is a member of the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and the founder of StrengthsNetwork San Diego, an association for StrengthsFinder practitioners and enthusiasts in Southern California. 

Erin's Top 5 Clifton StrengthsFinder Themes are Strategic, Positivity, Woo, Relator, and Communication.

Contact Erin to learn more.

OMAR passons, Principal

For more than two decades, Omar Passons has spent his career in public sector leadership and civic engagement and brings a Strengths-Based approach to helping clients address complex, multi-disciplinary challenges. As a longtime civic and community leader, Omar brings deep knowledge and executive leadership experience across multiple levels of government, including City, County and Federal departments.  His focus is on helping public and nonprofit leaders break down silos and align systems—from human services to public administration—to deliver meaningful progress and outcomes.  With a keen awareness of the need for enhanced cross-departmental alignment to drive big change, Omar’s areas of practice include systems change, public and private sector leadership effectiveness, community engagement, and helping public sector clients align and leverage Artificial Intelligence to improve outcomes.

Learn more about how Omar contributes to public sector solutions here.

Omar is also a former construction and land use attorney and began his career evaluating public health programs at the Federal level.  This combination of policy and community level engagement on land use issues provides a strong basis for addressing the complex issues public and non-profit sector clients face.  As a seasoned executive and community leader, Omar’s unique background allows him to effectively coach new and emerging executive leaders who are learning to navigate politics, community needs, and change management to drive effective solutions.  Omar received both his Bachelor’s degree in philosophy and Master of Public Health degree at the University of Arizona, and received his law degree from George Mason University School of Law. 

Omar’s Top 5 Clifton StrengthsFinder Themes are: Woo, Positivity, Learner, Achiever, and Includer.

Key partners

melanie Proshchenko

Melanie Proshchenko is a leadership consultant and team coach, and the founder of Honeycomb Teams. Erin and Melanie have worked together since Erin’s early days as a Gallup consultant, when Melanie was a client! Since then, they have partnered on numerous client projects together, and their complementary styles are a great match.

Throughout her career, Melanie has facilitated groups and coached within organizations of all sizes in a wide range of industries.  Her focus is on creating immediate impact, measurable results and sustainable change using a strengths-based approach. Before launching her own practice, Melanie served as Vice President at Vistage Worldwide, the leading coaching firm for growth focused CEOs & entrepreneurs.  She earned her Bachelor’s degree in International Business at Arizona State University, her Masters in Human and Organizational Development from The George Washington University, and has since obtained numerous certificates in coaching and learning design. Melanie lives in San Diego with her two young boys and two energetic dogs. Her days are full of action and she loves to travel and explore off the beaten path.

Melanie’s Top 5 Clifton StrengthsFinder Themes are Relator, Communication, Maximizer, Futuristic and Input.

Steven Beck

Steven Beck is the president and founder of Steven Beck Consulting, and is a trusted partner to Passons Consulting.  You'll often find him facilitating professional development workshops alongside Erin, and these two professionals have worked together for over 20 years.  Over the course of his career, Steven has led more than 500 leadership development programs, first as a Senior Consultant for Gallup, and now in his thriving private consulting practice.  His consulting and training experience spans the globe as well as multiple industries, including health science, technology, finance, and government.  During his tenure at Gallup, he was a certified instructor of Gallup’s Strengths-Based Coaching courses, helping hundreds of people unlock their potential and learn to coach others about their Strengths.  He has a passion for people and possibility thinking, consistently challenging others to be the best version of themselves.  

Steven holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Loyola Marymount and a Master’s degree in Organizational Management from University of Phoenix. He lives in Lake Forest, California, with his wife and two sons. 

Steven's Top 5 Clifton StrengthsFinder Themes are Communication, Woo, Maximizer, Strategic, and Activator.

Amanda Flisher

With more than a decade of experience in the learning and leadership development field, Amanda Flisher has served her clients as a coach, facilitator, consultant, and program manager. Throughout her career she has coached and trained thousands of individuals through her own coaching methods as well as the use of the Clifton StrengthsFinder assessment. Amanda has a passion for coaching and training because she believes in the potential of people. She loves working with individuals who are eager to learn, grow and see the best in themselves so that they in turn can help others grow. 

Amanda holds an Associate Certified Coach Credential through the International Coach Federation, was trained as a Strengths Educator through the Gallup Organization, and earned her Master’s degree in Organizational Management.

Amanda’s Top 5 Clifton StrengthsFinder Themes are: Harmony, Focus, Consistency, Futuristic, and Includer.

Shannon Jordan

Shannon Jordan is an executive coach and founder of  the Career Ingenuity Group, and specializes in mindfulness and emotional intelligence work. Erin and Shannon worked together on the Qualcomm project and continue to have a trusted partnership. Shannon was on the founding team for Qualcomm's talent development initiative providing workshops, coaching and assessment to leaders and teams across the globe.  She teaches on the adjunct faculties of UC Irvine Extension Business Programs and UCSD Rady School of Management Executive Education.  

Passionate about helping professionals optimize their own performance, leadership and well-being amidst the distractedness and stress reactivity that characterizes the modern workplace, Shannon has delivered mindful leadership programs for Fortune 100 companies in technology, media, finance, bioscience, higher education and healthcare. Her programs build upon strengths-based development, using mindfulness to build self-awareness, notice moments of engagement/flow, and intentionally build upon what is already working well.

Shannon completed teacher training through UCSD Center for Mindfulness, Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (Google’s mindfulness program) and the Potential Project. She holds a B.A. in Business from UC Riverside and an M.A. in Counseling from Chapman University. She is a Board Certified Coach and a National Certified Counselor and a contributing author to the book Building Workforce Strength.  Shannon is certified in StrengthsFinder 2.0, MBTI, EQi 2.0. She has traveled the world extensively and lived in Singapore, but calls Solana Beach home.

Shannon's Top 5 Clifton StrengthsFinder Themes are Connectedness, Adaptability, Learner, Maximizer and Intellection.

KElly Etter

Kelly Etter plays the role of Business Manager for Passons Consulting, managing all operational and administrative functions for the company.  She is an expert in employing organizational systems and processes to maximize efficiency; coupled with her natural service orientation, she finds her job to be the perfect fit!  

Prior to her work in client services, Kelly spent her career in elementary education as a primary school teacher. She finds she utilizes a very similar skill set to keep the many moving parts of a business running smoothly just as she did in the classroom. She thrives in her role and enjoys the opportunity to help small business owners do more of what they love.  Kelly has a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  She lives in San Diego with her husband and two young boys. 

Kelly’s Top 5 Clifton StrengthsFinder Themes are Responsibility, Relator, Harmony, Learner, and Empathy.