Women Leaders Association Names Whitney Newcomb First Richmond Coaching Partner

The Women Leaders Association, the largest publisher and events organization for women professionals with 43,000 members and more than 130 regional chapters, today announced Whitney Newcomb as the first official Coaching Partner of its Richmond chapter, RichmondWomenLeaders.org. The appointment launches the association's new Coaching Partners program in the Richmond metro area, giving members direct access to coaches who have been carefully screened for credentials, track record, and client results.

The Coaching Partners program was created to solve a problem the association's members raise constantly: coaching is one of the highest-impact investments a professional woman can make in her career — and one of the hardest to shop for. Coaching titles are unregulated, quality varies enormously, and a leader evaluating coaches on her own has little way to verify who is genuinely proven. Under the new program, the Women Leaders Association does much of that screening on the member's behalf. Every Coaching Partner is vetted for recognized certifications, verifiable experience, and excellent client reviews before being presented to members, so each chapter's professionals can book a consultation with confidence, have a great experience, and keep rising in their careers.

Newcomb is the rare coach who has spent two decades professionally developing leaders — and built the credential set to match. A Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University for 19 years, she chairs the Department of Educational Leadership and has served as Interim Associate Dean for Faculty Development, with a Ph.D. in educational leadership from the University of Virginia. Through her Richmond-based practice, Rooted to Rise Leadership Coaching and Consulting, she offers executive leadership coaching, team coaching, and wellness coaching designed — as her brand promises — to grow influence, elevate impact, and deepen roots for bold, lasting change. Her credentials are unusually comprehensive: an ICF ACC executive leadership certified coach also holding the ICF's Advanced Certification in Team Coaching, a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach integrating positive psychology, and a Gallup-certified Strengths coach, with executive education in conflict resolution from Cornell, inquiry-driven leadership from MIT Sloan, and mindful leadership from Chicago Booth. She is certified to administer and interpret essentially every major leadership assessment — Hogan, EQ-i 2.0/360, MBTI Step I and II, CPI 260, FIRO-B, and Everything DiSC — and facilitates with LEGO Serious Play.

"Deep roots make bold growth possible," said Newcomb. "I've spent two decades developing leaders in the university world, and what I know is this: lasting change is never just about strategy — it's about influence, values, and wellbeing growing together. Rooted to Rise exists to help leaders and teams grow influence, elevate impact, and deepen the roots that sustain them. I'm honored to partner with the Women Leaders Association and to help Richmond's women professionals keep rising."

Richmond-area members can now view Newcomb's full profile, including her focus areas and credentials, book a free consultation directly through her site, or send her a private note through the page, at https://RichmondWomenLeaders.org/coaching.html?coach=WhitneyNewcomb

"Whitney is the rare coach who has spent nineteen years inside a major research university professionally developing leaders — and then built the credential set to match: the ICF's advanced team-coaching certification, national board certification in health and wellness coaching, and mastery of essentially every leadership assessment that matters," said Lydia Price, 2026 Volunteer Chair of the Women Leaders Association. "Launching our Richmond program with a scholar-practitioner of that depth is exactly what Coaching Partners promises."

The Richmond launch is part of a national rollout, with the association planning to extend the Coaching Partners program across its network of more than 130 chapters, pairing each city's members with coaches selected for that market.

The Coaching Partners program extends the association's broader mission of giving professional women both the structural transparency and the individual support they need to advance. Research from Pew and others estimates that women still earn roughly 15 percent less than men on average, and most women have little visibility into which employers actually advance women fairly. The Women Leaders Association has invested heavily in closing that information gap: its Glass Ceiling Score project, uses big data to score most major U.S. employers on how fairly they promote women into management and executive roles, and its chapters publish Best Women Employers rankings, compensation studies, and annual Top 50 Women Leaders awards. Coaching Partners adds the complementary, personal dimension: once a member can see the landscape clearly, a proven coach helps her move through it.

About Whitney Newcomb

Whitney Sherman Newcomb, Ph.D., ACC, NBC-HWC, ACTC, is the founder of Rooted to Rise Leadership Coaching and Consulting (rootedtoriseconsulting.com) in Richmond, Virginia, and Professor and Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University. She holds a Ph.D. in educational leadership from the University of Virginia, an M.Ed. from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a B.S. in psychology and early childhood education from James Madison University. An ICF Associate Certified Coach also holding the ICF's Advanced Certification in Team Coaching, a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, and a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, she is certified to administer Hogan, EQ-i 2.0/360, MBTI Step I and II, CPI 260, FIRO-B, and Everything DiSC, and is a LEGO Serious Play Facilitator. Health and wellness coaching and consulting services may be eligible for HSA/FSA or out-of-network insurance reimbursement. Richmond members can book a free consultation through her profile link above.

About the Women Leaders Association

The Women Leaders Association is a non-profit committed to the development and advancement of women in the corporate arena. With 43,000 members and more than 130 chapters in major cities, it is the largest publisher and events organization serving women professionals, producing conferences, leadership programs, original research, and daily publications for its members. We also celebrate the top 50 business women in each city, publish a Glass Ceiling Score ranking how well most employers advance women, and then recognize the best women's employers in each city from these rankings.

Events Near You: https://WomanLeaders.org/r/

Best Employers Near You and Glass Ceiling Scores by company:

https://WomanLeaders.org/r/GlassCeiling

Media Contact: Women Leaders Association, Service@WomanLeaders.org

Free Richmond Women Leaders Resources — available to all women in the Richmond metro at no charge: