Women Leaders Association adds Steph Saffer to Portland coaching roster

The Women Leaders Association named executive coach Steph Saffer as the newest Coaching Partner for its Portland chapter, expanding a vetted coaching program for women professionals. The move gives Portland members a second coach to choose from as the association pushes the program across its 130-plus chapters.

Why it matters: - The Women Leaders Association is expanding a program designed to make executive coaching easier to evaluate for women professionals. - Portland members now have another vetted coach with distinct strengths, which broadens access to support that can affect career growth, leadership and burnout prevention. - The chapter-level rollout is part of a larger plan to extend Coaching Partners across the association’s network of more than 130 chapters.

What happened: - The Women Leaders Association named Steph Saffer the newest Coaching Partner for its Portland chapter, PortlandWomenLeaders.org. - Saffer joins LauraLynn Jansen on the Portland roster. - Members can view Saffer’s profile and book a free consultation through her Portland Women Leaders page. - The association said the coaching roster expansion gives Portland members a second rigorously vetted coach to choose from.

The details: - The Coaching Partners program screens coaches for recognized certifications, verifiable experience and strong client reviews before presenting them to members. - The program was created because coaching titles are unregulated and quality varies widely. - Saffer is an ICF Professional Certified Coach with more than 2,000 coaching hours. - Saffer also holds a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach credential and an Intelligent Leadership Master Certified Coach designation through John Mattone Global. - Saffer spent 16 years as a licensed acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist in Portland and logged more than 40,000 patient encounters. - Saffer spent nearly a decade as founding lead instructor at Portland’s BurnCycle studios, where she taught more than 2,000 classes to more than 80,000 clients as the business scaled fivefold. - Saffer also hosts the Impact Ready podcast. - The association said the broader mission of the program is to pair members with coaches who can help them advance with more transparency and support. - The Women Leaders Association says it has 43,000 members and more than 130 regional chapters.

Between the lines: - The Portland addition points to a broader strategy: combine macro-level employer transparency tools with one-on-one coaching. - The association already publishes Glass Ceiling Score data, Best Women Employers rankings, compensation studies and annual Top 50 Women Leaders awards. - Saffer’s background in holistic medicine and high-volume coaching is positioned as a differentiator for leaders looking to improve performance without sacrificing health or relationships.

What's next: - The Women Leaders Association plans to expand the Coaching Partners program across its chapter network. - Portland members can continue booking consultations with either Saffer or Jansen as the roster grows. - The association says future chapter additions will pair local members with coaches selected for each market.

The bottom line: - Portland’s women professionals get a second vetted executive coach, and the Women Leaders Association gets another step toward a nationwide coaching network.