Professional Profile
Background and Approach
Tanea Ellis, M.A., PCC is an executive coach, leadership strategist, facilitator, and learning experience designer who has developed leaders across industries, organizations, and global teams. With leadership experience spanning organizations including Google, IPG Mediabrands, Columbia University, and Disney-ABC Television, she brings a grounded understanding of the complexity leaders face in rapidly evolving environments.
Her work blends corporate leadership experience, organizational psychology, and human-centered coaching to help individuals and organizations navigate change with greater clarity, adaptability, and intention. Grounded in the belief that meaningful leadership transformation begins within, Tanea helps leaders strengthen how they think, communicate, make decisions, and lead people through complexity and change.
Credentials
Focus Areas
and Expertise
Education
Tanea is pursuing her doctorate in Organizational Change and Leadership at the University of Southern California. She holds a master’s degree in Social-Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Lehigh University and Coaching Certification from New York University.
Design Thinking Expertise
Grounded in the DREAM. DISCOVER. DESIGN™ framework, Tanea integrates leadership development, behavioral insight, and design thinking principles to help individuals and organizations move from awareness to meaningful change. This work supports people in rethinking how they lead, make decisions, and navigate complexity across both work and life.
Certifications
Tanea integrates evidence-based assessments and resources to help you identify your strengths, ambitions, and relational dynamics. To ensure each client engages the right tools for their goals, thinking patterns, and emotional styles, Tanea is certified in a range of coaching and behavioral assessment instruments.
Connection
Connection is the foundation of meaningful leadership. Through honest, human relationships, we create the trust and alignment required for sustainable transformative change.
Reinvention
Reinvention keeps us adaptive and future ready. As the world evolves, we continually reassess, unlearn, and redesign how we lead, work, and grow.
Self-Responsibility
We practice self-responsibility by owning our choices, behaviors, and responses. We believe leadership begins within, and that real change and lasting impact starts with how we think, decide, and show up.
Integrity
Integrity guides every decision. We align our actions with our values, ensuring consistency, transparency, and trust in how we lead and partner with others.
Courage
Courage sits at the heart of our work. Real growth requires stepping into discomfort, telling the truth, and leading with conviction, especially when the path forward is uncertain.
Design You Coaching
Core Values
Resources
Case Studies
These case studies offer a glimpse into how this work comes to life across leadership, team development, and life design. Through coaching, facilitation, and leadership development experiences, I help individuals, teams, and organizations navigate complexity with greater clarity, stronger relationships, and a more grounded approach to growth and change.
Whether strengthening team alignment, leadership effectiveness, or personal direction, this work is designed to create meaningful shifts that improve how people lead, work, and move through life.
Adaptive leadership coaching focused on team alignment, communication, and performance
Team alignment engagement focused on redefining mission, values, and ways of working together
Life design workshop supporting individuals through transition, reinvention, and personal growth
Our Philosophy
Design You Coaching's mission is to deliver leadership development experiences that empower leaders to navigate complexity by breaking patterns, redesigning how they think and lead, and cultivating the relational intelligence to drive better outcomes for their lives and organizations.
