Architect Your Next Chapter Program
Feb 5 - Mar 26, Thursdays 9-11am PT
8 weeks of live, interactive sessions
Year-long, high-support experience
Guided by seasoned leaders
Leave with a plan + credential
Who it's for
Leaders at an inflection point
This program is designed for accomplished women who sense that their next chapter deserves more than momentum or reaction. You’ve built success, influence, and credibility—and now you’re at a moment where intention matters more than speed. Architect Your Next Chapter is for women who want to step out of autopilot, claim agency over what comes next, and thoughtfully design a path they can actually follow.
- You've spent time reflecting on what you want—and are ready to move from thinking to intentionally designing and acting.
- You're at an inflection point: a transition, pivot, expansion, or redefining of how you want to show up and lead.
- You want greater clarity and conviction around your direction, story, and value—and how to use them with intention.
- You do your best work with structure, thoughtful peers, and accountability—not vague inspiration.
Design your next chapter with clarity and agency
We are living in a moment defined by constant change, accelerating expectations, and fewer clear roadmaps for what “success” looks like next—especially for experienced leaders. In a world that rewards speed and productivity, many women rarely get the space to pause, reflect, and intentionally design what comes next.
Architect Your Next Chapter meets this moment by creating a structured, guided environment to step out of autopilot, examine what no longer serves you, and deliberately shape the future you want to lead into.
Over an initial eight weeks—and supported throughout the year—you’ll work alongside other accomplished women to clarify your direction, reclaim agency, and translate insight into action, so your next chapter is not only meaningful, but intentional and executable.
In this program, you will:
- Revisit and reframe your personal and professional story to understand how it’s shaping your current choices.
- Identify your core strengths, patterns, and self-limiting beliefs—and consciously decide what you’re ready to release.
- Articulate what you stand for now and define the kind of impact you want to create in this next chapter.
- Refine your priorities and vision with peer feedback and expert guidance, grounding them in what matters most.
- Translate clarity into a concrete roadmap, with commitments and next steps you can carry forward.
- Integrate your learning, share your direction with others, and commit to sustained action beyond the program.
What you'll experience
This is a live, highly curated program designed for depth, not scale. Every element is intentionally structured to support real reflection, meaningful dialogue, and follow-through. You’ll work closely with experienced guides and a small cohort of peers in an environment built for trust, clarity, and deliberate action, both during the program and beyond.
- Live, facilitated sessions led by seasoned leaders who have navigated and guided others through career inflection points.
- A personalized intake and 1:1 coaching conversation to clarify your goals, context, and what you want this chapter to unlock.
- An intimate, intentionally curated cohort of no more than ten participants, designed for depth, trust, and meaningful peer exchange.
- An eight-week live experience, followed by quarterly group coaching sessions and ongoing asynchronous connection to support integration, accountability, and momentum throughout the year.
Have questions? Talk to a member of our team.
Guided by experienced leaders
This program is led by two accomplished women who have navigated complex career transitions, leadership evolution, and questions of impact firsthand. They teach both from theory and guide from experience. Together, they create the conditions for deep reflection, honest dialogue, and deliberate action, helping participants move from insight to execution with clarity and confidence.
Erin Essenmacher
Erin Essenmacher is an executive coach, board director, and trusted guide to women navigating pivotal life and career transitions. With more than two decades of experience across
politics, media, and corporate governance, Erin brings a rare perspective to leaders standing at a threshold—those being called to reinvent, recalibrate, or reclaim their power in moments of profound change.
Erin’s own career has unfolded through three distinct reinventions. She began in politics, working at the intersection of policy, power, and public purpose, before transitioning into media, where she honed her voice as a strategist, storyteller, and translator of complex ideas for broad audiences. Her third chapter led her into corporate governance and executive leadership, where she rose to become President and Chief Strategy Officer of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), the largest U.S. association for corporate boards. There, she architected a strategic vision that drove 400% revenue growth, doubled membership, and launched the nation’s first accredited director certification program—cementing her reputation as a leading voice in modern board governance, CEO succession, and organizational transformation.
At age 34, Erin faced a life-altering cancer diagnosis that forced a deeper reckoning—one that reshaped not only how she worked, but why. Navigating illness, recovery, and reinvention
fundamentally changed her relationship to ambition, identity, and success. That experience now informs her coaching and advisory work, giving her a grounded, compassionate understanding of what it means to rebuild after loss, disruption, or disillusionment—and to design a next chapter that is both powerful and sustainable.
Today, Erin partners with executive women, CEOs, and board-level leaders as a coach and advisor, helping them navigate moments of transition with clarity, courage, and strategic intention. Her work often supports leaders who are stepping out of long-held roles, recovering from professional or personal rupture, or standing at a crossroads between what has been and what wants to emerge. She is a partner at Leadership Elevated and serves as Senior Advisor and Faculty for Athena Alliance, where she leads board-readiness and leadership programs for senior executives seeking both impact and alignment.
In parallel, Erin remains deeply engaged in governance, having served on boards including NXU, Inc. (NASDAQ: NXU) and EILEEN FISHER, where she chaired the People and Culture Committee and served on the CEO Succession Planning Committee. Her board work spans technology, energy, fashion, media, sustainability, and social enterprise, with a focus on strategy, culture, risk, and transformation.
Jane Firth
Jane Firth is a highly regarded executive coach, leadership consultant, advisor, and author with over 40 years of experience working in the field of executive development. She is founder and CEO of Firth Leadership Partners and has built a distinguished career in transformational methodologies at the intersection of leadership, executive presence, and organizational dynamics.
Jane is the author of Grit, Grace & Gravitas, the Three Keys to Transforming Leadership, Presence, and Impact, and the workbook of the same name. As a founder of the Beyond our Differences Foundation, Jane was a strategic advisor of the award-winning documentary film of the same name.
The Philadelphia Business Journal recognized Jane with the Woman of Distinction Award. Jane was a founding member of the globalislocal fund, a collaborative funding partnership investing in solutions to poverty in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Jane has been empowering professional women since the 1980’s. She understands transformation from the inside out. Having survived cancer and consciously re-imagined
her life, purpose and work, she understands first-hand what it means to step into an entirely new chapter. She brings both depth and clarity to the art of reinvention. Her work invites people to meet uncertainty with courage, to listen deeply to what is emerging within them, and to translate insight into confident, meaningful, choices for the chapter ahead.
Her commitment to the success of women has been expressed through her work as a coach, leadership development luminary, legislative change agent, and advisor to women’s empowerment groups. She currently leads programs for high performing women executives.
Jane is a long-standing member of the Forum of Executive Women, has chaired their Women in Executive Leadership and Governance committee, and served for many years on the committee responsible for the Forum’s annual Women on Boards Report.
Jane is an investor in, member of, and faculty of the Athena Alliance, and leads Athena Academy’s program, Architecting Your Next Chapter.
Jane earned her MSOD with a focus on the psychology of leadership from the University of Pennsylvania.
Accelerate your career with Athena Academy
Athena Academy brings together community and learning in an intimate setting, while delivering everything you need to know about what the job entails and requires – whether you’re striving for the C-suite or boardroom or simply want overall executive development. These courses will arm you with a toolkit to successfully land the role you’re seeking. You can connect live with other members, learn from and ask questions to experts who’ve “been there, done that”, and accelerate your journey to reaching your professional goals – all within Athena Academy. More courses launching soon.