Kayla is a facilitator, trainer, and leadership consultant. Kayla’s professional passion is the intersection of leadership development and facilitation. Kayla specializes in strategic planning, organizational capacity building, complex meeting facilitation and design, leadership development with a focus on organization culture and virtual facilitation. Kayla excels in virtual facilitation which has led to an international portfolio of work most notably working with the Wikimedia Foundation, Scotland’s Soil Association and the Institute for Cultural Affairs in the United Kingdom. Kayla is a Technology of Participation (ToP) certified facilitator and virtual facilitator and also is a partner on the Great Plains ToP Trainers team. Prior to Mission Matters, Kayla was the Leadership Development Director at the University of Nebraska’s Rural Futures Institute.

Kayla earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business and a Master’s degree in Leadership, both from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. A native of Valentine, NE, Kayla has always been passionate about building capacity in rural communities. Kayla now lives in rural Diller, NE, with her husband and children on their family farm. Kayla serves on the board for the Diller Odell Booster Club and the Diller Community Foundation Board.

“Kayla has been a tremendous asset to our leadership team in her role as a facilitator. During our annual and quarterly multi-day planning sessions, she does a great job of moving us forward to accomplish what we need, while still having fun in the process. She has been so effective that we have started to bring her in for other projects besides our regular planning meetings, because we know that when Kayla is facilitating the meeting, we will focus on the right things and get more done.”

“She is great at understanding different personalities and incorporating those into her facilitation plans. She is very thoughtful about how to approach issues, giving consideration to the unique dynamics of our leadership team. Our leadership team now thinks of Kayla as a part of our team, not an outside facilitator.”

“During the Covid pandemic, when we had to switch from in-person meetings to virtual meetings, Kayla handled it very smoothly. Instead of just trying to recreate the meetings over Zoom, she redesigned them to make them match the new virtual environment. After our first couple of virtual meetings with her, members of our leadership team commented how our meetings might be more effective virtually than in-person.”

Lynne specializes in leadership coaching as well as consulting for nonprofit capacity building and board development. Lynne’s passion is centered around sustaining and cultivating leaders who are the change-makers in our world, acknowledging the challenges that come with carrying demanding responsibilities. Lynne has held Executive Director positions, served in board leadership roles, and supported nonprofit capacity building for over 27 years.  Her most recent position was that of Executive Director for the Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, where she began in 2008, and continues to support the work today.  Prior to joining the Coalition, Lynne was the Executive Director of the Rape/Domestic Abuse Program, where she began her employment in 1994.  Lynne serves as an Executive Coach for the Executive Leadership Program in conjunction with Chicago Northwestern University’s School of Management. 

Lynne is a Certified Professional Coach through the Co-Active Training Institute.  She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and an Executive Scholar Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Chicago Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.  Lynne was a member of the Nonprofit Executive Institute Class 8 through the Nonprofit Association of the Midlands, and participated in Leadership Lincoln Class 26.  She received the Business and Professional Women’s “Young Careerist Award” in 1997.

A native of North Platte, NE, Lynne embraces bringing the rural perspective to her efforts, and has incorporated a statewide approach through her work for the last thirteen years.  Lynne has also served on a national level for several years through an elected position on the Membership Committee for the National Network to End Domestic Violence.   She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Nebraska Alliance of Child Advocacy Centers.