Elena Aguilar is a writer, leader, teacher, coach and podcaster. She is the author of eight highly acclaimed books: The Art of Coaching (2013, retiring in August 2024), The Art of Coaching Teams (2016), Onward: Cultivating Emotional Resilience in Educators (2018), The Onward Workbook (2018), Coaching for Equity (2020), The Art of Coaching Workbook (2020, retiring in August 2024), The PD Book: 7 Habits that Transform Professional Development (2022), and the forthcoming Arise: The Art of Transformational Coaching (July 2024). She has also been a frequent contributor to Edutopia, ASCD’s Educational Leadership, and EdWeek Teacher. Elena is the founder and CEO of Bright Morning Consulting, an organization committed to helping individuals and organizations create the conditions for transformation. She has taught tens of thousands of folks how to have conversations that build a more just and equitable world. Elena can be heard demonstrating these conversations on The Bright Morning Podcast.
Elena is also the co-founder of Kenya Big Picture Learning, she’s on the advisory board of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and she is a certified mindfulness meditation teacher. She lives in Oakland, CA, with her husband, son, and two cats. When she’s not coaching or writing, she enjoys traveling abroad, photographing birds, hiking, drinking cacao, and reading fiction.