About Dr. Anna
Practitioner. Coach The person who has actually been in the room.
After Walmart I spent eighteen years in the classroom at the high school, undergrad, and graduate level. That span put me in the room with leaders at every career stage, from executives who built their careers before the internet changed everything, to new professionals who have never known a workplace without it. I understand how differently those groups think about authority, feedback, development, and work itself.
In those eighteen years I also watched Gen Z move from students to early-career professionals in real time. I saw how they learn, what motivates them, what shuts them down, and what they need from a manager to stay engaged. That direct observation shapes how I help today's leaders navigate one of the most persistent friction points in any organization: managing people whose relationship with work, authority, and feedback looks fundamentally different from their own.
I didn't come to leadership development through a coaching certification. I came through 30 years of watching what happens when organizations promote their best people without preparing them to lead.
I started as a first-generation college student who went to work for the world's largest company. Over ten years at Walmart, across six states and thirteen addresses, I held roles in store management, district leadership, and one of the most selective positions in the company: a two-year training and development role held by fewer than 20 people at any given time.
In that role I helped build Build Better Merchants, the first course Walmart approved in nearly a decade. The existing training was too theoretical for the wave of leaders coming in from outside the company. Sound familiar? I went into the field to train leaders from the salary level to the divisional level, and for the first time in company history, people in training were held to field-level performance metrics. I met and exceeded them.
That experience taught me something I've never forgotten: development only works when it's attached to real work, real accountability, and real consequences. Everything I do now is built on that principle.
What I bring to every engagement:
A decade of executive-level operational leadership at a Fortune 1 company, including P&L responsibility, district management, and leading through complex store turnaround situations.
Published research on how newer generations approach work, expectations, and leadership, informing how I design development that actually lands across a mixed workforce.
Two proprietary frameworks built from pattern recognition across industries: the Double Skills Gap and the Energy Triangle™.
Certifications in EQ-i 2.0, EQ360, the Hardiness Resilience Gauge, and the Change Style Indicator, with a DBA in Marketing, MBA, Master of Arts in Teaching, and BS in Marketing.
Why Collective Energy?
I founded Collective Energy because I kept seeing the same problem in every organization I worked with: brilliant people promoted into management and left to figure out leadership on their own. The organizations that fix this don't do it with a one-day workshop. They do it with sustained, applied development tied to real work.
That's what I build. That's what I measure. That's what sticks.
What People Are Saying
"Anna's energy, guidance, advice, and view on your needs is priceless. Being able to connect with someone not just as a peer but as a friend can make the world of difference when seeking someone to help coach you."
— Maggie, Manager"There's no one who wants to help you reach your goals more than Anna. She is there for YOU. Not your company, YOU. She brings a level of authenticity to her coaching that is unmatched."
— Director of Strategic Talent Initiatives "Anna helped me find my voice for career advocation. She was never pushy but rather gave me ideas on how I could communicate my concerns with confidence. She is great at calling attention to others' strengths and providing specific encouragement and feedback."
— Tax Manager