Alicia Santamaria

Alicia Santamaria chose the Spanish word “Adelante,” meaning forward in Spanish, for her business as a metaphor for her own forward growth and her belief that learning and action go hand in hand. She is committed to providing clients with both transformational learning experience and measurable, forward results.

Alicia started her career as a conflict resolution trainer and team facilitator over 25 years ago. She focuses her workplace coaching and consulting on building positive organizational cultures through leadership development, manager effectiveness, strengths-based employee engagement, and fostering high-trust, high-performing teams. Her clients range from small startups to large corporate enterprises, nonprofits to governments, local to national. She prides herself on meeting each client’s unique needs.

To maximize learning and accelerate strength-based development, Alicia is certified in several well-respected and high-quality learning and development tools that support and complement her workplace coaching and consulting. These include Gallup’s CliftonStrengths assessments and Wiley’s Everything DiSC’s suite of tools. She holds a master’s degree in communication, is an Advanced Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, and earned the Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential from the International Coach Federation, the gold standard for accreditation of coaching professionals.

A mother of two young adults, Alicia finds joy in her work, family, and traveling internationally. Born and raised in Syracuse, NY, she completed her undergraduate degree there. She has also lived in Madrid, Spain, Washington, DC., and Albuquerque, New Mexico where she completed her graduate studies. She’s proudly called San Francisco home for more than 20 years.