About Dr. Deborah Nixon

I’ve always been curious about people and their stories.  Why do they make the choices they make?  Why take one path and not another?  I studied psychology at university and switched to marketing because I loved advertising.  In my early marketing and advertising career, it was fun to visit businesses and talk to them about their customers to understand who they were and what they wanted. It wasn’t enough, though. 

It was natural for me to move from that into understanding organizational culture and what people wanted from their work.  Since those days, I’ve focused my life and career on helping leaders to understand themselves and their teams.  As an ICF Certified executive coach, I question, persuade, guide, challenge and help individuals build their self-awareness and appreciate their impact on others.

I’ve transformed and designed organizational structures in both public and private sector environments which improve decision making, work processes, communication, and teamwork.  My teaching background has helped me design and deliver practical leadership programs.  Over the years, I’ve developed mentoring programs, led women’s workshops, developed assessments and programs on building trust.  I’ve spoken on many stages.  I’ve interviewed thousands of people in my career and coached and mentored hundreds.  I’ve worked with Inuit and First Nations communities and mentored women entrepreneurs.  There isn’t a people issue or dilemma that I haven’t encountered.

I have a Bachelor of Commerce in Marketing from Concordia University.  In my 30’s, I took a leap and went back to school for my Masters in Environmental Studies from York University.  I loved research and learning so much that I continued on to my PhD at the University of Toronto.  I successfully graduated despite giving birth, dealing with the death of my husband and raising my son alone.  He’s an adult now and I’m so proud of him.  I learned so much about life and never giving up; I bring to my work every day.