Onboarding and Transition Services

Ariella Tilsen, M.A.

Founder & President, Vital Edge Consulting

Ariella Tilsen is an executive and leadership coach, strategic change consultant and facilitator, and conflict resolver who works across sectors, cultures, and generations. She helps leaders, organizations, and communities tap into what makes them most dynamic, and then helps them focus on what they most want to grow or change. Much of her work focuses on bringing out the expertise, wisdom, and skills already present in the room, and in applying these to co-create bold, yet realistic and effective solutions. Ariella’s experience in working with the multiple stories, identities, and realities that make each leader, group, or organization what it is—rather than imposing a framework from the outside—has served as a creative spark for solving seemingly unsolvable problems.

Ariella has consulted with and coached a wide spectrum of leaders, including nonprofit executives, elected officials, and corporate C-Suite leaders, all from a wide range of generational, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. She has worked extensively with organizations of all sizes, including state and local governments, international NGOs, multinational companies, and organizations in health care, renewable energy, philanthropy, equity and inclusion, social services, social justice, refugee and immigrant resettlement, and the arts. With Spiwo Xapile, Ariella co-founded Stories Move Mountains, through which they have worked with South African organizations, and community and organizational
leaders, to create positive and sustainable change, and to address issues such as HIV/AIDS, gender equity, food justice, economic development, and poverty alleviation.

Ariella has also held several interim CEO and executive leadership positions in organizations that focus on health, mental health, and education. In these roles and others, she has supported many critical leadership transitions.