Alumni Update: Where are they now?
Name: Barbara Waxman
Degree(s) Received: MSG, MPA
Year of Graduation: 1987
Job title: Founder
Company: The Odyssey Group—An Executive and Life Coaching Company
Location (city and state): Kentfield, CA
Please briefly describe your position and your company:
I founded The Odyssey Group in 2005 in order to use my skills as an executive and life transition coach for adults, midlife and better. My passion is working with people for whom the primary tasks of middle adulthood have been complete. Children may have (almost) been raised. Relationships have stayed the course, dissolved, or are on the horizon. Career goals have been achieved, have been a disappointment or are being dreamed of. The question clients face is “What’s next?”
Answering what’s next can happen in a number of ways for people; I develop individualized coaching engagements that meet specific client centered needs. I also enjoy offering individually tailored group retreats, including one specifically designed for women. I speak at conferences, teach classes and give speeches. All of this is done both within and outside of organizations. Coaching sessions may take place in person or on the phone. Clients hale from across the United States and from international locations as well. In addition, I am special editor of a recently published book entitled: How to Love Your Retirement.
In addition to her certification in Executive and Personal Coaching through the Hudson Institute, Barbara holds both a Masters degree in Gerontology and in Public Administration. For the past 18 years, Barbara has provided strategic planning, leadership training and meeting facilitation services to businesses in the senior housing, social service, education and health care sector. She is one of the only professionally trained Gerontologist-Coaches in the field today. Her ability to guide others with compassion, honesty and a light heart, while relying upon adult development theory distinguishes Barbara’s work and that of her company, The Odyssey Group. In addition to her work as a coach, Barbara has authored several articles and is currently editing a book on retirement.
Why did you choose to study gerontology at the USC Davis School?
I’ve always been drawn to the field of aging—even before it was a ‘field’! I chose to pursue a joint MSG/MPA degree so that I could blend my interests in aging, health care, social services and entrepreneurship. I came to the Leonard Davis School at USC because I fell in love with California (being a native New Yorker) and found the caliber of the program to be the best in the field at that time. I was able to study with and work for professors in the field of aging whom I been following for years as an undergraduate psychology student at Colgate University.
How did you learn about your current position? Was it through an internship, a previous job, or a connection through USC?
One of the lessons I’ve learned is that life unfolds just as it should, when it should. After graduating from USC and moving to San Francisco I worked for social service agencies interested in developing creative aging programs. Reporting to a board of directors, then serving on various boards led me to expand my work to strategic planning. After doing that for about 15 years, clients of mine (executive directors) began to ask me if I would be their executive coach in addition to an organizational consultant. I eventually looked into it, realized that well trained gerontologists in this area are in short supply and went back to school for my Executive and Life Coaching Credential from the Hudson Institute. The rest is, as they say, herstory. I’ve simply fallen in love with coaching midlife adults and feel a real calling to this area of work. I’ve been fortunate to have the book offer (How to Love Your Retirement) and a number of other opportunities as I’ve developed The Odyssey Group.
Please briefly describe how the USC Davis School’s curriculum helped prepare you for your current position.
The solid, multidisciplinary, developmental perspective of aging that I learned while studying at the Davis School has proved invaluable and clearly sets me apart from other coaches.
What advice would you offer to a prospective student interested in studying gerontology at USC?
Identify and pursue what you are passionate about. The rest will follow.
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"The solid, multidisciplinary, developmental perspective of aging that I learned while studying at the Davis School has proved invaluable and clearly sets me apart from other coaches."
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