About Lantern Coaching
Elena Knappen, Founder
Elena Knappen is the founder of Lantern Coaching, and its primary coach and consultant. Elena is passionate about Leadership Coaching and is fortunate enough to support school and system level leaders across the country as they work to bring the misison and vision of their organizations to life.
Elena spent many years on the ground working in schools as a teacher and school-based leader. Elena was a founding school principal in Brooklyn, and led her school to breakthrough student achievement results, while creating and maintaining a strong culture among her team and within classrooms. During her time as the Director of Adaptive Leadership at Achievement First, Elena coached and developed new principals on building and sustaining high functioning, high retention school teams. Through her work with the Charter Network Accelerator, Elena designed program, facilitated cohort-based learning, and coached CEOs and CAOs of charter management organizations across the country as they sought to improve and grow their organizations.
Elena earned her B.A. from The University of Virginia, and her M.S. in Teaching from Pace University. She lives just outside of New York City with her young daughter.
Elena’s approach is warm, honest, and person/organization centered.
Testimonials
“Elena is an extremely skilled coach. She understands my vision and strategy for where I am trying to take my organization and helps me dive deep into both my personal leadership and the interpersonal dynamics that are a part of getting there. She simultaneously listens empathetically and provides helpful questions and challenges.”
— CEO, Chicago
“My life would not be the same without Elena as my coach. The higher I have risen in my organization, the more important it’s been to have someone to talk to from the outside, for both perspective and encouragement. Elena will ask the right questions that lead me to make solid decisions. She has helped me focus and prioritize. I have been able to look at professional challenges in different ways, thus finding meaningful solutions. I am a better woman and leader today because of the coaching I received from Elena.”
— CEO, New York City
“The coaching was not always comfortable for me, but I have grown immensely from it. Before this experience, I was starting to stagnate in my leadership, and this coaching was exactly what I needed to break out of that.”
— CEO, Idaho
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