Women Leaders Association Names Steph Saffer as Portland Coaching Partner, Expanding the Vetted Coaching Roster

The association's Coaching Partners program grows in Portland — adding an executive coach with ICF Professional certification and 2,000+ coaching hours

PORTLAND, OR, UNITED STATES, August 25, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Women Leaders Association, the largest publisher and events organization for women professionals with 43,000 members and more than 130 regional chapters, today announced Steph Saffer as the newest Coaching Partner of its Portland chapter, PortlandWomenLeaders.org. The appointment expands the chapter's Coaching Partners roster and gives Portland members a second rigorously vetted coach to choose from, each with distinct specialties.

The Coaching Partners program was created to solve a problem the association's members raise constantly: executive coaching is one of the highest-impact investments a professional woman can make in her career — and one of the hardest to shop for. Coaching titles are unregulated, quality varies enormously, and a leader evaluating coaches on her own has little way to verify who is genuinely proven. Under the program, the Women Leaders Association does much of that screening on the member's behalf. Every Coaching Partner is vetted for recognized certifications, verifiable experience, and excellent client reviews before being presented to members, so each chapter's professionals can book a consultation with confidence, have a great experience, and keep rising in their careers.

Saffer coaches leaders to step into greater impact. A trusted advisor and thinking partner for entrepreneurs, founders, and executives, she helps clients sharpen decision-making, gain clarity, strengthen leadership, and reach what she calls a 10/10 life — in business, relationships, and personal growth. Her conviction: most high performers don't need more information; they need greater clarity, the courage to challenge limiting beliefs, and the ownership and discipline to become the person capable of creating the impact they want. Her credentials run deep; an ICF Professional Certified Coach with over 2,000 hours of coaching, a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach, and an Intelligent Leadership Master Certified Coach through John Mattone Global. Her range sets her apart: 16 years as a licensed acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist in Portland with over 40,000 patient encounters, and nearly a decade as founding lead instructor at Portland's BurnCycle studios, where she taught over 2,000 classes to more than 80,000 clients as the business scaled fivefold. Today she helps leaders achieve ambitious results without sacrificing their energy, health, or relationships. She also hosts the Impact Ready podcast, which is devoted to helping listeners create powerful impact and design a meaningful life.

"Most high performers don't need more information — they need greater clarity," said Saffer. "My clients are capable of more, and my job is to help them see what's holding them back: the blind spots, the limiting beliefs, the patterns they keep hitting despite their best efforts. Sixteen years in holistic medicine taught me how people actually sustain high performance — and how to level up without burning out, physically or mentally. I'm honored to join the Women Leaders Association's Coaching Partners and to help Portland's women professionals play bigger."

Saffer joins LauraLynn Jansen on the Portland roster, giving members a choice between two proven coaches with complementary strengths. Members can view Saffer's full profile, book a free consultation directly through her site, or send her a private note through the page, at https://PortlandWomenLeaders.org/coaching.html?coach=StephSaffer

"Steph's credentials check every box our vetting demands — a PCC with more than two thousand documented coaching hours, Co-Active certification, and the Intelligent Leadership Master credential," said Lydia Price, 2026 Volunteer Chair of the Women Leaders Association. "But what sets her apart is forty thousand patient encounters' worth of understanding how high performers actually burn out — and recover. Growing our Portland roster with a coach who builds leaders sustainably is exactly how this program is meant to work."

The Portland expansion is part of a national rollout, with the association planning to extend the Coaching Partners program across its network of more than 130 chapters, pairing each city's members with coaches selected for that market.

The Coaching Partners program extends the association's broader mission of giving professional women both the structural transparency and the individual support they need to advance. Research from Pew and others estimates that women still earn roughly 15 percent less than men on average, and most women have little visibility into which employers actually advance women fairly. The Women Leaders Association has invested heavily in closing that information gap: its Glass Ceiling Score project, uses big data to score most major U.S. employers on how fairly they promote women into management and executive roles, and its chapters publish Best Women Employers rankings, compensation studies, and annual Top 50 Women Leaders awards. Coaching Partners adds the complementary, personal dimension: once a member can see the landscape clearly, a proven coach helps her move through it.
About Steph Saffer

Steph Saffer is an executive coach, leadership developer, and the founder of Saffer Coaching Enterprises (stephsaffer.com). An ICF Professional Certified Coach with over 2,000 hours of coaching, a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach through the Co-Active Training Institute, and an Intelligent Leadership Master Certified Coach through John Mattone Global, she practiced for 16 years as a licensed acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist in Portland and is a co-founder of Next Level Nutrition, a metabolic health coaching company. She holds a master's degree in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine and studied at Oregon State University, and hosts the Impact Ready podcast. Portland members can book a free consultation through her profile at https://PortlandWomenLeaders.org/coaching.html?coach=StephSaffer

About the Women Leaders Association
The Women Leaders Association is a non-profit committed to the development and advancement of women in the corporate arena. With 43,000 members and more than 130 chapters in major cities, it is the largest publisher and events organization serving women professionals, producing conferences, leadership programs, original research, and daily publications for its members. We also celebrate the top 50 business women in each city, publish a Glass Ceiling Score ranking how well most employers advance women, and then recognize the best women's employers in each city from these rankings.

Events Near You: https://WomanLeaders.org/r/
Best Employers Near You: https://WomanLeaders.org/r/GlassCeilingorg, or visit the Portland chapter at PortlandWomenLeaders.org.
Media Contact: Women Leaders Association, Service@WomanLeaders.org, https://WomanLeaders.org

Lydia Price, 2026 Volunteer Chair
Women Leaders Association
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