About Mish

Over 25 years inside the work, not above it.

I didn't start out as a consultant. I started inside organizations, embedded in the messy reality of trying to make good ideas work.

Implementing strategic visions that sounded great in the boardroom but fell apart in practice. Trying to get teams aligned when everyone had a different definition of success. Making new systems work while old processes were still in the way. Leading change when people were exhausted from the last failed initiative.

Over time, I learned that transformation rarely fails because people aren't trying hard enough. It fails because strategy, systems, and people get treated as separate problems, when they're one integrated challenge.

The work has taken different forms across my career: from guiding wilderness experiences and corporate training programs in Australia and Maine, to six years in senior leadership at Outward Bound, a stint in the world of documentary filmmaking, to managing organizational change at a state agency alongside my consulting practice. The thread has been the same throughout: I tend to arrive at the moment something needs to change, figure out what's going on, and help the people involved build a way through it.

That's what led me to create Bay Consulting.

How I work

I listen before I prescribe. I want to understand what's happening in your organization before I have an opinion about what should change. That means asking questions, talking to your people, and paying attention to what's being said, and what isn't. People tell me they can see how much I care about their situation, and that matters to me, because it's real.

I bring structure, not rigidity. The frameworks I use (PROSCI, Kotter, CliftonStrengths, the Bay Architecture Assessment) are proven and well-researched. But I adapt them to fit your organization, your culture, and your constraints. I've never run the same engagement twice, because no two organizations are the same. If a framework doesn't serve the people in the room, I'll say so.

I build your capacity, not your dependency. The goal of every engagement is for your organization to be stronger after I leave than it was when I arrived. I train your managers to carry it forward. I build frameworks your team can use without me. I'm not interested in creating a consulting relationship that goes on forever. I'm interested in doing it well enough that you don't need me anymore.

I also sit at the table. Alongside the hands-on work, I am available for a small number of advisory roles, advisory-board seats and standing counsel to leaders, where the contribution isn't doing the work but helping someone see around the next bend before they commit. Same instinct as the rest: read the terrain, name what's hard to see from inside it, then step back.

I also speak, on leadership, change, and paying attention. A few talks and conversations are here.

Clients & Organizations

My career has run through a lot of different worlds: the outdoor economy and recreation, educational nonprofits, state government, wellness, boatbuilding, professional services, and documentary film. In each one, I wasn't consulting from the outside. I was part of the team, navigating real constraints and making decisions with incomplete information. What ties these worlds together is a commitment to the same things: capable people doing meaningful work, systems that free them rather than hold them back, and a belief that what they're building matters.

Outside the Office

I find peace and connection by journeying through the natural world: extended canoe trips on wild fresh waterways, long hiking trips through mountains and canyons, nights spent under the stars on coastal islands. I sailed across the Atlantic, along the Australian coastline, and through Southeast Asia as a teenager. I sea kayaked the full length of the Baja Peninsula with a friend in my twenties. I hiked, climbed, and backcountry skied in the Rockies in my thirties. Nowadays I explore the woods, trails, and waters of Maine and Australia, and travel to new places whenever I can.

Being in the natural world in this way is intricately linked to my professional work: it's another way to practice being in a place where the conditions are always changing, where you have to pay attention to what's in front of you and adjust, to manage risk at multiple levels, and where sustained effort matters just as much as a good plan. I learned to read my environment and trust the process way before I started using these skills in the workplace, and have found a background in working with people in challenging situations in the outdoors to be an excellent proving ground for managing the complex and unpredictable nature of organizational change.

The same purpose shows up in my volunteer life. I've mentored, advised, and served on the advisory boards of organizations that support youth in the outdoors, and supporting women in finding their footing and their people. Most recently this has been with the Sundog Outdoor Leadership Initiative, Olympia Snowe Women's Leadership Institute, Maine Women's Conference, and, earlier, the Maine Women's Fund. I have advised and served community organizations from recreation committees to gear-share co-ops, in both the US and Australia.

Credentials

A learner by temperament long before I had the degrees to show for it.

Gallup Certified CliftonStrengths Coach
ICF Level 2 Accredited Transformational Leadership Coaching Training
PROSCI Certified Change Practitioner
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Practitioner, Mindfulness & Health Institute
Master's in Project Management & Organizational Communication, Northeastern University
Master's in Organizational Leadership, University of Maine (2026)
Graduate Certificate in Marketing, Cornell University (2021)
Bachelor of Science, University of Western Australia

Memberships & Affiliations

Proud member of the Maine Association of Nonprofits

Over 25 years inside the work, not above it.

How I work

Outside the Office

Credentials

If something in this resonates, the next step is simple.