Our Team

the Kagan team The success of our company is a direct reflection of the collective efforts of our team.

For each engagement, we carefully select the team members whose experience and areas of expertise are best suited to the needs of the client.

We believe in modeling what we advocate. Each member of our team is personally responsible for adhering to the highest professional standards and quality of performance. We take enormous pride in our work and in the quality of how we deliver our services to you.

Leslie Kagan, Principal

Leslie is a creative strategist and facilitator with an acute sensitivity to the emotional undercurrents that influence organizational behavior. Under Leslie's leadership, Kagan Associates has helped clients successfully break through strategic and visionary challenges with complex planning, organizational, and interpersonal dimensions. Her strengths lie in her ability to deal with difficult or highly sensitive issues, including situations of emotionally charged conflict, in a constructive and compassionate manner.

Leslie has encouraged many organizations to achieve new levels of performance by supporting the unique talents and energies of their people in achieving organizational goals. She skillfully integrates the "softer" and "harder" sides of business into seamless solutions that fit organically with the many facets of organizational life. Whether working in the private or public sector, she is universally praised for her caring heart, intuitive insights, and commitment to success that she brings to her clients. In recognition of these talents, she was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2001 by New England Women In Real Estate.

Leslie maintains a healthy perspective in her organizational consulting practice through her involvement with horses and the HorseSense program and her interfaith chaplaincy. She has completed two units of Clinical Pastoral Education at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, trained as a pediatric hospice volunteer with HealthCare Dimensions Hospice, an affiliate of Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and participated in Caring Canines, a program to take registered therapy dogs to visit nursing homes, hospitals, schools and assisted living facilities with their handlers as a community service. She is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Chaplaincy Institute for the Arts and Interfaith Ministries in Berkeley, California.

Leslie is certified in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®), the Kolbe Pure Instinct System®, the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ESCI), and the Life Styles InventoryTM (LSI). She holds a B.A. from Simmons College, an M.Ed. from Boston University, and an M.B.A. from Northeastern University, graduating first in her class.

Karen Nell Smith, Senior Consultant

Karen Nell Smith (Walking in the Way and the Brookfield Institute) is a highly skilled facilitator who specializes in facilitating groups through situations of conflict. Karen Nell brings to Kagan Associates clients a realistic, positive approach to consulting. Her strengths lie in working with groups to identify issues quickly, establish healthy dialogue, gain consensus, set goals, and develop strategies that move the group to action with a new understanding of organizational leadership, communication, and collaboration. A management consultant since 1981, Karen Nell has focused her corporate work on professional service organizations, particularly in law, real estate, and finance.

In 2001, Karen Nell co-created "Walking in the Way," a program of conflict transformation and peace-building for congregations and other communities of faith throughout New England. Karen Nell received her undergraduate degree from Mary Washington College, and holds a Master of Divinity from Andover Newton Theological School. She is currently pursuing her doctorate with an emphasis on conflict transformation and interfaith dialogue at Hartford Seminary, where she is also a member of the Building Abrahamic Partnerships facilitation team. She is a founding member of the Brookfield Institute, a non-profit organization committed to research and education in peace-building and healing of the person, community and earth.

Michelle Alekson

Michelle Alekson is the newest member of Kagan Associates. She joins our team with close to 20 years of experience in business management and operations. Her ability to maintain numerous agendas and prioritize effectively, coupled with her strong organizational skills, make her the ideal point person for client programming and support at Kagan Associates. Most recently, Michelle ran her own office management and bookkeeping business for “creative” clients, including photographers, artists and web designers. She discovered the need for these services while working for a full service production company/commercial photography studio in Boston. As a producer, Michelle was solely responsible for production coordination and supervision of all photography shoots, which included managing budgets, vendors and timetables in a deadline-driven environment. In 2001, Michelle worked together with the US Olympic Committee, co-producing promotional photography for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Michelle also has a passion for event planning and has participated in coordinating several fundraising events. Her strong organizational skills, meticulous attention to detail and proven ability to multitask have been contributing factors to the huge success and recognition these events have achieved. Some of her favorite events involved working with and for the benefit of animals, including serving as “canine” fashion show coordinator for Angell-Memorial’s Hall of Fame Fundraiser Dinner in 2005 and 2006, producing a fashion show for Fidelity Investment’s Jumper Classic in 2006, and helping to organize the first ever and enormously successful Moonlight Ball, sponsored by the Animal Rescue League of Boston in October 2007.

Michelle is a graduate of Northeastern University and has a BS in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing and Advertising. She currently lives on Cape Ann and loves it. She enjoys running and spending time with her husband, 1-year-old son, and lovable black lab.

Patricia Brady, Senior Consultant

Patricia Brady is a dynamic, down-to-earth professional with the demeanor, experience, and knowledge to help individuals and organizations advance their business and professional goals in concrete and practical ways.

The wisdom and skill Patricia brings to her work with clients were developed during a career spanning twenty years in leadership roles, both in higher education administration and in government. A recipient of a prestigious “Infinite Mile” award at MIT, she was recognized for problem-solving and leadership in her role as Senior Project Director for the Executive Vice President, a position from which she retired in 2006. Her many accomplishments at MIT include directing a multi-year project that resulted in the successful implementation of competency-based human resources practices for administrative and support staff, and conceptualizing and directing a multi-party review of MIT’s central information systems departments that led to more strategic planning and improved client services. Straightforward, empathetic, and sincere, Patricia is committed to helping her clients develop better-functioning organizations, enabled by strong leadership and competent staff.

Patricia holds a Bachelor of Science in Management and Finance, summa cum laude, from the University of Massachusetts and a Master of Science degree from MIT. She has professional certification to design competency models for specific and generic roles, to conduct behavioral-event interviews, and to administer the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory (ECI) for leadership development. Patricia serves on the Board of Directors of a community bank and teaches in her parish’s religious education program. For fun, she paddles a canoe, whacks a golf ball, and turns cartwheels occasionally (but not all at the same time).

Susan Beckman, Senior Consultant

Susan Beckmann brings to Kagan Associates more than 25 years of experience in business management, having held senior executive positions with such prestigious organizations as MCI Telecommunications, Broadwing Communications, The Forum Corporation, and One Communications.

An accomplished strategist and team-oriented leader, Susan knows first-hand what it takes to develop and promote a brand, build customer and employee loyalty, and grow profitably. During her 16 years at MCI, she played a key role in the company’s New England operations as it grew from a start-up to a $20 billion company. As Director of Business Sales and Service in Boston, she was responsible for $150 million in revenues and led a 125-person sales, service, marketing, and technical support organization that managed MCI’s business and strategic accounts in Boston. Later in her career, during her tenure as Vice President of Sales Operations at One Communications, the largest privately-held competitive local exchange carrier in the U.S., she led the sales integration team, supporting interdepartmental processes and procedures as the company grew from $170M to $825M through mergers and acquisitions.

Susan’s experience also includes strategic planning, executive coaching, and implementing comprehensive change management initiatives. She played an integral role in MCI’s field automation and workplace alternatives strategy, which incorporated the latest technology and advanced design to support a mobile workforce in a virtual workplace, and linked the people, process and customers to the business.

Susan has served as Chair of the Manchester Essex Regional School Committee since 2003. She has her Masters Degree in Education and is a graduate of Colby Sawyer College and The University of New Hampshire.

Nikki L. Kagan, Senior Consultant

Nikki Kagan (HorseSense-Israel) is an interpersonal relations and communications specialist, as well as an organizational development facilitator. She travels worldwide facilitating retreats and conducting executive coaching and training programs on leadership, employee motivation and development, communications, and presentation skills. Nikki’s broad background includes strategic planning, facilitation and group process.

Nikki's unique talents lie in her proven ability to help groups and individuals achieve results by combining various approaches customized for each client. Balancing theory and practice, her refreshingly creative 'no-gimmicks' approach enables her to capture her audience’s attention, while facilitating their learning process in a relaxed environment. She appeals to her audience’s sense of trust and respect with her strong, yet gentle style.

In addition to her original methods and keen ability to synthesize information quickly, Nikki has the ability to promptly and accurately determine a group's unique needs and expectations, and design the appropriate program. She is a certified focus group moderator, facilitator and creative planner, with certifications from the Burke Research Institute, the McNellis Group, and "The Great Facilitation Training Program.” She also is certified in the M.B.T.I. (Myers Briggs Typology Indicator). In addition, Nikki is a certified trainer in the field of EAPD (Equine Assisted Professional Development) having trained with “HorseDream International” in Vienna, Austria, and “Adventures in Awareness (AIA), USA. EAPD is an increasingly popular and effective methodology for enhancing managerial, leadership and team skills through groundwork, play, and arena exercises with horses.

Prior to founding Kagan Marketing & Research in 1995, Nikki was Marketing Manager for one of America's largest footwear manufacturers, responsible for promotional planning, design, and implementation. She also co-founded Atlantic Designs, a kitchen and bath design center in Maine, developing and implementing the business and marketing plans for this successful venture before selling her interest to her partner. Nikki holds a B.A. and M.B.A. from the University of Maine's College of Business, where she graduated first in her class.

Robert Coulam, Research Specialist

Robert (Bob) Coulam (Simmons College) is an expert in research methods and analysis. He acts as a resource to Kagan Associates on certain client engagements that require more specialized techniques to reach confident results, e.g., special survey instruments or sampling techniques. With more than 30 years as a researcher and policy analyst, Bob brings extensive experience in working with clients to design methods to collect and analyze data. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and has a Ph.D. from the Kennedy School of Government.

Dudley and Gabrielle

Dudley and Gabby are registered therapy dogs who assure the "lighter side" of Kagan Associates, affording consultants and clients alike comic relief and stress reduction as needed. They are also former acclaimed members of the Children's Hospital Dog Show cast and served as regular visiting "canine therapists" at local nursing homes and transitional homes for children.