About Me

Leadership Coach & Consultant

Monisha Kapila is a seasoned executive coach and leadership consultant with 20 years of experience supporting nonprofit and philanthropic leaders and organizations. Rooted in the principle of "leadership by purpose," she believes change happens when individuals and organizations are deeply aligned around a shared vision and have a clear, strategic pathway to achieve it.

Background & Experience

Monisha founded ProInspire where she served as CEO and co-CEO for 15 years. Under her leadership, ProInspire grew from working with just 5 organizations in 2009 to reaching more than 8,000 leaders and 500 social impact organizations by 2023. She designed and facilitated more than 100 leadership trainings and retreats, reaching thousands of participants across foundations, nonprofits, government agencies, and corporations.

She created programs to expand talent pipelines, grow leaders, and support organizations to advance racial equity. Monisha helped launch multiple field-wide initiatives, including Equity in the Center and the Impact Fellowships Summit. Before ProInspire, Monisha spent a decade working across for-profit and nonprofit organizations, including Andersen, CARE, Accion, and Capital One.

Coaching & Consulting Approach

As a consultant and advisor, Monisha supports CEOs, Boards, and Executive Teams to develop clear strategies and strong cultures aligned to their mission and values. Her coaching practice enables leaders to bring their full selves and leverage their strengths to navigate complex challenges and opportunities. Monisha's approach blends strategic insight with a human-centered approach, shaped by her unique experiences as a first-generation immigrant, working mother, and nonprofit founder and CEO.

Areas of Work

  • Executive Coaching - Helping C-suite leaders as they tackle complex challenges and transitions

  • Strategic Advisory - Supporting organizations through transitions, including program development, strategic pivots, restructuring, mergers, and leadership succession

  • Board Development - Strengthening governance and strategic alignment

  • Team Facilitation - Creating spaces for boards, leadership teams and staff to build trust, align around shared purpose, and navigate change

  • Workshop Facilitation - Facilitating workshops that are intentionally designed, engaging, and support transformational growth

Expertise

  • Strategic planning and organizational development

  • Program design, launching, and scaling initiatives

  • Organizational culture and change management

  • Racial equity strategy and inclusive leadership practices

  • Executive leadership transitions (including founder transitions, succession planning)

  • Nonprofit restructuring (mergers, spinoffs, and sunsets)

  • Emotional intelligence and social awareness development

  • Leadership in times of complexity and ambiguity

Education & Certifications

Monisha earned her BBA from the University of Michigan and MBA from Harvard Business School, where she received the Dean's Award. Monisha received a Certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University in 2010 and the Associate Certified Coach (ACC) designation from the International Coaching Federation in 2012.

Her holistic coaching approach integrates tools from multiple disciplines, including:

  • Annie E. Casey Foundation's Results Count®

  • Leadership Circle Profile™ (certification completed in 2022)

  • Positive Intelligence (completed in 2024)

  • Strozzi Institute's Embodied Transformation program (completed in 2023)

  • ProInspire Self to Systems Leadership Model (co-developed in 2021)

  • Dare to Lead™ program (completed in 2020)

  • Interaction Institute Facilitative Leadership™ for Social Change (completed in 2019)

  • Crossroads Anti-Racism Training (completed in 2017)

  • Emotional Quotient Inventory EQ-i 2.0® (certification completed in 2015)

  • Certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University (completed in 2010)

Thought Leadership

Monisha serves as Adjunct Faculty for the Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate Program at Georgetown's Center for Public & Nonprofit Leadership. She teaches classes to nonprofit leaders about talent management and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Monisha is a public speaker and has done keynote speeches and panels for conferences including Community Action Network, Council on Foundations, Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, Independent Sector, and Young Nonprofit Professionals Network.

Monisha has written extensively in publications such as Stanford Social Innovation Review, Chronicle of Philanthropy, and the Huffington Post. Her contributions to the field have been recognized through numerous accolades including:

  • Chronicle of Philanthropy's 40 Under 40

  • Harvard Business School Leadership Fellow

  • American Express NGen Fellow

  • National Urban Fellows America's Leaders of Change

She has served on multiple nonprofit boards and is currently Vice Chair of the Board at the National Human Services Assembly.

Personal Life

Outside of work, Monisha enjoys spending time with her husband, two children and Havanese dog in Northern Virginia. You can usually find her driving the kids to their activities, taking videos of her dog (to someday become a dog influencer), and hiking around with a rucksack.