Who We Are

ICW Consulting Group is an affiliation of experts and thought leaders in the field of organization development, leadership, team development, and strategic processes. Members of our team are actively engaged in providing professional development in the aforementioned fields through teaching and involvement in professional associations like the Lewin Center, the CMM Institute, NTL, and the Wharton School. As a team, we have similar values and viewpoints regarding how we work with clients, and have complementary strengths.

Founded in 1998 by Ilene Wasserman, ICW serves our clients by bringing together the best resources for their particular needs. ICW is a collaboration between Founder and President, Ilene Wasserman; Principal, Jeff Branch; a number of Strategic Partners, each of whom have their own consulting practices; and Associates, who work both independently and collaboratively on ICW’s behalf.

When you engage with us on a project, we bring together the right team based on your unique needs and goals. Learn more about each of our partners below.

Ilene Wasserman | MSW, PhD | Founder & President

Ilene Wasserman has over 30 years of experience in organizational consulting, leadership development, and executive coaching. She helps private- and public-sector organizations achieve their goals through building and strengthening diverse leadership teams, collaborative relationships, and effective communication strategies.

Throughout her career, Ilene has worked on the cutting edge of research and practice in strength-based methodologies, capacity building, and relational leadership. Her action learning approach integrates learning and development with her clients’ everyday work and builds internal capacity at each step of the process. She is deeply committed to providing the foundation and motivation for senior leaders, teams, and staff to sustain their learnings long after the consulting relationship has ended, and her approach centers intercultural diversity, equity, and inclusion as integral to every aspect of leadership and team development.

Jeffrey Branch | EdD | Principal

Jeff Branch has over 30 years of experience advising corporations and nonprofits on strategic business issues. He specializes in organization development and effectiveness, executive coaching, and adult education, utilizing inquiry, dialogue, and systems thinking to help organizations achieve and sustain high performance.

His leadership experience includes serving as a Senior Leader for Organization Development and Competency Systems with a community-based healthcare system. In this role, he designed and facilitated an action learning curriculum engaging the clinical and non-clinical leadership groups within the system and developed, implemented, and integrated Diversity and Inclusion learning modules for all levels of leadership and clinical and non-clinical professionals. These strategic initiatives assessed and aligned the behavioral and engagement practices of the institution with its mission as it experienced a rapid change in patient and professional staff demographics.

Elisa Carletti | MOP | Associate

Elisa Carletti is an organizational psychologist with consulting and training experience in Italy and the US. She is passionate about DEI, group dynamics, and empowering leadership. She holds a Master’s in Organizational Psychology from Università Cattolica di Milano and a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Università di Bologna. Elisa’s strength is project management and holding the complexities of large-scale networking projects that bring together thought leaders in the field of Organizational Development. She also serves as a Teaching Assistant at Teachers College, Columbia University, in the Department of Organization and Leadership. the Lower Merion Human Relations Commission and the Support Center for Child Advocates.

Bernardo Feldman | PhD | Strategic Partner

Bernardo Feldman is a professor, Board Certified Coach, and principal of Ferdman Consulting, with a passion for supporting diversity and inclusion, organization development, cross-cultural management/ leadership, and Latinos/as in the workplace. He works with individuals, groups, and organizations to focus on assessment, coaching, dialogue, facilitation, and learning in the context of diversity.

Bernardo is published extensively and regularly offers presentations and workshops for a wide range of audiences. Drawing from his decades of work and his extensive international experience, Bernardo combines theory, research, and practice to collaborate with clients on improving performance, honing leadership skills, and enhancing inclusion initiatives.

Dawn Holden Woods | CPA | Strategic Partner

Dawn Holden Woods co-creates effective operational and leadership development programs and serves as a trusted advisor for private foundations, social impact organizations, and governmental agencies. With over 20 years of experience, Dawn offers a unique blend of business practicality and a “people first” approach as she provides organizations with concrete technical assistance, including executive coaching, strategic planning, board development, establishing strategies to comply with contract regulatory requirements, systematizing accounting, and fundraising best practices.

Previously, Dawn served as the Chief Executive Officer of Turning Points for Children and Chief Social Services Officer of Public Health Management Corporation, where she managed a $100M portfolio and a team of 1,000 employees.

Danielle Horn | MSODL | Strategic Partner

Kathy Kram | PhD | Strategic Partner

Kathy Kram Kathy is a thought leader in the areas of mentoring and developing relationships. Her areas of focus are adult development, relational learning, mentoring and developmental networks, gender and leadership development, and change processes in individuals, groups, and organizations of various sectors.

Kathy is the R.C. Shipley Professor in Management Emerita at Boston University and received her bachelor’s from MIT, her Master’s in Management from MIT Sloan School of Management, and her Master’s and PhD in Organizational Psychology at Yale University.

Marlene Ogawa | Strategic Partner

Marlene Ogawa is based in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she works with cross- and multi-sectoral leaders on the Bridging Leadership project, building collaborative and purpose-driven servant leadership principles. Her work centers on relational leadership and social connectedness, emphasizing personal change, common purpose, and collaborative action. Marlene partners with clients to design and facilitate processes around compassionate leadership and foster effective intercultural diversity, equity, and inclusion (ICDEI) environments. She designs strategic development processes, leads courses, and consults on and facilitates various ICDEI and organizational development initiatives around themes like race, gender, and social transformation. Marlene’s approach encourages impactful dialogue spaces and focuses on building the capacity of leaders to hold space, lead teams, and model the institution’s vision. She is the author of several publications, including the book, Thriving Women, Thriving World: An Invitation to Dialogue, Healing and Inspired Actions.

Jose Vicuna-Castillo | MA, MBA | Strategic Partner

Jose Vicuna-Castillo serves as an advisor to senior executives and leadership teams, focusing on enhancing team/organizational effectiveness and overall performance. He has also worked as an executive in the global energy sector specializing in people, culture, and transformation. His expertise is designing, orchestrating, and implementing complex global change and transformation programs and strategies for multi-billion-dollar business segments. Using a collaborative approach, Jose actively embeds himself in senior leadership teams, focusing on their dynamics and work culture to co-create successful strategic change plans for the team and organization. Jose actively contributes to academia, supporting master’s and PhD programs at Teachers College.

Mercedes Martin | MCEC | Strategic Partner

Mercedes, a Strategic Partner of ICW Consulting is a Cuban born Afro-Latina, former US Air Force Officer and Corporate Executive with over two decades of experience in Change Management Consulting, Executive Coaching, Global Diversity and Leadership Development. Mercedes brings a radically different approach to her work, shedding new light on the topics of global team development and rewiring leadership for diversity, equity and sustainability. She navigates uncharted waters and shares bold actions.

Through her unique use of storytelling, metaphors and archetypes, she weaves the political, social, and economic impact of these topics, establishing a cultural context for organizations and leaders.