Staci Taustine

Staci Taustine

Senior Consultant

Staci Taustine is a passionate facilitator, thought partner, and coach with more than 14  years of experience training educators, policymakers, and organizational leaders across the public and private sectors. Staci brings a people-first approach leveraging leadership development tools, dialogue, and little experiments to help teams work more productively, collaboratively, and sustainably across lines of difference.

Before joining CI Staci helped the New York City Department of Education scale inter-generational strategies for inclusive decision-making, advanced collaborative cultures in the industrial space,  and scaled best practices as a Leadership Solutions Facilitator with the Center for Creative Leadership.

Staci is committed to amplifying spaces where the stakeholders impacted most are at the table any time decisions are being made.

Staci Taustine in the Spotlight

First Generation College Student

For as long as she can remember, attending college was very important to Staci Taustine.

“I remember since I was five years old  getting to college was the biggest deal to me,” she said.

Originally from Northern New Jersey, Staci would be the first in her family to attend college. Even though she knew she wanted to study journalism, she had to get creative when it came time to decide where she wanted to spend her undergraduate years.

“I knew nothing about it, so I Googled ‘good journalism school’,” she said.

Staci landed at the University of Wisconsin and double majored in Journalism/Mass Communication and Gender & Women’s Studies. While on campus, Staci started cultivating her love for leadership development by working  with the campus Student Leadership Program. As an officer, Staci designed meetings for up to 150 students monthly. It was during this experience that she rediscovered how she wanted to spend her career.

“I fell in love with planning, hosting, and facilitating workshops,” Staci said. “I used to say I found my love for this for work playing with my Beanie Babies then I validated it in college,” she said. “I realized that facilitating meetings in all their forms is how I wanted to live my life.”

Passion for Equitable Leadership Development

Staci continued her path in education with her first job outside her university community with Teach for America.

“I hadn’t expected to become a classroom teacher, but I’ve always been passionate about educational equity, and what it means to make sure folks have access to an excellent education,” she said.

She eventually decided she wanted to work with organizations that make an impact, and not just for the wealthiest people.

“Leadership development shouldn’t be something reserved  for the wealthy  everyone should have the  opportunity to reflect on what makes them happy,” Staci said. “It should be in classrooms and public institutions so it’s available to people and they can evolve into who they want to be.”

Career Journey Leads to CI International

Staci’s career continued in positions where she led leadership development. She started working with intergenerational teams and assisting administrators and youth to co-create policies together where youth and adults can see each other as reciprocal mentors.

Her extensive experience caught the eye of CI International, and from her first interaction, Staci said the relationship has been a perfect fit.

“It was a great matchup of what I cared about and the passion I wanted to bring to light and an organization that was already out here doing that work,” she said. “They took an approach that was people first and really truly committed to doing work that has that wider impact.”

Staci joined CI as a consultant working with cohorts that included people from organizations like the National Institutes of Health and Forest Service where they explore assessments and classic modules in leadership development.

“I get to be the person in the room who’s supporting them on their journey. As the partner from CI, I usher them through that process,” she said.

Driven by Inclusion

In her personal life, Staci said she faces the difficult challenge of living with chronic illness. But rather than allow it to limit her professional growth, Staci chooses to let it motivate her.

“It’s the most core thing to who I am when it comes to waking up to live everyday,” she said. “I love when we can look hard moments in the face and decide who we want to be.”

Staci said working with CI provides her with the perfect opportunity to do just that.

“What drives me is inclusion and opportunity to create spaces where people are welcome to become the best versions of themselves, no matter what,” she said. “Joining CI for me is about working somewhere that makes you feel safe to be your whole self and embraces all that you bring in a holistic way so that’s part of your impact.”