EXPERIENCE + QUALIFICATIONS
Trauma-informed experience for organizations where people and systems intersect
Chefalo Consulting provides trauma-informed training, speaking, guided learning, and implementation consulting for organizations across government, education, healthcare, behavioral health, courts and justice, public safety, child welfare, human services, and nonprofit sectors.
This page provides an overview for leaders, partners, event planners, procurement teams, and institutional buyers evaluating Chefalo Consulting’s experience, qualifications, delivery capabilities, and organizational fit.
CROSS-SECTOR
Experience across organizations that serve people
Work across public agencies, education, healthcare and behavioral health, courts and justice, human services, and nonprofit and community-serving organizations.
MULTIPLE FORMATS
Support designed for different settings and needs
Speaking, training, guided learning, facilitation, Train-the-Trainer, leadership debriefs, and implementation consulting delivered in person or virtually.
FOUNDER-LED
Direct involvement from strategy through delivery
Strategy, design, facilitation, and delivery are led by Shenandoah Chefalo, with collaborators brought in when the scope or specialized expertise calls for them.
EXPERIENCE AT A GLANCE
Experience grounded in
organizations that
serve people
Chefalo Consulting brings lived experience, professional expertise, and practical delivery across public service, education, healthcare, justice, child welfare, human services, and community-serving organizations.
The work includes speaking, training, facilitation, guided learning, leadership support, and organizational implementation.
SINCE 2009
Serving organizations and communities through speaking, training, consulting, and implementation support.
WOSB + EDWOSB
Federally certified Women-Owned Small Business and Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business.
500,000+
People reached through speaking, training, educational content, and related work.
100+
Organizations and communities served across people-serving systems.
EXPERIENCE ACROSS SYSTEMS
Cross-sector work
with a shared
human focus
Chefalo Consulting works across settings where leadership, culture, relationships, organizational pressure, and service responsibilities directly shape what staff and the people they serve experience.
The context changes from one system to another. The need to connect intention with everyday practice remains consistent.
GOVERNMENT +
PUBLIC AGENCIES
Experience in public-sector and tribal contexts involving leadership, workforce culture, communication, service responsibilities, and implementation across teams and departments.
EDUCATION
Work with schools, districts, educators, and education-related organizations seeking to strengthen leadership, staff wellbeing, workplace and school culture, relationships, and trauma-informed practice.
COURTS +
JUSTICE SYSTEMS
Work with courts, treatment courts, child-support agencies, public-safety partners, and related systems seeking more person-centered and trauma-informed approaches to leadership, practice, and service delivery.
HUMAN SERVICES
Experience with organizations supporting children, families, and communities while navigating complex needs, workforce demands, relationships, accountability, and implementation across programs.
NONPROFITS +
COMMUNITY-SERVING
ORGANIZATIONS
Work with mission-driven and community-serving organizations strengthening leadership, team culture, staff support, internal alignment, and the capacity to continue serving people over time.
HEALTHCARE +
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
Experience supporting healthcare and behavioral-health environments by connecting trauma-informed principles to leadership, workforce culture, team communication, relational practice, and organizational implementation.
Across these settings, the common thread is work that affects people’s safety, dignity, relationships, access, and experience of support.
SELECTED ORGANIZATIONAL WORK
Experience that reaches
beyond a single format
Engagements vary according to the organization, audience, current need, and level of support required. These examples reflect the types of work Chefalo Consulting has supported rather than fixed programs or packages.
LEADERSHIP + ORGANIZATIONAL ALIGNMENT
Helping leaders see and respond to what is shaping the organization
Work with leaders may focus on organizational stress, alignment, communication, recurring patterns, decision-making, accountability, staff experience, and the conditions affecting implementation.
Common forms: Leadership briefings, executive sessions, alignment conversations, coaching, and facilitated debriefs
FOUNDATIONAL LEARNING + PRACTICE
Building shared understanding and opportunities to practice
Learning experiences help leaders and teams develop shared language, examine how trauma and stress affect organizational life, and consider what ideas should change in everyday practice.
Common forms: Multi-day foundational training, virtual learning sequences, leadership learning, guided debriefs, facilitated practice, courses, and toolkits
TRAIN-THE-TRAINER + INTERNAL CAPACITY
Preparing people inside the organization to continue the work
Internal capacity work helps organizations prepare facilitators, clarify ownership, support consistent delivery, develop implementation teams, and create structures for reflection and continuation.
Common forms: Train-the-Trainer programs, facilitator preparation, coaching, team charters, curriculum guidance, and internal implementation support
IMPLEMENTATION + CULTURE SUPPORT
Connecting learning to patterns, structures, and everyday experience
Implementation work may examine recurring challenges, leadership alignment, staff participation, communication, organizational conditions, policies, routines, accountability, and the systems supporting continued change.
Common forms: Organizational assessment, implementation planning, staff engagement, policy and practice alignment, facilitated reflection, and continued consultation
SELECTED CLIENTS + ENGAGEMENTS
GOVERNMENT + PUBLIC AGENCIES
HEALTHCARE
COURTS + JUSTICE
Maryland Department of Housing
and Community Development
San Mateo Medical Center
Colorado Judicial Branch
EDUCATION
COMMUNITY COLLABORATIVE
CHILD WELFARE + FAMILY COURTS
Lamphere Public Schools
Best Start Antelope Valley
Judicial Council of California
Selected engagements have included multi-year healthcare implementation support, work with state agencies and judicial systems, trauma-informed learning connected to child-welfare proceedings, foundational training and continued implementation, leadership and workforce learning in education, community-based collaboration, and support for organizations serving children, families, and communities.
Specific engagement details, participant information, and organizational circumstances are kept confidential unless public identification has been approved.
QUALIFICATIONS + PROFESSIONAL FOUNDATIONS
Experience
informed by more
than one discipline
Shenandoah Chefalo is an author, speaker, trainer, and implementation consultant whose work combines lived experience, legal and systems knowledge, trauma-informed and human-centered practice, leadership development, and organizational implementation. Since 2009, her speaking, training, educational, and consulting work has reached more than 500,000 people across organizations and communities.
Each foundation contributes to an approach that is practical, relational, and grounded in the realities of organizational life.
01
Legal + Systems Perspective
A legal background and experience working within complex systems inform Shen’s understanding of policy, accountability, decision-making, and the distance that can develop between organizational intent and people’s everyday experience.
FOUNDATION:
Legal education, systems thinking, policy and organizational analysis
02
Trauma-Informed + Human-Centered Practice
Shen brings extensive study and applied experience in trauma-informed care, adverse childhood experiences, resilience, psychological safety, and human-centered organizational practice.
FOUNDATION:
Trauma-informed principles, neuroscience, resilience and relational practice
03
Leadership + Organizational Implementation
Her work extends beyond delivering information. It helps leaders examine how values become visible through workplace expectations, communication, relationships, policies, and daily decisions.
FOUNDATION:
Leadership development, culture change, implementation and facilitation
04
Lived Experience + Storytelling
As an author and someone with lived experience of foster care, homelessness, and systems involvement, Shen brings a perspective that connects institutional decisions with their human consequences.
FOUNDATION:
Lived expertise, authorship, public speaking and narrative change
Credentials matter. How knowledge is translated
into safer, more humane organizational practice matters too.
DELIVERY + PROCUREMENT READINESS
Structured to work within organizational realities
Every organization brings different people, priorities, timelines, and requirements. Chefalo Consulting works with clients to define a clear scope, choose an appropriate delivery format, and coordinate the practical details needed to move the engagement forward.
DELIVERY
Flexible formats
Engagements can be designed for in-person, virtual, or blended delivery, depending on the purpose of the work and the needs of the participants.
Speaking • Training • Guided learning • Consulting
SCOPE
Clear engagement structure
The scope can include a focused event, a facilitated learning series, or a longer implementation partnership with defined phases and responsibilities.
Single event • Cohort experience • Multi-phase support
COORDINATION
Designed for implementation
Planning considers the people involved, organizational context, internal capacity, communication needs, and what will help the work continue after a session ends.
Planning • Facilitation • Follow-through • Sustainability
FOR ORGANIZATIONAL BUYERS
Chefalo Consulting can coordinate with organizational leaders, procurement teams, event planners, and prime contractors to establish the appropriate scope, documentation, scheduling, and delivery requirements.
Specific administrative or contracting documentation can be provided as required during the engagement process.
START A CONVERSATION
Looking for an experienced partner
for the work ahead?
If your organization is exploring speaking, training, guided learning, or implementation support, we can begin with a conversation about your needs, context, and next steps.
Or explore a way to work together