ACC Executive Coach | Professor Emerita | Author | Women’s Leadership Advocate

Lori Feldman, Ph.D., ACC is an executive coach, former academic leader, and advocate for women’s advancement who brings more than three decades of real-world leadership experience to every coaching engagement. As the founder of Papillon Leadership Coaching, she partners with high-achieving professionals—particularly women approaching senior-level roles—who are ready to step into their next chapter with greater confidence, clarity, and authenticity. The butterfly in her brand captures her philosophy: transformation is not about becoming someone new, but about becoming more fully yourself.

Her commitment to amplifying women’s leadership has a long track record behind it. She co-founded Breaking the Glass Ceiling, a leadership initiative later featured on PBS that spotlighted more than 65 trailblazing women in business, healthcare, law, politics, and education—reaching more than 3.5 million households and sparking national conversations about gender, leadership, and resilience. Today, she continues this mission through coaching, speaking, and writing, helping women embrace visibility, communicate with conviction, and own their value with confidence.

Coaching Philosophy and Approach

At the heart of Lori’s work is the belief that leadership is not defined by authority, but by influence, collaboration, and the ability to help others rise. Her coaching style is grounded in candor, compassion, and strategy. Clients describe her as a trusted thought partner with a rare ability to balance direct insight with empathy—someone who holds up the mirror in ways that help leaders recognize their own brilliance and untapped capacity, often before they see it themselves.

She creates space to explore not only the strategic dimensions of leadership, but the deeply personal ones: the doubts, competing demands, and fears of visibility that quietly hold leaders back. Her goal is not quick fixes but sustainable growth—helping clients align who they are with how they lead, so they can level up without losing themselves in the process.

Coaching Practice and Methods

Drawing from evidence-based practice and decades of real-world leadership experience, Lori integrates Hogan assessments, psychological safety frameworks, and personal branding methodologies to help clients understand their strengths, blind spots, and spheres of influence. By blending structured strategy with reflective dialogue, she guides clients from insight to action—building the confidence to claim their leadership voice and the clarity to use it effectively.

Beyond her individual practice, Lori serves as a Leadership Coach and Talent Management Executive with Executive Core, a global consultancy supporting Fortune 500 corporations, universities, nonprofits, and government agencies. In 2025, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the ICF Chicago Chapter, where she contributes to advancing the coaching profession and supporting the local coaching community.

Leadership and Academic Background

Lori’s credibility as a coach is grounded in what she has actually done. For more than three decades she served at Purdue University, building a distinguished career as a professor of marketing and rising through roles as department head, associate dean, and vice provost. She oversaw multi-million-dollar budgets, built high-performing teams, and led institutional transformations amid the kind of complexity that reshapes organizations.

Among her most significant contributions was the launch of the Purdue Executive MBA Program, quickly recognized by Fortune magazine as a “best value” program. She also founded the Center for Faculty Excellence, a professional development hub that created durable systems of support for hundreds of faculty across disciplines. And long before remote education became commonplace, she was championing online learning—guiding colleagues through the cultural and pedagogical shifts it required.

She measures her academic legacy not in programs, but in people. Decades after graduation, former students still reach out to share how lessons from her classroom—about marketing, yes, but also about life—continue to shape their careers and leadership. These lasting relationships reflect the same through-line that now defines her coaching: leadership at its best creates impact that endures.

Recognition and Scholarship

Lori’s career has been marked by sustained scholarly contribution and professional recognition. She has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and conference presentations, several recognized for excellence. She has been honored in Who’s Who of American Women and Who’s Who of Top Educators, named Advisor of the Year for the Women in Business student organization, inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma National Business Honor Society, and recognized as an Albert Haring Symposium Fellow.

She holds a Ph.D. and MBA in Marketing from the University of Michigan, a BA in Political Science from the University of Michigan, and advanced certifications in leadership coaching, Hogan assessments, and psychological safety. She retired from Purdue as Professor Emerita of Marketing.

Beyond the Work

While Lori’s professional life is defined by serious commitments—coaching leaders through pivotal transitions, advancing women’s leadership, contributing to the growth of the coaching profession—she is equally intentional about how she lives outside of work. She recently traded suburban life for a high-rise apartment, where her 32nd-floor balcony offers sweeping views of the Chicago skyline and a front-row seat to the city’s annual Air and Water Show. She has cultivated a passion for sourdough baking and hasn’t purchased a loaf of bread in years. She shares her home with her two cats, Louie and Cece, and delights in her role as a grandmother, seeing the world anew through her granddaughter’s eyes.