Candace has over twenty-five years of experience coaching leaders and facilitating workshops that develop people while providing practical solutions to organizational issues. A skilled practitioner and coach in the areas of leadership and team development, Candace is known as a highly collaborative leader and consensus builder.

Most recently serving as Vice President for Human Resources for Rhode Island School of Design, she was responsible for the strategic transformation of the Human Resources function at RISD. This included aligning policies, work processes and practices to support the culture, mission, and employees of the institution. In 2016, committed to supporting communities to create and sustain respectful and inclusive environments, she partnered with Adam Mastoon and Rene Payne to launch an award-winning book RISDiversity: Community Narratives: A collaboration with members of the RISD community.

Candace began her career as an Equity Stage Manager in New York City before receiving her MA in Organizational Communication from Emerson College. Candace has served as Associate Director of Human Resources at Smith College and as Vice President of Organizational Development for Merrill Lynch. While at Merrill Lynch, Candace partnered with senior leaders to transform the organization’s culture to an inclusive, highly participative continuous learning organization. She also designed and conducted leadership programs and teambuilding interventions that led to improved teams and working relationships.

 With Baer & Associates, Candace strives to support her clients in reaching their full potential through exploration, open dialogue, and a celebration of each person’s unique gifts. Her clients include higher education, arts organizations, healthcare, and industry. She is a certified coach through the ICF (International Coach Federation) and is also certified in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Everything DiSC. Candace is a frequent speaker at numerous regional and national conferences in organizational effectiveness, leadership and equity and inclusion and has served on the regional and national boards of the College and University Professional Association (CUPA-HR).