Stefanie Adams

Stefanie Adams is a facilitator, keynote speaker, educator, former elected official, adjunct university instructor entrepreneur, wife, and mother; for those who know her best, she is “Cheerleader Stef”, which personifies her personality and leadership style.   She has over 20 years experience leading and training in corporate, non-profit, and government settings.  She earned an M.Ed. in Multicultural Education in 2008, and her professional affiliations include the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the Lower Cape Fear HR Association (LCFHRA), and she is a certified Forte Communication Coach.

In early 2020, Stefanie launched WNY People Development.  In her role as Chief Empowerment Officer, she provides leadership training, coaching, and keynote presentations to grow the next generation of leaders.  Her main areas of expertise are building high impact teams, first time/front line manager development, women in leadership, and engaging multigenerational workforces with a focus on millennial and Gen Z employees.  Her facilitation style is interactive, full of movement, laughter, learning, and occasionally includes pom poms.

Stefanie has worked as an organizational consultant for Johns Hopkins University School of Education (Baltimore, MD), partnering with educational systems across the Southeast to guide the implementation of whole school reform programming through coaching, training, and project management; she has served as Director of Customized Training for Cape Fear Community College (Wilmington, NC), assessing, identifying, and connecting appropriate training solutions to local corporations.  Most recently, she led the corporate training function for CastleBranch (Wilmington, NC), a software development company, assessing, designing, and facilitating company-wide training to support organizational culture and increased productivity.

Stefanie is highly involved in her southeastern North Carolina community.  She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern NC and is a member of the New Hanover County Parent Advisory Board; she previously served on the YMCA Youth Services Board, and the Communities in Schools of Cape Fear Board.  She was nominated as a YWCA Woman of Achievement in 2022 for her service as School Board Chair during the Covid pandemic. 

In her personal life, Stefanie’s days are fueled by coffee, chocolate, yoga, new challenges, and building relationships; her passions are developing others, serving the community, the beach, Philly sports, travel, managing the chaos that comes with life, and kitchen dancing.  She is proud mom to an awesome middle school son, Brayden, and wife to a supportive and extremely patient husband, Scott.