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The Stoked.live team

Dr. Jacob Engelskirger:

 Executive Coach and Behavioral Wellness Specialist

drjacob@stoked.live

Dr. Ian Kristic:

Lead Executive Coach

drian@stoked.live

 

Dr. Jean Talleyrand, MD:

 Career, Executive Coach & Consultant

drt@stoked.live

Maya Joshua:

Career Coach

maya@stoked.live

 

Darya

Brian

Kelly Whittlesey:

Occupational and Ergonomics and Injury Prevention Specialist

kelly@stoked.live

Luke Shine:

 Programmatic Intern

luke@stoked.live

 

Darya Stepanova:

 Digital Marketing Intern

darya@stoked.live

 

Brian Varkevisser:

 Director of Operations, Career Coach

brian@stoked.live

Unlock your team’s full potential and innovate with confidence. Our tailored, evidence-based coaching drives results so you can scale, grow, and lead.

Jacob Engelskirger, PsyD

Principal Executive Coach & Consultant

Dr. Jacob Engelskirger is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist based in Alameda, California, with over 13 years of experience in the behavioral science field. He strives to collaborate with clients to improve their professional and occupational functioning by broadening their thinking, feeling, and perspective on the world, identifying and changing problematic behavioral and relational patterns, and increase self-awareness and understanding through an approach that embodies empathy, curiosity, and challenge.

Dr. Jacob is the founding psychologist of an onsite corporate wellness clinic at a Fortune 500 company, where he established a behavioral wellness program for corporate employees.

He has concurrently provided psychotherapy, executive and professional coaching, and consulting services to high-functioning professionals in disciplines including technology, medicine, law, and the pharmaceutical industry through his private practice for over 3 years and has taught, trained, and supervised doctoral-level psychology graduate students in varied settings. He was selected to Co-Chair the Society of Consulting Psychology’s (Division 13 of the American Psychological Association) annual conference in 2024 and 2025.

Dr. Jacob strives to live an authentic life which is consistent with his humanistic professional values. And, frankly, getting stoked is his biggest motivational driver. In his free time, Dr. Jacob is recharged and invigorated by being in community, reading exhaustively on topics ranging from mid-century architecture, to general aviation, to art and design, traveling with his young son, wife, and loyal rescue dog Ryder, rock climbing, surfing, riding mountain bikes on pump tracks and dirt jumps, and doing saunas and cold plunges.

Learn more about Dr. Jacob by visiting his LinkedIn profile here:

 

Kelly Whittlesey, OT

Workplace Wellness Consultant, Ergonomic Specialist 

Kelly is an Ergonomic Specialist and Occupational Therapist who has been working in the field of workplace health and safety for over 7 years. Kelly was the founding ergonomist of an onsite corporate healthcare clinic at a Fortune 500 company, where she developed and grew the occupational ergonomic services program. Kelly provides ergonomic services both in person as well as virtually that are designed to identify and eliminate work-related injuries and increase employee comfort and productivity. Kelly draws extensively from her background in occupational therapy to bring the lens of body mechanics, activity analysis, and human behavior to every ergonomic challenge. Using behavioral techniques, evidence-based education, and supportive equipment recommendations, Kelly is able to create a more functional work space that eliminates discomfort at its root and promotes a healthier work style.

Learn more about Kelly by visiting her LinkedIn profile here:

 

Ian Kristic, PhD

Executive Coach

Dr. Ian Kristic has 25 years of experience as a senior leader designing and delivering executive and leadership development programs, executive coaching, high-potential assessment and development, succession planning and conducting leading-edge human capital management research. His subject-matter expertise includes leadership and management, coaching, succession planning, talent development, personality assessment, organizational assessment, and interpersonal and communication skill development.

Taking a human-centered approach to developing leaders through customized individual coaching and structured training programs, Dr. Kristic incorporates deep knowledge and experience in the behavioral sciences combining psychological practice with management consulting expertise honed while working in some of the world’s leading consulting firms.

With the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Dr. Kristic oversaw Executive and Leadership Development and was involved in the other following areas: organizational culture diagnosis and transformation, succession planning, performance management, and organization development advisory services.

Prior to joining NREL, Ian led the Psychometric Assessment and Consulting Services business at The Myers-Briggs Company which delivered hundreds of personality assessment programs, team and leadership development programs, and executive coaching to many of the Fortune 500 companies in the western U.S. region. He has held executive-level positions in consultancies such as Interaction Associates, PA Consulting Group, The Forum Corporation (now Korn Ferry), Linkage Inc, and Executive Development Associates, where he designed and facilitated innovative leadership development experiences and talent management solutions for organizations and companies such as Microsoft, UBS, Amazon, Exelon, Gilead Sciences, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, the United Nations, McDonald’s, Hewlett Packard, Macy’s, Colgate-Palmolive, Devon Energy, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Campbell Soup, and the American Red Cross.

At Devon Energy, a Fortune 500 independent oil and gas producer, Ian served as senior performance development advisor, managing the company’s leadership assessment and development system for leaders at the executive, manager, and supervisor levels. He also served as a senior organization development consultant at H&R Block’s non-prime mortgage banking subsidiary Option One Mortgage and headed up the Organization Development and Training function at LG Information and Communications.

Based in Colorado, Dr. Kristic is living the dream – skiing, mountaineering, hiking, and camping among the many 14ers. When not in the Colorado mountains, he and his wife are globetrotting trekking the Alps or Andes mountains.

Ian earned a PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Alliant International University, a Master of Arts degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from the University of Tulsa, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Baylor University. 

Learn more about Ian by visiting his LinkedIn profile here:

Dr. Jean Talleyrand, MD

Career, Executive Coach & Consultant

Dr. Jean Talleyrand has been a practicing physician for over 25 years.  He specializes in family and community oriented medicine incorporating traditional and alternative approaches to individual and group health and wellness.  Personal goals can be in conflict with health and wellness. As an executive coach, Dr. Talleyrand explores choices and relationships in guiding clients from conflict to alignment.
 
Dr. Talleyrand‘s approach stems from the science of social interactions and a love of community.  His experience is built on generations of physicians and pharmacists.  He studied biology at Brown University and completed a medical doctorate at Boston University School of Medicine.  His specialty training was completed at the University of California, San Francisco at the Department of Family and Community Medicine.
 
Active from an early age in community service and sports, Dr. Talleyrand gained leadership  experiences as an Eagle Scout and captain of his high school track team. In positions of both leadership and mentorship, Dr. Talleyrad co-founded three companies, MediCan, a health referral service, The Consortium, a non-profit research group and MyTEPI, a biotech service that classifies herbal remedies.   Dr. Talleyrand’s executive coaching incorporates his broad range of life experiences.
 
Learn more about Dr. Talleyrand by visiting his LinkedIn profile here:
 

Luke Shine

Programmatic Intern

My name is Luke Shine. I am from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and I am a current Penn State University student majoring in Psychology and minoring in Labor and Human Resources. I am stoked to be joining the team as a Coaching/Organizational Consulting intern! I am interested in Clinical Psychology and Industrial-Organizational Psychology. I get stoked about seeing others succeed and thrive! I resonate with Stoked’s mission statement: “We build high-performing teams that are inclusive, resilient, and, most importantly, stoked to tackle every challenge. Our approach is uniquely crafted for innovators who don’t just want results—they want a thriving, energized workplace.”  Being a part of this talented team will help me gain valuable experience while also having a positive impact in my community. During the internship, I will have partnerships with change leaders in the Philadelphia area where I offer them Executive/Career coaching with the help and guidance of the amazing stoked.live team. My goal is to help these change leaders and their companies by being of service to them such as offering ways to help work-life balance, employee motivation, work-place wellness, and many more services that stoked.live offers! 

Something that stood out to me was stoked.live’s mission of building communities. I am currently working as a Volunteer Hotline Counselor during my time in school at State College where I am trained to help people in need. I encounter situations such as people needing help finding resources or listening to people that want to be heard. I strive to live a faithful life where I value the needs of others. I also value being a part of a family. I enjoy spending time with my family. I enjoy things such as having dinner with my family, watching movies with them, and being together. I believe it is important to have people in life that care for each other. I am stoked to be a part of a team that values helping others and making a positive impact in communities! 

Learn more about Luke by visiting his LinkedIn profile here:

Maya Joshua

Career Coach 

My strengths are in listening to you deeply so I can know where you want to go, and then being your partner in getting there using the modalities in my scope as a career coach. This, we combine with research, curiosity, and a pragmatic game-plan. Hopefully the result is that you feel better and stoked on life, and if you don’t improve under my guidance, I’m keen to help you navigate the changes that you deserve.

I trained to be an East Asian Medicine practitioner at Acupuncture & Integrative Medicine College in Berkeley, CA. I was drawn to be an EAM practitioner because it made a big difference in my own journey with chronic health challenges – and because it’s an approach that encompasses somatic healing, spiritual tending, and physiological balancing.  

Learn more about Maya by visiting her LinkedIn profile here:

Brian Varkevisser, MS

Director of Operations – stoked.live, Career Coach 

Brian’s life, and career, has followed a path of experiences that inspire him to innovate beyond the norm. To embrace diverse perspectives.

His path started like many others, as a kid facing challenges without the privilege (and burden) of a guiding hand that often shapes success. This freed him from the burdens of expectations, which became his greatest gift. In college, he explored the world of knowledge, choosing Biochemistry, Chemistry, Neuroscience and Computer Science as his passions. In grad school, he designed an Artificial Neural Network to model sensory reception while helping to complete our understanding of the second messenger pathways involved in signal transduction.

After publishing, he left the structure of Academia and returned to the unknown, hitchhiking through Mexico—driven by curiosity and the thrill of discovery. With a few stops in Laos, Cambodia, hiking through Tiger Leaping Gorge, hitching boat rides through the Mekong, and Yangtze rivers, he returned to California to build on the skills needed for adventure; mountaineering through the Trinity Alps, the Sierras and the Lost Coast taught him deeper lessons about success and resilience.

As a career coach, he understands the need to support his clients on their journeys toward their ideal careers. He’s excited to offer his career coaching services as a new member of the stoked.live team, surrounded by other passionate and highly skilled experts. He teaches how to trust your gut in those frenzied moments where a decision needs to be made now – as he has learned the value of trusting his instincts firsthand through his experiences of adventure and thrill seeking.

Brian’s a charismatic, collaborative, and strategic leader who likes working at the heart of complex change within communities and organizations. Be they nonprofits, political campaigns, academia, or tech startups, he’s been rewarded by and challenged to work with many talented teams that embody the drive and ambition to accept nothing less than success. He’s a PMP and PMI-ACP certified servant leader who cultivates the details and is cognizant of the big picture. He’s worked closely with engineers, scientists, and physicians to align teams with business goals.

At Stoked.live, Brian’s living his dream – surrounded by experts from Fortune 500 companies and national laboratories, helping others reach the highest levels of success while creating a fulfilling work-life balance.

Learn more about Brian by visiting his LinkedIn profile here:

Darya Stepanova

Digital Marketing Intern

Darya is a senior student at Baruch College studying Digital Marketing. With 4 years of experience managing social media and administration for her family business. Darya joined our team and as of now applies her skills as a Social Media Manager at Stoked, helping to elevate the brand and connect with a wider audience. Passionate about combining digital marketing strategies with creative solutions to drive growth. Always excited to learn and adapt in the ever-evolving world of marketing. 

Learn more about Darya by visiting her LinkedIn profile here: