Sharon O’Connor is a management consultant, developmental psychologist, and co-founder of DKS Consulting Group who has spent her career helping organizations and individuals achieve goals and reach their potential. Early in her consulting career, Sharon specialized in facilitating large-scale organizational change and diversity training for Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and start-ups. Sharon’s expertise in promoting diversity was highlighted in the public television program, Managing Diversity in the Workplace. During the past five years, her consulting focus has been executive development and career coaching. Her coaching model empowers managers to strengthen their capacity for leadership, deepen their understanding of organizational dynamics, and transform goals into success.
Sharon received her masters in Social Psychology and her doctorate in Organizational Development from Boston University. She is certified through the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science in organizational development consulting, a professional member of The O.D. Network, and a member of The Institute of Noetic Science.
Sharon draws on her expertise as a management consultant to facilitate social change. As a consultant for Digital Equipment Corporation, Sharon created a corporate mentoring program that paired Digital employees with urban high school students who were at-risk of dropping out; each student in the program ended up graduating high school. She translated her passion for facilitating positive social change into community activism by founding the grassroots giving project, "The Winchendon Project", that provides rural, poor children and their families with food and warm clothing each year. Her activism has also spread to community gardening with the creation of five community gardens, one of which matched children from a local neighborhood with residents of an assisted living facility.
Dale Sokoloff’ is a clinical psychologist who focused her career on helping individuals, families, and organizations discover their own strengths and how to successfully use them. Dale's training and experience as an individual, group, and family therapist and supervisor led to an interest in applying these skills to the business world. She currently coaches individuals in leadership positions and consults to businesses seeking to grow to the next level. She has a particular expertise in career development and in working with family owned businesses to resolve conflict.
Dale was previously on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. She was Director of Family Therapy for the Eating Disorders Program and a supervisor in the Family Therapy Program for nearly twenty years. Dale lectured nationally on these topics and is widely regarded for her sense of humor and common sense approach to serious issues.
Dale co-founded DKS Consulting Group with Karen Hoffman and Sharon O’Connor, and she brings her background in positive psychology and systems theory to the group's business consulting and career coaching services. Dale and her partners co-created Empowerment Fitness®, a six-stage program design to help individuals and organizations break through obstacles and achieve results. Empowerment Fitness® has been featured in Positive Health Magazine, the Boston Globe, Metrowest Magazine, The Needham Times, and several other newspapers nationwide.
Karen Hoffman is a practicing attorney, certified mediator, and co-founder of DKS Consulting Group. She brings her expertise in employment, liability assessment, and conflict resolution to DKS. Karen is particularly skilled at helping individuals and businesses resolve conflict, reach consensus, and move forward in productive ways. She works with DKS clients on matters involving partnership formation, business alliances, and risk management. Karen also serves as General Counsel for DKS Consulting Group.
Karen maintains a private practice in which she advises businesses and individuals on a wide range of employment matters, including risk assessment and diversity in the workplace, and she assists families with children who have special needs. Karen is also a mediator who helps individuals and businesses resolve disputes. For many years, Karen has mediated civil claims in the Dedham District Count in Massachusetts. She also advises several non-profit organizations on an array of legal issues.
Karen began her career representing plaintiffs in litigation cases including civil rights, lead paint, personal injury, and education. She was a member of the Needham Human Rights Committee and conciliated claims of discrimination involving complainants in the town of Needham. Karen has initiated and successfully realized numerous projects to promote diversity, fairness, and accountability in her community. She majored in Political Science at Brown University, and earned her law degree magna cum laude from Washington College of Law, The American University. In 1997, she founded The Women Lawyers Network, an organization of women lawyers in the Boston area that offers its members resources for networking, marketing, and professional development.
