Past-Presidents Series – with Vicki Vandaveer

Dr. Vicki Vandaveer's word for her career is serendipity – and once you hear the whole arc, it is easy to understand why. In this episode of our Past Presidents series, host Daniel Ogunyemi talks with Vicki as she chronicles her journey through family, learning statistics over one terrifying weekend, pursuing a graduate degree, and the ebbs and flows toward consulting and coaching. She speaks passionately about the shift from a nomothetic to idiographic perspective and continues to speak regularly about coaching as process facilitation – helping people think, rather than telling them what to do. Dr. Vandaveer is a Fellow of APA, SIOP, SCP, and the International Society for Coaching Psychology, and founder of The Vandaveer Group. In this episode, Vicki discusses: Finding her "North Star" through an unplanned crash course in statistics Breaking into a graduate I-O program that had room for exactly one woman a year Learning to coach – and to manage up – inside a politically delicate, newly independent leadership team Why she calls the shift from a nomothetic to an idiographic lens the real turning point in her practice The instinct that tells her when a coaching referral is really management avoiding a harder conversation Winning a career-defining international engagement by listening instead of prescribing Her advice for early-career psychologists trying to close the experience gap that standardized internships used to close for free