Women Leaders Association names Tess Fyalka first St. Louis coaching partner

The Women Leaders Association has launched its new Coaching Partners program in St. Louis by naming Tess Fyalka as the chapter’s first official coaching partner. The rollout gives members access to vetted coaches as the association expands the program across its 130-plus chapters.

Why it matters: - The Women Leaders Association is trying to make executive coaching easier to evaluate for women professionals who want support but do not want to sort through an unregulated market on their own. - The St. Louis launch gives local members direct access to a screened coach and sets up a model the association plans to replicate across its chapter network.

What happened: - The Women Leaders Association named Tess Fyalka the first official Coaching Partner for its St. Louis chapter, StLouisWomenLeaders.org. - The announcement launched the association’s new Coaching Partners program in the St. Louis metro area. - St. Louis-area members can view Fyalka’s profile, schedule a complimentary 30-minute consultation, or send a private note through her profile page.

The details: - The Women Leaders Association says its vetting process screens coaches for recognized credentials, verifiable experience, client reviews, and results before introducing them to members. - The association has 43,000 members and more than 130 regional chapters. - Fyalka is an award-winning author and leadership coach with more than 25 years of experience in leadership, corporate training, and organizational development. - Fyalka’s book, Walking the Leadership Ledge: The "NEW" Leader's Guide to Building Resilience and Confidence at Every Step, won three first-place Fall 2025 BookFest Awards, including the Women in Business category. - Fyalka is one of only 246 coaches in the United States with the International Coaching Federation’s Advanced Certification in Team Coaching. - Fyalka was a 2024 Illinois Women in Leadership ATHENA award nominee. - Her background includes work in commercial business, higher education, nonprofit, and government settings. - Fyalka spent nearly a decade building a company’s leadership development infrastructure that earned back-to-back Apex Training Top 100 honors. - As owner of Angle Coaching and Communication LLC, Fyalka offers one-on-one coaching for emerging leaders, mid-level managers, and C-suite executives. - Fyalka also offers group and team coaching, leadership development programs, corporate training, and assessments including the Leadership Circle Profile, EQ-i 2.0, and DiSC. - Fyalka holds ICF Professional Certified Coach status, the ICF Advanced Certification in Team Coaching, a Co-Active Training Institute certification, and a Team Coaching Certified Practitioner credential from the Global Team Coaching Institute. - Fyalka has authored or ghost-written more than 2,000 articles, white papers, blogs, and book chapters on management and leadership.

Between the lines: - The coaching program extends the association’s broader strategy of combining big-picture workplace data with one-on-one support for women advancing in their careers. - The organization already publishes tools such as its Glass Ceiling Score project, Best Women Employers rankings, compensation studies, and Top 50 Women Leaders awards. - Lydia Price, the association’s 2026 volunteer chair, said the vetting process is designed to reduce the guesswork in choosing a coach and that Fyalka brings strong credentials and leadership experience. - Fyalka said her coaching is meant to provide leaders with a trusted thought partner, direct feedback, and practical tools they can use immediately.

What’s next: - The Women Leaders Association plans to extend the Coaching Partners program across its more than 130 chapters. - Each city’s members are expected to be paired with coaches selected for that market. - St. Louis members can continue booking consultations through Fyalka’s online profile as the local program gets underway.

The bottom line: - The Women Leaders Association is turning coaching selection into a curated member service, starting in St. Louis with a highly credentialed local coach and a national expansion plan.