As a consultant, trainer, and transitional life coach, Pat Kelsaw, MSW captures 40+ years of wisdom, education, teaching, and management work. Using these collective experiences, she partners with individuals & groups to provide professional development, grant writing, mentoring, and coaching services. Through teaching and learning across a wide-ranging generational lens, Ms. Kelsaw offers a unique style that engages and supports people in redesigning or retooling their own lives, organizations, and communities. 

 

Pat received her BA in Mass Communications from the University of California at Davis, a Masters in Social Welfare from UC Berkeley and Nonprofit Management certification from Winthrop University, College of Business Administration. Additionally, Pat is a nonprofit organizational “coachsultant”, having served in various program & executive leadership roles and is a certified grant reviewer for several Federal government agencies. As a highly successful grant writer, Pat has written or co-written grant proposals garnering over $10 million for children, families and communities impacted by ethnic health inequalities, food insecurities, and educational disparities. 

 

Her teaching career began in 1979 in K-12 public education and concluded in 2019, on the collegiate level as an adjunct social work instructor, where she taught courses in macro social work practices, social policy, grant writing, and leadership. Although many people typically associate retirement with not working at all, for Ms. Kelsaw, like many other Baby Boomers, that is far from true! At this stage, Pat (aka Nannie, Ms. Pat, Auntie, or Mama P.) decided this was NOT the time to stop working altogether, but rather to reflect on how she could continue her work of inspiring, educating, and fostering connections in new ways that target the greater good, not just an organization or individual. By integrating the knowledge and wisdom gained from her own personal and professional journey, she created Lead Like Big Mama, where individual change drives community transformation. 

 

In her own words

The story behind the name.

 

Sitting in the audience at a conference in late May 2014, the breaking news of the passing of Dr. Maya Angelou spread quickly. A colleague next to me leaned over and whispered, “You know what that means?” Puzzled by her question, she went on to explain, “Big Mama ain’t here no more…that means WE ARE “Big Mama.” With those four words, I knew what that meant: We (Boomer generation) have “aged up” and are now the elders - the collectors and connectors of our history. My own “Big Mama” played a formidable role in my life and her death in my young adult years left a void in my life. I am seeing this same void or disconnect in the lives of many of those in our younger generations - especially Millennial and Gen Z. This void is one of the driving forces behind Lead Like Big Mama. It is my hope that Lead Like Big Mama serves as a bridge to bring the wisdom and lessons of the past and present together. Lead Like Big Mama shares not only what I have learned from my personal journey to becoming what I define as a ‘wise and seasoned’ leader, but also those of others who have shaped that journey in some way. It was created out of  love for the work I have continued to do for nearly a half a century. This venture fuses everything that is at the heart and soul of my life’s work and a space for continued growth and learning opportunities. I welcome you to join this unique place of love, life, education, and community.