Queering Lineage: Co-Creating New Approaches to Agency & Resilience

Peter is a leadership and equity coach, the Founder of Great Bear Coaching, and the Co-Creator of Social Identity Coaching Lab. His coaching practice focuses on equity leadership, school and school district leadership, and LGBTQ+ life and leadership.

He identifies as a white man, queer, and part of Generation X. From his farmer lineage, he inherited the ability to grow a delicious tomato; unearned racial, gender, and economic privilege; and a commitment to justice. For many years, he’s been involved in anti-racism work and movements for LGBTQ+ justice. At the core, his coaching and facilitation centers joy, belonging and justice.

Jerry is a certified life coach through the Robbins-Madanes Training Center. He coaches people who are deeply curious and excited about their own personal development, growth, and emotional awareness. Jerry integrates the Strategic Intervention methodology from his training with his knowledge of Nonviolent Communication (NVC), the Authentic Relating practice of Circling, and positive psychology to cultivate the groundwork for lasting transformational change.

A self-proclaimed Cajun Asian, part of Jerry's multicultural background is comprised of his Latina mother, family on 3 continents, and his upbringing in the heart of Cajun French country in Louisiana. These influences uniquely guide and challenge what his concepts of race, culture, identity, and belonging mean to him. Not only that, but Jerry has a varied range of lived experiences and people met from working on oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, to fighting as a certified stage combatant, to surviving the gauntlet of the restaurant industry for many years. Jerry’s multilayered history and personal intersectionality fundamentally impact his coaching style and his capacity for empathy, understanding, and openness.