About

“Be like a tree. Stay grounded, keep growing, and know when to let go.” Rumi.

Trees are the perfect metaphor for the way Lorna Jane works. Personal and organizational resilience come from strong roots, and being grounded in our values. Those values don’t tend to change much, but outwardly from there, our lives and organizations are like branches and leaves; bending, breaking, growing and letting go. Lorna Jane integrates this metaphor into her work by calling upon William’s Bridges ‘Transitions’ model: endings, neutral zone (the space in between) and new beginnings. This deeply intentional way of moving through the cyclical phases of our personal and professional lives has proved accessible and invaluable to all her clients experiencing change.

Lorna Jane endeavors to live and work with the values of curiosity, transparency, loyalty, compassion, and humor.

Biography

British born, Lorna Jane started her career as a professional soprano and teaching artist. This work was the entry point to the field of Community Arts Education. As VP of Education at South Shore Conservatory, MA, she played an integral part in the organization’s rapid growth; scaling program and systems development, along with building structural capacity to support a 40% increase in revenue over a 4 year period. During this time, Lorna Jane was recruited by other Community Music Schools to consult around issues of enrollment and retention, influencing the way registration and customer service systems were executed on a national level.

In 2010, she was chosen to be one of 25 emerging leaders from across the nation to participate in the inaugural National Guild of Community Arts Education’s Community Arts Education Leadership Institute, and in 2015, she attended ‘Skills for Influential Leadership’, the first of many professional advancement opportunities at the Gestalt International Study Center (GISC), MA. In 2017-18, she became a certified coach through GISC. 

In 2018, Lorna Jane moved to Manhattan to serve as Executive Director at the Turtle Bay Music School (TBMS). This treasured 93 year old institution had just made the difficult but courageous decision to move from the deteriorating brownstone where it had been housed for most of those years. This was a significant transition for the organization and one that sadly was too much to bear financially, operationally, structurally, and culturally. In January of 2020, TBMS closed its doors after 95 years. This painful but incredibly rich learning experience was the catalyst for Lorna Jane to move into a role where she can support other organizations who are needing and/or wanting to grow.

Lorna Jane’s life and work is grounded in her yoga practice and regular rambles in the woods. She lives with her partner in rural Vermont.