About Us
Jessie Shternshus
CEO and Founder of Improv Effect
The Improv Effect was founded in 2007, by Jessie Shternshus.
Jessie is known for helping people and companies reach their full potential by escaping conformity and adapting to our ever-changing environment.
She helps individuals, teams and companies shift their way of thinking, create collaborative environments and help people be their best selves through interactive and inclusive exercises. Jessie has been a key player in internal training and transformations for global companies and organizations such as The United Nations, Netflix, Tyson Foods, PGATour, Ocean Spray, Mayo Clinic, Transferwise, HP, Macy’s, Johnson & Johnson, Getty Images, Adecco, CapitalOne, and many more.
Not only has Jessie been a keynote speaker on stages all over the world she is also a highly sought out speaker coach.
She is all the co-author of two books, CTRLShift 50 Games for 50 *** Days Like Today and No More Meetings Unlearn ‘bored room” Practices to Change the Way We Connect
Rob Schiffmann
Corporate Trainer
Rob is a professional improviser and corporate trainer / host who has worked with such companies as Celgene, Olympus, Cisco, Folgers, Microsoft, Solvay, Goldman Sachs, Hewlett-Packard Bank of America, Pepsi, Dannon and many more. Winner of the 2011 INNY (Improvisation News New York) Award for Best Improv Coach, Rob has trained and performed all over the world. Rob’s show, Broadway’s Next Hit Musical, a fully improvised 2-act musical, which has received numerous accolades from the New York and national press, will be touring nationally in 2012/13. Rob is a 3-time MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs) Award winner. Rob has improvised on The Daily Download, The CBS Early Show and most recently on The Anderson Cooper Show.
Sean Ely
Corporate Trainer and Videographer
Sean Ely is a Second City Conservatory alumnus, regularly performing at 15 different theaters across the Midwest. He started his own videography business thanks to the experience he had working at Tribune Publishing for two years. He is also the co-founder of Number Six With Cheese, a comedy food review series with 175 episodes under its belt. Sean also loves electric skateboards, diner hashbrowns and traveling somewhere new every month.
Sean also works The Improv Effect’s corporate improvisational trainer, alongside Jessie Shternshus. He specializes in very quickly getting individuals to come out of their shells and have a great time advancing their socializing skills. Sean has also performed on stage with The Improv Effect’s performance group.
Lia James
Leadership Coach and Learning & Development Consultant
Lia James is a Leadership Coach and Learning & Development Consultant helping executives improve hiring strategies and skills development training to build more inclusive and productive teams. Through her extensive background in people development and personal branding, Lia helps professionals fine-tune their brands through storytelling and goal aligning to improve leadership quality, communication, and team dynamics.
Anthony Catanese
Corporate Trainer
Anthony has spent the past 5 years as a facilitator and technical product manager designing systems and workshops to help individuals communicate and solve problems. In 2012 he co-founded Ignite, the innovation lab of Fortune Global 500 company, Adecco Group. In 2013, Anthony applied his love of entrepreneurship and community with the creation of “StartupJax”, a 1200+ member support group of engaged business owners and starters. He specializes in working with traditionally non-tech corporate teams to think like startups and to build products/processes fast and thoughtfully.
Cindy Peterson
Leadership and Business Agility Coach
Cindy works side by side with leaders and makers in organizations big and small to solve the problems keeping them up at night, help teams and leaders embrace agility in all aspects of their work, and bring new ways of working to life. As an expert facilitator, Cindy develops and leads workshops and training programs on leadership, agility and lean startup. Cindy guides leaders, teams, and individual through the journey, so “change” becomes the way of working. She coaches and develops emergent leaders as they step into larger roles, whether as a first-time frontline manager or stepping into the C-suite.