Book:

• Pivoting with Grace (2025)

Area of Expertise:

• Executive coaching and mentoring leaders; cabinet/board advising
• Special education & student services systems; quality & compliance
• Adult learning & facilitation (andragogy), resilient leadership,culture change
• Transition & adult-services program design; community partnerships
• Storytelling and media for mission-driven leaders

Seminars or Keynote Topics:

• Pivoting with Grace: Turning Life’s Hardest Moments into Catalysts for Growth
• Andragogy in Action: Empowering Student Services through Adult Learning
• Rooted, Not Rigid: Leadership Through Uncertainty
• From Compliance to Culture: Excellence through Cross-Functional Leadership
• Eudaimonia at Work: Purpose, Well-Being, and Performance
• From Compliance to Culture: Change Leadership with Stakeholders
• The Coaching Leader: Feedback, Belonging, and Results in the Workplace

Kimberly Dahlem is a systems leader, executive coach, mentor, consultant, and entrepreneur who helps teams translate strategy into day-to-day practices that work. She founded Dahlem Enterprises, LLC, (2023) then established KAJ Media and will launch the Just Kimberly podcast in October 2025—intimate, one-on-one conversations with leaders turning passion projects into community impact and collaboration. In August 2025, she released her debut guidebook, Pivoting with Grace, celebrated with her first launch and signing. 

Beyond the microphone, Kimberly is co-developing a social-impact venture: a 5-acre campus in the northwest Chicagoland suburbs—33,000+ sq. ft. across two buildings—designed as an adult skills & community center serving adults 23+ with disabilities.

Kimberly’s academic background includes undergraduate studies in special education and psychology; a master’s in reading education (Reading Specialist) and a master’s in counseling; completion of doctoral studies with an emphasis in women in leadership; and specialty certifications in the superintendency and as Director of Special Education. She has applied this foundation throughout her 30+ year “jungle gym of leadership,” moving across roles to build durable, student-centered systems.
Over more than 30 years in K–12, she has led districtwide special education, English language learner, and mental-health services; built high-trust, cross-functional teams; advised cabinet and boards; secured federal funds; and stewarded multimillion-dollar budgets. Her work centers on adult learning (andragogy), resilient leadership, quality problem solving, and stakeholder engagement so teams can deliver with clarity, compassion, and accountability. The new campus will offer day programming, related services, recreation, job-skills training, and networking, along with community rental spaces (gym and stage) and multiple rooms for retreats, staff development, team building, and public-service initiatives—extending her lifelong mission of building structures that last.