Victoria Wirtala

Leadership Coach

Expertise and Coaching Approach

Victoria has coached emerging leaders across a varied set of industries, including education, finance, and the nonprofit sector. She is passionate about amplifying her clients’ communication skills and cultivating their ability to navigate ambiguous and dynamic business environments. She combines an engaging manner sharpened by improv performances at Second City with a deep grounding in principles of scientific management and psychology from her studies at Northwestern University.

She is also an experienced business professional, and currently collaborates with Fortune 500 companies to develop and activate agile digital marketing strategies. Victoria also serves as an 1871 mentor, guiding Chicago entrepreneurs in evolving their strategic approaches to team building, cultural development, and marketing for maximum impact and ROI.

Education and Credentials

Victoria earned her BA in Communication Science at Michigan State University, where she supported student entrepreneurs at the University’s first Incubator, Spartan Innovations. She is a certified OLCC coach, having successfully completed Northwestern’s coaching program, and has completed the ACE coaching accelerator program. Victoria has received a Masters in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University, where she discovered her interest in understanding generational differences in leadership styles and preferences. Her master’s thesis focused on understanding which leadership behaviors inspire employee passion for work.

She is a professionally trained facilitator and an alumna of The Second City’s improvisation program.

And Life…

When not coaching or improvising Victoria seeks out opportunities to learn new hands-on skills like candle-making and foraging. She also takes every possible opportunity for “forest bathing.”

She is currently tackling her lifelong goal of learning how to swim! (And plans to be the first in her family to learn!)