Elaine Taylor-Klaus, CPCC, ACC

Elaine Taylor-Klaus has spent her life in pursuit of her passions for justice and empowerment. Striving in both work and private to live in integrity with her values, Elaine has a reputation for rigorous honesty, seeking the "truth" in people, and guiding them to their own truth with the utmost respect and acceptance. She lives in harmony with one of her major tenets: See a need, Fill a need.

First at Wesleyan in Connecticut, and then as a CORO Fellow in New York City, Elaine learned to search for ways in which she could have a broad impact to make a difference in the world. She has been a Public Service Entrepreneur throughout her adult life, seeing needs and setting about to fill them.  Elaine applied her political acumen and passion for women's equality and empowerment at the NYC Commission on the Status of Women, at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and on the Governor's Council for Maternal and Infant Health for the state of Georgia. For decades, Elaine has been a tireless advocate for Public Health, focusing on prevention and access to reproductive, women's, maternal and infant, nutritional, and neurological health, as well as the issues facing children and families with special needs.

As a Community Entrepreneur, Elaine believes in focusing on an issue, clarifying divergent options with crisp intelligence, and using her leadership to take action. With a knack for grasping the big picture and a determination to see things from multiple perspectives, Elaine is able to identify gaps, and make change happen. She founded one of the of largest independent PACs in the state of Georgia (1990), established a "Breakfast Club" for mothers and daughters to foster cooperation and communication (2002), and funded a Speaker Series for parents and service providers supporting special needs children (2004). A strong believer in community, Elaine developed a small, residential sub-division to create an intentional neighborhood for raising her family (1994).

As an educator in the realms of reproduction and health, Elaine has spoken on a broad range of issues. She approaches adults and children with equal ease in addressing such topics as family planning, STD prevention, and talking to children and young people about their sexuality. While her children were young, Elaine spent years as a pregnancy and postpartum yoga teacher for the Pierce Program in Virginia Highlands, Atlanta. Her focus was in preparing women for the birth process and the challenges of what she calls the 'fourth' trimester, the early months of postpartum parenthood. She particularly loved teaching Labor and Delivery classes to couples, helping partners learn how best to support new mothers in such a magnificent and vulnerable time of their lives.

Coaching as a profession typifies Elaine’s general approach to the world ... it is honest, respectful, and forward moving. And it is all about changing the world…one conversation at a time. The establishment of Touchstone Coaching: Focus/Clarity/Action is the natural outcome of her lifetime of advocacy, support, education, parenting, consultation and learning. Elaine is able to bring a client’s big picture into clear focus, clarify the relevant issues, and move toward action with decisiveness ... following her client’s lead in the process.  As a skilled and careful listener, an intuitive observer of human interaction, and a gifted facilitator, Elaine's life experience informs powerful coaching questions. With her guidance, her clients--individuals, groups and organizations--find their own answers.

Elaine lives in Atlanta, GA, where she was born and raised as a third generation Atlantan. She shares her life and home with her husband and business partner, David, and their 3 children and black dog named Kat (born New Orleans, 2005). She loves hiking in the mountains, reading to her kids, a great sense of humor, singing to the guitar, and inspiring others to play fully in their lives.