The Plus One Collective

Founding Member

Kera Coaching & Consulting LLC

I partner with law firms, professional services companies, fast-growing startups, and global organizations to create and scale revenue-generating early talent programs while optimizing strategic people operations & HR.

*CORE SERVICES | Consulting, Fractional, Advisory*

1) Revenue-Generating Early Talent Programs: I build and scale full-time early talent programs and internships, creating new revenue streams and strong talent pipelines while significantly reducing recruitment costs.

2) HR & Strategic People Operations: I align people operations with business goals, devising talent strategy and handling recruitment, onboarding, performance management, and employee relations. My strategies cultivate high-performance teams and add value to the employees, business brand, and bottom line.

3) Employee Experience, Well-Being & Performance Optimization:  I collaborate with HR and leadership to enhance performance and retention through tailored well-being strategies and leadership coaching for Gen Z, millennials, and new managers.

*PROVEN RESULTS*

• Built out and scaled a global Analyst Program for a premier law firm, quadrupling its size within 2 years and expanding across 12 locations.
• Devised initiatives, including a summer internship program that generated additional revenue (~$1M) and elevated the brand.
• Designed the recruiting strategy, leading to a 20% annual increase in applications and a 95%+ offer acceptance rate over 7 years.
• Led all people operations functions, streamlining processes to cultivate high-performance teams while managing over 100 Gen Z and millennial employees globally.

*MY APPROACH*

• Strategic Alignment: I ensure that talent strategies align with business objectives, fostering a cohesive culture and enhancing organizational performance.
• Customized Solutions: I create tailored programs and initiatives that address specific organizational challenges, driving engagement and growth.

*CONTACT: ashleykera.cc@gmail.com

Founder & Principal Consultant

Society of Working Moms

A supportive community for and by working moms of all ages and stages. (It takes a village. Come find yours!)

Founding Member 

The Old Girls Club

Member

Kobre & Kim

• Head of global recruiting, professional development and alumni relations for two major revenue generating departments – Analyst and Litigation Assistant – leading strategy through 
 execution.
• Led a management team of five, responsible for 100+ analysts and litigation assistants across global offices. 
• Worked directly with Founding Partners and senior leadership across all functions of the organization.
• Responsible for hiring, retaining, and developing top talent for full-me and internship billing roles across 13 global offices. 
• Designed all aspects of the recruiting strategy and process yielding annual increase in full-time and internship applications and a consistent annual personal offer acceptance of 95%+ since 2017. 
• Planned large-scale professional development and retention events including skills-based workshops and an annual weekend retreat for 100+ people. 
• Enhanced all initiatives and programming from my previous role as Senior Manager of the Analyst Program upon the addition of acquiring an the Litigation Assistant department.

Senior Manager, Analyst & Litigation Assistant Program Recruitment & Alumni Relations

• Head of global Analyst Program (revenue generating department), which consists of more than 60+ full-time recent college graduates and young professionals across 12 global offices in substantive billing, management, and hybrid business development roles
• In-house intrapreneur upon joining in 2017 to scale the Analyst Program, quadrupling the size of the program (within 2 years), increasing revenue, expanding across 12 global locations, tripling applications, achieving a selection rate of >5% (full-time & intern) and 90%+ acceptance rate
• Responsible for all facets of the Analyst department including, but not limited to: operations, full-time and intern recruitment and talent development, financials (budget, expenses, compensation, rewards), HR matters (offer letters, visas, office transfers, new hire onboarding, departures, biannual performance reviews), professional development (coaching, performance, mentorship, scholarship program), culture & retention (events, liaising across departments, diversity & inclusion, alumni relations), operations (project management, policies & procedures, quality assurance), overall business planning & strategic initiatives.
• Lead all global recruitment and talent strategy in-house across global offices
• Strategically design systems and processes to maximize business objectives and operations, as well as enhance the individual and collective analyst experience
• Lead strategic vision and planning for Analyst Program recruitment and founder of innovative Summer Analyst Internship Program as a pipeline to the full-time Analyst position that hires college juniors and seniors to do modified work of full-time analysts
• Learn more about the unparalleled Kobre & Kim Analyst Program: https://kobrekim.com/careers/the-analyst-program

Senior Manager & Global Head of Analyst Program

Manager of Analyst Program 

Columbia University in the City of New York

• Acted as the primary contact for the career center, serving over 15,000 students and numerous employers spanning various industries, gaining invaluable insights into recruitment and hiring best practices from both the employer and student perspectives.
academic year, this included 180 information sessions, over 3,900 unique interviews, and more than 12 career fairs and
events attended by up to 137 employers and 1,400 students
• Spearheaded annual On-Campus Recruiting (OCR) programs, events and educational workshops. In the 2015-2016 academic year, this included 180 information sessions, over 3,900 unique interviews, and more than 12 career fairs and events attended by up to 137 employers and 1,400 students.
• Managed the Handshake job recruiting platform with more than 25,500 jobs posted in the 2015-2016 academic year by nearly 4,700 active employers. Created and maintained all Handshake and student recruiting materials.

Employer and Alumni Relations Coordinator, On-Campus Recruiting

Kellen Company

Marketing Associate

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP & Affiliates

Legal Assistant

Second Harvest Food Bank

Creator and Volunteer

Sodexo

Student Sustainability Promotions Coordinator

*I help startups and mid-sized companies solve the people problems that slow growth, hurt performance, and burn teams out. I build people-first systems that support teams, scale businesses, strengthen culture, and drive real results.

*With over a decade of experience, I’ve partnered with founders and people leaders to lead high-impact people operations. Highlights include:

- Scaling a global, revenue-generating Analyst Program across 12 offices
- Built and led full-scope people operations across recruitment, onboarding, performance, development, and employee relations
- Created new revenue streams, including an internship program that generated over $1 million within 10 weeks
- Managed and developed 100+ early-career professionals with over 90% retention
- Reduced recruiting costs to under $5,000 while maintaining a 95%+ offer acceptance rate
- Served as a strategic partner during rapid growth, restructuring, and change
- Designed scalable programs and policies that improved engagement, retention, and team performance
- Led initiatives from concept to execution with speed, clarity, and lasting results

I hold a Master’s in Clinical Psychology and an Organizational Coaching certification from Columbia University. I combine strategic thinking, execution, and emotional intelligence to solve the people challenges that impact culture, operations, and the bottom line.

As a mom and advocate for working parents, I’m especially passionate about creating workplaces where people can thrive both professionally and personally.

*What I Offer:
-  Consulting and Advisory: talent strategy, early talent programs, onboarding, employee experience, retention, employee relations, policy design, people-first systems, and part-inclusive programs.
- Fractional HR and People Leadership: part-time or project-based leadership during growth, transitions, or team change across core HR functions
- Coaching: career clarity, leadership development, and navigating life and work transitions for college students, junior and mid-level professionals, working parents, and women balancing careers, motherhood, and the path to parenthood

*I work best with leaders who want to build strong, high-performing teams with clarity, heart, and zero corporate fluff.

Let’s connect. DM me or email me at ashleykera.cc@gmail.com to chat.

To all of the parents of young kids trying to get things done this week while watching the little energizer bunnies, bless. 

📸I don’t even think it was two minutes I left her to quickly grab something from another room and she’s trying to climb out (we’re now lowering the crib). If your child is still a potato, relish that short period because when they start moving, they do not stop.

Ashley Kera

People Ops Consultant & Coach | Scaled multimillion-dollar talent programs | I help orgs scale smarter and women move through change with clarity and self-trust

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This time of year holds joy for some people and heaviness for others. I have lived both.

I feel deeply grateful this year. My daughter. My family's health. The small moments that grounded me. The people who showed up in quiet, steady ways. The communities that reminded me I did not have to carry everything by myself.

I also know this week and the holiday season can feel complicated. Some are stretched thin, grieving, overwhelmed, or trying to function through something they have not said out loud. I have had seasons like that too. The kind where gratitude exists, yet everything still feels heavy.

There was a time in my life when I handled everything alone. I stayed quiet because I did not want to burden anyone. I told myself I was strong enough to figure it out. I now know isolation is not strength. Support is.

I work with people who move through seasons like this, and I see the same pattern every time. We make things heavier when we try to carry everything on our own. You do not have to pretend you are fine. You do not have to shrink your reality to make other people comfortable. I remind myself of this often too.

This season with my daughter has shifted everything. She has given me a kind of joy and love I could not have imagined. I cannot believe I get the privilege of being her mom.

My husband grounds me when everything feels heavy. My dog Ellie reminds me joy can be simple. The people I have met here have given me some of the most meaningful conversations I had this year.

Some years are full. Some are heavy. Some are both.

If this is a season where you are thriving, embrace it. Celebrate it.
If you are surrounded by people who are thriving, celebrate them too. Your season will come.
If you are in a liminal space or navigating something difficult, you are not alone. Support is not a burden. Reaching out is not weakness.

➡️What surprised you about what you needed this year (or what you didn't need)?
➡️Who or what grounded you when things felt overwhelming?

📸 Feeling grateful for this little crew. Little Ellie (the dog) is missing from the photo but it's hard to get a photo of all 4 of us now.

Service isn't something you announce. It's something you do when no one's watching.

Veterans Day always makes me think about that. What service actually means.

There's a saying in my family: You give with your whole heart. You give without expecting anything in return.

Members of both sides of my family served in wars. My grandfather served in World War II. My father-in-law served in Vietnam. I grew up hearing stories about the draft, how names were announced on TV, and how frightening that was for young men and their families. I can't imagine.

I grew up around people who understood service as something you did, not something you talked about. Educators, firefighters, nurses, police officers, a father who made pro bono work a big part of his practice by choice.

Giving with your whole heart without expecting anything in return - this is a value that was instilled in me, and one I hope to pass down to my daughter.

It's not the grand gestures. It's the teacher staying late because a student's struggling. The nurse who stayed past her shift to sit with me postpartum. The neighbors who bring dinner for a new parent or someone going through it. The person who buys a meal for someone who's homeless. The colleague who notices you're off and asks if you want to grab coffee. The community members who organize the annual Thanksgiving dinner for people who have nowhere else to go.

Service is showing up for each other. Not only when no one's watching, but when no one may ever even know.

Right now, it's easy to feel like what we do doesn't matter. The problems feel too big. Our reach feels too small.

But that's not true.

Service happens in the everyday. In how we choose to be present for one another.

Being of service doesn't mean ignoring your boundaries or capacity. It means showing up in the ways you can, when you can. Sustainable service requires self-awareness, not self-sacrifice.

The greatest gift you can give anyone is your time. How fortunate many of us are that we can choose how we spend it.

With the holidays coming, I've been thinking about what this looks like for me. Checking in on people who've been quiet. Offering time to someone navigating something hard. Mentoring. Volunteering or donating to causes that matter. Really being present, not just physically there.

There are people on LinkedIn and in the communities I'm part of who've done this for me and each other. It doesn't go unnoticed and it is certainly not forgotten.

We all have something to give.

➡️What's one way you're showing up for someone right now? 
➡️Who or what communities in your life has shown up for you in ways you'll never forget?

My DMs are always open. If I can support you, I genuinely will. No catch, no agenda.

Sunday night and I have a lot to do (or may decide not to do tonight). Baby is sleeping. I find myself “productively procrastinating” on this platform. Anyone else do this too?

We call mothers the backbone of society. Yet our workplaces are still designed to break their backs.

Physical postpartum recovery takes about a year for people who give birth. Childcare costs more than rent and some mortgages. Priorities shift, identity shifts, energy shifts.

None of this is new information. The systems just haven't caught up.

Most workplaces were built for a world where one person worked and someone else handled life. That world is gone. The systems remain.

This is not a women's problem. It is a systems problem.

When parents, caregivers, people managing chronic illness, those supporting aging family members, or anyone living a full life outside of work burn out or step out, organizations lose adaptability, creativity and trust.

Women have been leaving the workforce in record numbers. They didn't leave because they stopped wanting to work. They left because work stopped working for them.

Work used to be identity. Now people want work to serve life.

I've watched brilliant leaders return from parental leave only to be quietly shifted off high-stakes projects. I've seen caregivers apologize for doctor's appointments as if needing healthcare were a personal failing. I've seen people hide chronic illness because showing up as a full human feels like a liability. I've sat across from founders who genuinely believe flexibility is a favor, not a design choice.

The real question: Is work designed around real human lives, or around a worker who doesn't exist anymore?

Redesign doesn't mean lowering the bar. It means changing what we measure.

Outcome-based performance. Life-aware flexibility. Phased re-entry without penalty. Career paths that allow stepping down, shifting sideways, returning without stigma. Leadership that trusts presence and measures results, not face-time.

When people feel trusted and seen as whole humans, they don't just stay. They build, they innovate, they lead.

Not because it's kind. Because it's strategic.

➡️What's one way work needs to change to actually serve life instead of consuming it?

Where do kids and dogs get their endless energy?

It inspires me. It also overstimulated every cell in my body this weekend.

Thanksgiving was great. Hosting, visitors, a full house. Multiple kids running around. Two dogs underfoot. Nonstop noise.

I loved it.
I’m also tired.
A very specific kind of tired that only shows up after nonstop stimulation and a baby who didn’t sleep Thursday night.

Pre-child, you recover from a holiday by sleeping in.
Post-child, sleeping in is 7 a.m. on a good day.

The house already needs another clean.
The leftovers are gone. Time to cook again.
The dogs got their own Thanksgiving bowls too.

Wonderful holiday. Zero regrets.
I still feel like I need a holiday from the holiday.

Anyone else?

📸 I made special Thanksgiving plates for the kids and the dogs. This is my life now.

My daughter turned nine months old yesterday, and I have been thinking about all the things people told me to expect versus what I have actually lived.

This stage is wild. You are no longer a brand new parent, yet you are still becoming someone you have never been before. I know exactly what I am doing and I know nothing at all at the same time.

What people told me to expect:
◾You will adjust to getting by on little to no sleep 
◾Breastfeeding is easy and will help you lose the baby weight 
◾Motherhood and being a parent is intuitive
◾Your relationship will be challenged and may suffer
◾Feedings get quicker and become fun
◾You will bounce back in the first few months and feel back to normal

What I have actually lived:
◾You can function on little sleep to an extent, but your brain and body really feel it. Sleep regressions are real. Sometimes we think our daughter is messing with us. We call her our little sleep fighter.
◾Breastfeeding and pumping are not easy. They require a lot of effort, time, and fuel. You can also gain weight from it.
◾Loving your child is intuitive. Everything else you figure out as you go and learn quickly.
◾My relationship changed and got stronger in many ways. You become united against this powerful little human who tries to run your life.
◾Feeding a baby is much scarier than I expected. Bottle nipples make a huge difference, and gagging is not choking but really frightening.
◾There is no bouncing back. You become a new person. There is healing and rebuilding.

I joke with my husband that we must be doing something right because our daughter is a smiley, happy, and energetic baby. She is thriving by every measure. We certainly could not love her more.

That said, there are some facts and realities of this stage I think should be more widely known:
◾The postpartum period is at least twelve months after birth.
◾Infancy is defined as birth to twelve months. 
◾It takes six to eight weeks for the dinner plate-sized wound in your uterus (where the placenta was attached) to heal.
◾Producing milk can require up to 25% of your daily energy!
◾Your gray matter changes after birth so yes, your brain and body both actually change.
◾Postpartum depletion and nervous system dysregulation are real and rarely discussed. 

➡️ What are some things people told you to expect as a parent versus what you actually experienced?

We perfect the execution and forget to enjoy the moment.

I help clients notice this pattern and create room for something different. I am noticing the same pattern in myself this week.

I am hosting Thanksgiving next week. I usually enjoy hosting. I do not get stressed about it. My default is to go above and beyond for people. This year feels different because it is my first holiday as a new mom, and I can feel myself quietly raising the stakes.

My daughter is eight months old and in a sleep regression. My work calendar is full leading into the holiday. It is a lot to hold, even when everything is fine.

While I mapped out the menu over the weekend, something clicked.

I realized I am testing myself. Not to prove I can host. To see if I can host, stay present, and actually enjoy myself at the same time.

Here is the real question. Can I do things well without slipping into performance? Can I care about the details without losing the experience of the day?

If the whole thing falls apart, we can always order takeout. It will be fine.

Yet here I am. Making everything from scratch. Planning out timing of the different courses. Adding extra sides no one asked for. Making turkey bowls for the dogs attending. None of this is required. It's simply my instinct.

High achievers do this. We understand the psychology behind the pattern. We also fall right into it. 

My real measure of success is actually clear, even though I feel the need to overdo it. It is that everyone is healthy, well fed, and having a genuinely good time. I want the kids to make an utter mess because they are having so much fun playing, and I want them to sit long enough to eat real food instead of only snacks. I even make a special bowl for the dogs, so they are not forgotten.

Perfection is what I want in theory, not in actuality. I want presence. I want to remember the day, not just perform it. I want connection, ease, and the feeling that everyone who walks through my door can exhale a little. That is the real goal.

At some point, Thanksgiving became performative. I still catch myself in that mindset even though I help others see and shift this exact pattern.

Coaching and consulting have taught me something important. Awareness creates choice. You do not need to overhaul everything at once. You can notice what is happening and decide how you want to move through it next time.

So, I am hosting. I am cooking. I am doing the whole thing. I realized only recently what felt different about this year, so there is no changing course for this round. The next holiday I host may look very different.

That is the experiment.

🔶 What is your real measure of success this Thanksgiving? Not the performance version. The honest one.

Okay, am I the only one whose favorite Thanksgiving food is actually the turkey?

Like, the turkey itself. Not just here for the sides and dessert.

(Stuffing, I see you, but we're not close.)

I'm all about the leftovers too.

🍽️What are you most excited to eat (or drink) this week?

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