Leading Through the Moments Policy Can't Reach
What steady leadership looks like when the handbook runs out.
About
About Faith 1st Consulting
A Leadership, People & Culture advisory firm for mission-driven, values-led, public-sector-adjacent, and mid-sized organizations — and the leaders who carry them.
What the practice is
Faith 1st Consulting sits at the intersection of employment law, senior HR judgment, certified executive coaching, and sensitive facilitation — held as one consulting lens rather than four separate specialities. The firm is brought in for the people, leadership, and workplace moments that cannot be managed through policy alone.
Who it serves
Executive directors, boards, senior People leaders, and the managers beneath them — inside:
- Mission-driven nonprofits
- Foundations & philanthropy
- Associations & membership bodies
- Faith-based institutions
- Public-sector-adjacent bodies
- Values-led, mid-sized employers
How the firm works
Six principles every engagement is held to.
01
Confidential by default
Every inquiry and engagement is held in confidence. Nothing leaves the practice without written permission.
02
Senior throughout
The principal leads the work from first conversation to close — no hand-off to a junior bench.
03
Scoped in writing
Deliverables, sequence, cadence, and boundaries are agreed before work begins.
04
Fair and defensible
Findings, policies, and recommendations are built to hold up — to a board, a regulator, or a courtroom.
05
Practical over performative
The measure is whether the situation moved, not whether the deck was impressive.
06
Capability left behind
Engagements end with the internal team more able to hold the next moment themselves.
About the Founder
Katrina Bernard, JD, PCC
Founder and principal of Faith 1st Consulting — a licensed attorney, Professional Certified Coach, Gallup-trained CliftonStrengths practitioner, and senior HR leader with two decades of interior organizational experience.
- Role
- Founder & Principal
- Credentials
- JD · PCC · Gallup-trained
- Location
- Washington, D.C. area
Biography
Katrina spent two decades inside organizations before founding Faith 1st Consulting. She has served as senior HR counsel, chief of staff, and senior-level consultant across mission-driven nonprofits, foundations, associations, faith-based institutions, public-sector-adjacent bodies, and values-led employers.
Her interior experience — held with discretion — is what the practice is built on. She has sat in the rooms where a people decision was about to be made badly, and in the rooms where it was made well, and she knows what separated them.
Katrina writes and speaks on the specific terrain most organizational buyers navigate without shared vocabulary: supervisory readiness, conduct and culture work, leadership transitions under strain, and the architecture of a People function that behaves like it belongs inside the institution.
Credentials & authority
Juris Doctor (JD)
Employment law focus
Professional Certified Coach (PCC)
ICF-credentialed
Gallup-trained CliftonStrengths
Strengths-based coaching practice
Senior HR practice
Two decades of interior leadership
Board & governance consulting
Mission-driven organizations
Sensitive facilitation training
Culture, conduct, and trust work
Approach
Law-informed, not law-led
Employment-law fluency frames the risk; it does not replace judgment about people.
Strengths-based
Leaders and teams are built on what already works, then stretched — not corrected into someone else.
Warm in the room, composed under pressure
Sensitive matters are handled with care for the people involved and rigor for the organization.
Speaking & Keynotes
Substantive talks for rooms holding real questions.
Katrina speaks and facilitates for boards, leadership teams, associations, and mission-aligned convenings. Every talk is scoped for the specific room — its questions, its stakes, and its context. No recycled keynotes.
The Manager's Conversation
Building supervisory confidence for the conversations that actually decide culture.
Culture Is a Practice, Not a Poster
How values-led organizations keep culture real under pressure and growth.
Strengths-Based Leadership for Mission-Driven Teams
Gallup CliftonStrengths applied to how real teams lead and deliver.
Handling Sensitive Workplace Matters with Care and Rigor
Fairness, discretion, and defensibility — held together, not traded off.
Booking
Share the event, audience, date, and the question the room is holding. You will hear back within two business days with fit, availability, and next steps.
Audiences
- Boards and executive teams
- Association and sector convenings
- HR and People leaders
- Manager cohorts and staff retreats
Formats
- Keynote (30 – 60 minutes)
- Half-day or full-day workshop
- Board or leadership retreat facilitation
- Fireside or moderated conversation
Authority signals
- JD · PCC · Gallup-trained CliftonStrengths
- Two decades of senior organizational practice
- Content built for the room — never off the shelf
- Discretion appropriate for sensitive audiences
Ready to begin