About Us

Lynn Palazzo, MEd, ACC

With experience coaching over 500 college students and three children of her own, Lynn lives, works and breathes college life.

Experience

Professionally, Lynn's career spans from Clemson University to Reinhardt College to Kennesaw State University. She has been a Campus Minister, Director of Student Activities, Director of New Student Orientation, and a college professor. The primary focus of her career has been teaching and coaching first-year students in a course expertly designed to address the major “transition traps” that a student must learn to navigate in order to thrive in college.  

Lynn is passionate about helping college students achieve their full potential. She is a lifelong learner committed to supporting each student with skills and interventions that follow the 3 Ts:

• Tailored: Each coaching session is tailored to students’ specific needs and priorities at that time

• Targeted: Our approach is focused to produce consistent, meaningful growth

• Tracked: With a variety of skills, tools and techniques, Lynn works with students to monitor and record their efforts and outcomes for consistency and structure.

Certifications

As a college advisor, trainer, coach, and professor, she employs her rich portfolio of experience to deliver the skills and strategies her clients need to persist toward earning a degree. Her education and training include:

• ICF Certified ADHD/Executive Function Coach through JST Coaching, one of the founders and active voices of the ADHD coaching movement.

• Motivational Interviewing (a clinical technique for behavior change), Intermediate trained, 2023

• Master of Education in College and University Administration, University of South Carolina, 1990.

• Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies (Psychology and Education), University of South Carolina, 1988.

• Dr. John Gardner’s First Year Experience Training, the global leader in college student transitions.

• VIA Institute’s “Using Character Using Strengths to Engage Employees, Clients, and Students.”

Coaching Style

Lynn’s coaching style is high on consistency, motivation, and support. She pairs deep listening, humor, and a personable teaching style to help students define their values and goals and establish personal accountability to help break through the self-imposed limits common for learners with ADHD.  What works for most people doesn’t always work for the ADHD mind.  Finding what does work is incredibly galvanizing and meaningful for each learner.

Family

Personally, Lynn has parented and coached two adult daughters through college, and her youngest is a first-year college student Fall 2024 (Our last! Hooray!). She recently celebrated 30 years of marriage with her husband, Rob. She understands the pressure a student and their parents face succeeding in and funding this high-stakes game of higher education. Technology and the funding models of higher education have changed the college experience considerably; students navigate a fast-paced landscape of the tech-driven college classroom, and parents pay large sums of money while maintaining high hopes that their kids will “catch on” and use the resources available to them. Lynn understands these complex dynamics.

Janina DeHart, MS, BCC

Janina DeHart currently serves as the Assistant Director of Accessibility Resources at Western Carolina University. With 25 years of experience in higher education, Janina has served in multiple roles related to disability services, student success, and first-year transition programming. She is passionate about empowering students to fulfill their potential by using their strengths to achieve their goals. Janina incorporates metacognitive and brain-based approaches to help students maximize the effectiveness of their learning. As a National Board Certified Counselor (NCC) and Life Design Catalyst coach, she has worked with clients from 18 to 80 years old and utilizes cognitive-behavioral techniques and a positive psychology approach to teach clients how to adjust negative thinking patterns that create barriers for moving forward and achieving their dreams.

Janina specializes in using innovative but practical approaches to help neurodiverse clients manage executive function challenges and find creative solutions that are tailored to their individual needs. She also has experience in determining appropriate accommodations for students with documented disabilities and helping them develop self- advocacy skills to address challenges they experience throughout their college career. As a seasoned trainer and public speaker, Janina has presented at multiple local, state, and national conferences on topics including bridging gaps between high school and college, partnering with parents in student success, incorporating coaching into academic advising, and supporting “at-risk” populations. She is also a seasoned instructor and has developed course curriculum to support student success and foster leadership development by incorporating peer-support initiatives. She has developed and coordinated programs for retention strategies for students in academic difficulty, including leading collaborative campus partnerships to design an early intervention alert system for identifying students at-risk and using data-driven decision-making to revise university academic standing policies.

In her prior work experience, Janina served as an AmeriCorps Vista member and was employed as a program coordinator for a non-profit organization where she provided mediation and conflict resolution services, including Restorative Justice programs for court-involved youth and bullying prevention initiatives in local schools. At WCU, Janina has been recognized with awards for collaboration and student services, and has been nominated for distinguished service awards and as a First-Year Advocate. She holds a Master of Science in Community Counseling and a Graduate Certificate in Culturally-Based Native Health, and she is a member of the ADHD Coaches Organization (ACO), as well as state and national chapters of the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD). She serves as an active member ofthe State Employees’ Association of NC (SEANC) and holds leadership positions as the Vice-Chair for District 1 and Western Regional Representative for the SEANC Scholarship Foundation Board. In addition to her professional activities, Janina enjoys spending time outdoors in the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains where she lives with her husband, two young adult sons, and two dogs. She also engages in creative interests such as crocheting, quilting, singing, and playing guitar. She hopes to learn to play the hammered dulcimer at some point in the near future.

Cyndi Harrelson, BS

Cynthia M. Harrelson has worked in higher education for over nineteen years supporting Federal Trio Programs that help disadvantaged students overcome barriers to higher education as well as the Administrative Coordinator for Student Counseling and Career Services at Trident Technical College in Charleston, SC. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business  Administration from Limestone College and has served as President of the National Educational Opportunity Association from 2017 to 2019. As a first generation college graduate herself, she knows that students who feel supported are more likely to succeed academically. She joins Collegiate Success Coaching as the Administrative Coordinator. Her primary role is to provide administrative accommodations to our clients. With her support, our clients can more easily access vital information about their courses and calendars that help clarify assignments and expectations, create visual maps to assignments, and access additional resources.

Who We Serve

Collegiate Success Coaching serves college students who need support during their transition to college or those need support and accountability to reach their academic goals.

Our clients include first-year students who are often susceptible to the most common college transition traps; students on academic re-entry plans; students with ADD/ADHD or Executive Function challenges who work best with behavioral interventions; and students who are earning credit hours but are not thriving, moving forward with their goals or getting the most from their college experience. 

Our staff has worked with students pursuing an array of majors including nursing, engineering, finance, psychology, business, computer science, chemistry, pre-medicine, environmental science, graphic design, landscape architecture, among others.

We also work with young adult clients navigating the pressures of career uncertainty, performance improvement plans, and more.

What to Expect

Our coaching sessions are a combination of teaching and coaching, and that sets her apart. We create a scaffolded experience for clients, teaching earlier in the service period and providing high levels of support, administrative accommodations, and motivation while the client practices using what they have learned. The client then takes progressively more responsibility and accountability toward the middle and end of the partnership. That's different from many academic life coaches who simply coach from session to session without much continuity.

Coaching sessions are an energizing combination of:

• Exploring and clarifying the client's values and goals

• Troubleshooting challenges and creating a plan of action to address them

• Learning effective study strategies, time management skills & procrastination avoidance

• Creating accountability plans and discovering the rewards of follow through

• Practicing resilience and reframing

• Preparation and planning

• Layering the learning with consistent motivation through the rigors of the college semester