Our Story
The name -- Foxfire – was inspired by a pioneering teaching approach in the Appalachians to empower students to take ownership of their learning by actively shaping its design and co-creating the learning experience. Providing support and the ‘space’ for that kind of employee collaboration, co-creation, and engagement is what we do! It was a formula that led to tremendous success then…and still does today.
Meet Foxfire Consulting's Founder
Valerie McCloud is the founder of Foxfire Consulting and brings over 25 years of experience in both government and private sectors working with leadership at all levels, successfully managing projects and change initiatives from smaller process improvement efforts to large-scale, complex global, enterprise-wide change. She has worked with hierarchical and matrixed organizations, individuals/groups, divisions and teams, executive leadership, elected officials, frontline employees and every level in between! With a warm and engaging spirit, she is excellent at building rapport, establishing trust and working with diverse teams; building a sense of teamwork, collaboration and participation towards common goals. Valerie has always maintained a caring attitude, been an advocate for employee empowerment and has been practicing a human-centered approach long before the term was part of the change management lexicon.
Her vast experience working with the private sector includes change management, project management (both Waterfall and Agile methodologies), organizational assessments, as well as various analytical and management roles. Her considerable knowledge of government operations includes various analytical and management capacities involving legislative preparation; budget development; performance improvement; strategic planning; facilitation; team building; project management, organizational development and change management and spans executive, administrative and legislative branches of government.
Valerie holds a Business Management degree, with a minor in Spanish. She is a certified Prosci® Change Practitioner. Valerie has held the Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification since 2005 and has earned the Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP). Valerie is also a JTM Certified Coach. She holds certificates in the Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute for Women, the MBE (Minority Business Enterprise) Executive Management Program, and the MBE Leadership Academy. She is a certified yoga instructor and mindfulness practitioner, a self-proclaimed consignment shopping aficionado, and is active in community initiatives promoting unity across diverse groups.
Testimonials
Consistently delivers results...
"Valerie is an outstanding professional with solid executive presence. Valerie was our change manager on a government contract that implemented a complete end-to-end transformation of the retail sales platform for our customer. She frequently met with obstacles to change and was able to clearly and confidently articulate processes to navigate around those blockers. She is a creative, out-of-the-box thinker that consistently delivered on her commitments through collaboration and teamwork. Valerie has a vast amount of change management knowledge and experience, and she was always ready to share that knowledge and integrate change management activities into the project. She was also very instrumental in establishing rapport, building trust and developing positive/productive relationships with our customer. She made a difference in our ability to deliver not only for this customer but several of our public sector customers." ~T.W., NCR
Calm under fire...
Calm under fire, learning Gore on the fly, doing what was right for the project regardless of what 'standard' would have been. Your contributions to our success were huge!
~T.B. & A.A., W.L. Gore & Associates
Makes the difference...
"When Valerie came to us to manage our projects with our vendor, she took what had become a truly mired and suffering situation and managed to turn it back into a well-functioning machine. Within weeks I had gone from dreading our check-ins and the fires that would ensue, to actually looking forward to them as a chance to get updated on my projects and offer insight and direction on them I knew would make it back to the developers and be put into motion. Always very professional and courteous, Valerie managed to handle even the most stressful of affairs with coolness and grace, and always ended up getting us through to a resolution. In addition, I especially appreciated Valerie's dedication to our companies' relationship, and that it always be growing and improving to ensure the best experience for both parties concerned.
~L.Y., Southern States
Gets the job done...
"Valerie has a strong commitment to accomplishing what she starts. She has a wonderful rapport with people at all levels. Her ability to connect with individuals is truly superior. She has excellent communication skills, is extremely organized and reliable. Valerie gets the job done! and with a very positive attitude. It has been a pleasure working with her."
~ Dr. C.F., DM, MBA, MA, Capital One
Past Engagements
