Meeting/Event Information

ICF Chicago Coaches Coffee Connect at Afro Joes

Join us for this free event!

Approved for 1.0 CC and .50 RD CCEU's

Join us for Coaches Coffee Connect, an in-person, informal gathering designed to spark meaningful conversations between ICF Chicago coaches and members of the ICF Chicago Program Committee. Whether you’re a long-time member or just getting started with ICF, this is a relaxed space to build relationships, share ideas, and explore how you can get more involved with our vibrant coaching community.

Location: Afro Joes 
Address: 1818 W 99th St, Chicago, IL 60643
Host: Aquabah Gonney 
Time: 10 am -11:30 am

About your host:

Aquabah Gonney-Buckner is an accomplished educator, leadership coach, and equity-driven consultant with over 18 years of experience teaching and leading in urban schools. As a former turnaround principal in Chicago Public Schools, she successfully transformed her school from Level 2 (Intense Support) to Level 1 (good standing) by prioritizing social and emotional learning (SEL), personalized learning, and culturally responsive leadership. Her transformative work has been highlighted in the Chicago Public Education Fund's Principal Response to the Pandemic Report and Arne Duncan's book, How Schools Work. In 2019, while still serving as principal, Aquabah began coaching principals and assistant principals through a network consultancy. Her passion for leadership development took her across the country, providing coaching and professional develop for school leaders and teams. She found deep fulfillment in empowering other the way she had once been supported in her own leadership journey.

In 2023, Aquabah launched Lead With Leaders LLC, a national consulting firm dedicated to providing coaching, consulting, and professional learning to principals and district leaders. Drawing on her experience as a school leader, she equips clients with the tools to overcome leadership challenges and cultivate inclusive school communities. In recognition of her service as Program Director for The Leadership Collaborative 2024, the Black Principals Network honored her with two prestigious leadership awards.

Aquabah is a proud wife, mother of two, and a committed member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She is a proud HBCU graduate of Delaware State University and co-owner of ASA Books, a self-publishing children's book company. In 2023, she received the Illustrator of the Year aware at the Black Child Bookfair. She also serves as Director of Programming for the International Coaching Federation (ICF), Chicago Chapter.  Aquabah is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Education  Leadership with a Superintendent Endorsement at National Louis University. Her dissertation centers on creating a practical guide for school leaders to identify and dismantle systemically oppressive school policies and practices through the integration of culturally responsive leadership and social-emotional learning.

Have questions? Please email [email protected]

By participating in this ICF Chicago Chapter event, you ("Participant") understand that portions of the event may be recorded or captured in videos, photographs, audio recordings and/or other media (the “Recordings”). The Participant agrees that ICF Chicago Chapter and its related parties own all rights, title and interest in the Recordings and have the right and permission to use the Recordings even if they include Participant’s name, likeness, voice, biographical details, testimonial, or photograph for marketing, advertising or any other purpose in any media or format, online and/or offline, now or hereafter without further notice or compensation to the Participant for the use of such Recordings. If Participant does not want to be captured in any such Recordings, Participant should make special arrangements with ICF Chicago Chapter on such matters. While ICF Chicago Chapter will make good faith efforts to honor such privacy requests, the released parties shall not have any liability in connection with the same.