Tel: 508-284-8632
Empowering individuals and organizations to maximize their strengths and transform to their highest potential.
Meet The Team
The best feedback we get -- and we feel humbled and proud every time we get it -- is that people like working with us. We hear that we are easy to work with, that we listen and seek to understand, that we are responsive, that we care, and that clients really feel we look out for their best interest. These things are very important to us, so we love hearing it reflected back.
andrea.edwards@swiftriverassociates.com
M: 508-284-8632
Andrea Edwards
Founder & President | Coach | Consultant | Facilitator
Andrea brings 30 years of business, human resources, leadership development, and organizational effectiveness experience to her practice – along with a passion for exceptional client service and delivering great results. While working in-house, she had the privilege of working with some of the world’s leading organizations, including The Boston Consulting Group, Fidelity Investments, IBM Corporation, Ropes & Gray LLP, Sapient Corporation, Allmerica Financial, and ITT Sheraton.
Since founding SwiftRiver Associates in 2011, Andrea's consulting client list has spanned local start-ups to large-scale global organizations, and includes diverse industries such as pharma & biotech, law firms, financial services, advertising, technology, records management, nonprofit, and academia.
Across multiple industries and a variety of senior roles, Andrea has transformed organizations to be more efficient and effective, redesigned key programs to deliver more value and better support culture, and provided the leadership to connect people and business strategies in a way that yields transformation and better results. She has coached senior executives, managers, teams, and individuals to better apply their strengths, identify their most important goals, manage stress, increase resilience, lead more mindfully, and achieve at their very best.
Andrea earned her undergraduate degree from Boston University and is a certified coach through the graduate program in Executive Coaching from William James College (formerly the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology). Recently, she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University. Her deep interest in transforming the workplace and creating more mindful leaders led her to add mindfulness-based corporate training and leadership development programs as part of SwiftRiver's client offerings. Andrea is also a certified yoga and meditation instructor.
In early 2014, Andrea founded the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization SwiftRiver Horizons, whose mission is to empower people to transform, flourish, and thrive, and offer their very best to the world through programs that increase self-awareness, mindfulness, and self-compassion in children and adults.
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Top 5 Strengths Themes: Connectedness - Relator - Intellection - Input - Maximizer
Gary Edwards
Chief Operating Officer | Consultant | Strengths Coach
Before joining Swift River Associates, Gary practiced law for over ten years in private practice, focusing on residential real estate, estate planning, bankruptcy, contracts, divorce, probate, and general civil matters. While in law school, he worked his way up to become manager of a federal employee credit union for ITT Sheraton Hotels. Providing superior service to clients was and is always of the utmost importance.
Upon leaving the active practice of law, he helped his wife, Andrea Edwards, form SwiftRiver Associates and is responsible for all areas of company operations along with data analysis and synthesis, document review, and research for our various client projects.
Gary also serves as an enthusiastic and positive CliftonStrengthsTM Coach & Facilitator for individuals and teams to help them to leverage their strengths to further their success, drive productivity, and increase engagement and job & life satisfaction.
Gary is also a Certified Practitioner of the MBTI® Step ITM and Step IITM Instruments, and offers expert services in this area to both individuals and teams.
Gary earned his bachelor of arts (magna cum laude) in History/Secondary Education from Rhode Island College, Providence, Rhode Island. He holds a juris doctorate (cum laude) from New England Law, Boston, Massachusetts. He is admitted to practice law in both state and federal courts in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
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Top 5 Strengths Themes: Woo - Communication - Learning - Input - Positivity
Jessica Toohey
Senior Consultant
Jessica Toohey is an experienced Human Resource professional and Senior Consultant at SwiftRiver Associates. She brings over 15 years of experience in hiring, training, and coaching for high performance.
Jessica has worked in a variety of settings -- including education, financial services, and professional services -- within organizations such as Brown University, Commonwealth Financial Network, and Ropes & Gray LLP.
Working within the unique culture of each organization, Jessica has been instrumental in effecting positive business change through redesigning and managing performance review processes, implementing manager training programs, facilitating career development, providing management coaching, and introducing operational efficiencies.
Our Partners
SwiftRiver Associates maintains a network of highly qualified human resources, OD, coaches, and consulting professionals, with whom we partner as needed to deliver on each client’s needs. While not always required, this staffing model allows us to flexibly staff to best fulfill each client engagement.