About KCI (Key Change Institute)
KCI trains and certifies experienced executive and life coaches in Advanced Applied Neuroscience (AAN). It provides an additional layer of expertise for cases where insight, motivation, and good coaching are not creating the change expected.
Hundreds of executive and life coaches have been trained and certified through KCI to date, and the Foundations program is ICF CCE approved.
Executive coaches and change facilitators have applied AAN principles in settings ranging from Fortune 500 companies and mid-sized businesses to nonprofits, military organizations, schools, and government agencies.
Why KCI Exists
KCI was built around a practical question: how can a coach support coaching clients to unlearn and relearn deep response patterns to emotional discomfort?
AAN brings neuroscience into that question without reducing coaching to neuroscience or replacing the approaches coaches already know.
Read what experienced coaches say about adding the AAN layer to their coaching practice:
AAN Certifying Team
Reut Schwartz-Hebron: Founder, Master AAN Coach, and Head Certifying Partner.
Reut Schwartz-Hebron is the founder of KCI (Key Change Institute), where she has spent nearly two decades training and certifying hundreds of experienced executive and life coaches in Advanced Applied Neuroscience (AAN). Her work focuses on one of the most challenging aspects of human change: why people can understand what needs to change, genuinely want to change, and still struggle to transform deeply learned emotional patterns.
Reut brings together more than 25 years of experience in organizational development, executive coaching, leadership development, and change facilitation with nearly two decades of neuroscience study and collaboration with leading researchers. Her career began as a Lieutenant in the Israeli Defense Forces, working with elite training teams, and continued through consulting and leadership roles with major international organizations across multiple industries.
As an author of three books and a TEDx speaker (Reut's talk was selected by TED as an Editor's Pick), Reut often speaks a guest lecturer in Master's and PhD programs. She is a former board member of npnHub (an organization dedicated to evaluating standards of applied neuroscience practitioners), and a frequent guest in media discussions about unlearning and the neuroscience of transformation.
One of her particular areas of interest is storytelling as a transformation tool, using stories not simply to communicate ideas or generate insight, but to create opportunities for new emotional learning and help transform patterns that conscious understanding alone may not change.
Susan Vogel: AAN Coach Mentor and Certifying Partner.
In addition to being a Certifying Partner for KCI, Susan is a highly experienced Advanced Applied Neuroscience Coach. As a transformational business consultant and coach she supports CEOs, leaders, and teams through difficult organizational change. She holds three advanced certifications through KCI and she previously served as KCI's Vice President of Sales and Business Development, helping build the organization in its early years.
With more than 25 years of experience spanning corporate leadership, change management consulting, and executive coaching, including senior roles at Alcoa and her own change management firm, Susan combines a data-driven approach with a deep, self-directed study of the brain science behind behavior change. She helps leaders and organizations examine patterns that may be maintaining difficult change and translate neuroscience-informed insights into practical coaching work..
Rae Miller: AAN Coach Mentor and Certifying Partner.
In addition to being a Certifying Partner for KCI, Rae is the founder of The Work Wonders, a change facilitation practice that helps leaders break through the mental and behavioral blocks getting in the way of their goals. With over fifteen years in Human Resources, Rae launched a Leadership Development program rooted in applied neuroscience to help leaders unlearn old blocking patterns and lead more inclusively and effectively (City of Seattle). Her background spans senior HR roles, workforce equity program leadership, and organizational consulting, and she is also a certified mediator through Antioch University. Rae brings a rare combination of systems-change expertise and neuroscience-based facilitation to her work certifying coaches, helping them recognize and work with the deep patterns that keep leaders and organizations stuck in difficult transformation.
Erica Wexler: AAN Coach Mentor and Certifying Partner.
In addition to being a Certifying Partner for KCI, Erica is the founder of Transformational Guidance, where she works as an organizational architect and C-Suite Breakthrough coach. She holds a Master's in Organizational Dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania and brings over 20 years of experience combining positive psychology, systems thinking, and applied neuroscience to help leaders and teams examine the patterns and organizational conditions that may be blocking growth. Erica's assessment-driven approach helps individuals and teams unlearn the hidden thinking patterns that get in the way of lasting success. She brings deep organizational design expertise and a track record of measurable, sustained change to her work supporting coaches through certification.
Lisa Brewer: AAN Coach Mentor and Certifying Partner.
In addition to being a Certifying Partner for KCI, Lisa is the founder of Lisa Brewer Coaching. Lisa works with senior managers and vice presidents to strengthen leadership, communication, and strategic impact. She is also a Distinguished Fellow and Well-Being Habits Coach with BetterUp. With over 30 years of professional experience, an MBA from the Ross School of Business, and additional certifications including Professional Certified Coach (PCC) through the International Coaching Federation and Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC), Lisa brings a research-driven, integrative coaching style spanning applied neuroscience, positive psychology, and habit formation. She has also served in ICF leadership roles, including President of the ICF New Mexico chapter.
