Jill F. Forest, MA, IDI-QA

Jill has over 20 years of experience as a career coach, counselor, and trainer who services globally and domestically diverse populations. Jill has an in-depth understanding of how culture influences our behaviors, values, and interactions with others. She also has extensive experience creating and presenting engaging presentations on career-related topics such as maintaining confidence, coaching and connecting with African Americans, and thriving as an introvert.

Jill is currently a Global and Domestic Relocation Coach with the IMPACT Group. She works with BIPOC families relocating and job searching within the US. As part of the US Inbound Team, she presents hour-long US culture briefings to families relocating to the US for the first time and provides them with ongoing support and resources as they adjust to life in the US.
As the IMPACT Group’s DEI Committee lead, Jill and the team provided the company’s 100+ coaches with practical information, support, and training to help them address job search and relocation challenges of diverse populations.

Before her role at IMPACT Group, she worked at Southern Polytechnic State University (now part of KSU) as an Associate Director of Career Services, where she conducted numerous career-related workshops and successfully executed the college’s semi-annual STEM career fairs with 100+companies and 1,200+students and alums in attendance. She also customized her career-related presentations for the college’s large international and BIPOC international student population.

Her favorite accomplishments are her appointment by the president to co-lead the campus-wide Diversity and Inclusion Committee, hosting well-known African American authors Isabel Wilkerson’s, “The Warmth of Other Suns” and Adrian Miller, “Soul Food” to discuss their books on campus and initiating a trip to the exhibit “When Swastika Meets Jim Crow” at the Willam Breman Museum of Jewish culture and leading training for Student Affairs professionals on understanding and engaging Chinese international students.

Jill applied to and was selected to enroll in NAFSA’s International Academy, where her focus was on international student advising and education abroad. She and her husband have hosted high school exchange students from Europe for the 2019-2020 and 2022-2023 school years. Her extensive non-fiction library includes her favorites: The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business, Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians, Auténtico: The Definitive Guide to Latino Career Success, and When Cultures Collide.

Jill attended Ohio State University, majoring in Psychology and minoring in History, and later attended Argosy University, where she earned her master’s degree in psychology with a specialty in Counseling. She holds a Qualified Administrator designation with the Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI®) assessment and is currently enrolled in Facilitating Intercultural Development, a training and coaching program designed to advance her intercultural competence further so she can successfully coach others in this area.

Jill enjoys genealogical research, including visiting courthouses and cemeteries out-of-state, volunteering at Mostly Mutts and Must Ministries, and being the co-organizer of a book club that’s been meeting for 15 years. For ten years, she provided respite care for foster parents with children of different ethnicities through Big Oak Ranch for Girls. She has a high-maintenance Yorkie-Poo who keeps her busy.