MEET June Kress

June Kress is an executive and career coach working with leaders and emerging leaders in the corporate, government, and nonprofit sectors. She received her coach training at Georgetown University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership in 2018, and her Associate Certified Coach credential (ACC) and Professional Certified Coach credential (PCC) from the International Coaching Federation in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Her PCC credential was renewed in March, 2024.

June is also a consultant to nonprofit executive directors on their board of directors and other governance challenges. Her strategic advice to positively impact overall organizational and managerial strength is based on more than 35 years of experience in the Washington region’s nonprofit sector as a board leader, board member, and executive director.

These two complimentary services – coaching and consulting – are provided through June Kress Consulting, LLC, a District of Columbia Limited Liability Company formed in 2017.

June’s vast experience spans several decades as a criminal justice researcher, policy analyst, program director, consultant, and academic. After earning her bachelors degree in sociology from New York University and a masters and doctorate from the School of Criminology, University of California, Berkeley, she taught criminology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. This was followed by several years as a research director in San Francisco and later as a senior policy analyst in the US Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) where she was responsible for policy reform work related to improving Indian Country law enforcement. In addition, she spent several years at the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs in the area of corrections and reentry. In 2002, she completed a year as a loaned intergovernmental executive with the Council of the District of Columbia’s Judiciary Committee, where she drafted legislation and assisted in the oversight of DC justice system agencies.

From 2004 to 2017, she served as Executive Director of the Council for Court Excellence, a nonprofit, nonpartisan civic organization that since 1982 has worked to improve the administration of justice in the local and federal courts and related agencies in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. At CCE, she was responsible for overall staff leadership and management of the Council, working with a large Board of Directors drawn from the legal, business, judicial, and civic communities, and for prudent stewardship of both the organization’s financial resources and its reputation as a respected independent voice in the justice system.

Dr. Kress has an active community service background. In 1991, she was one of the founders of the St. Luke’s Shelter for Homeless Men, served as its coordinator for 13 years, and until 2006, chaired the Shelter’s Board of Directors. Also in 1991, she was one of the founders of the Community Council for the Homeless at Friendship Place, was a member of the Friendship Place Board and Executive Committee from 1991 until 2016 and served as Co-President from 2009 to 2011. In 2002, she was the recipient of the Benjamin E. Cooper Award for her work with the homeless and received the award for the second time in 2011. From 2009 to 2020, June also served on the Board of Directors of the Anne Frank House (now known as Anne’s Place, Inc.) that provides permanent housing for formerly homeless men and women with chronic mental illness, and chaired the organization’s Development Committee for a decade. In addition, from 2016 to 2019, she was a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Child Research Center, a District of Columbia pre-school founded in 1928, and on the board of IAHR, Interfaith Action for Human Rights from 2016 until 2022.

Currently, she serves as Parliamentarian and Chair of the Nominating Committee for the Sisterhood of Adas Israel Congregation, and served as Sisterhood’s Vice President of Membership from 2013 to 2024. She is also on the Advisory Council of Tzedeck DC, a legal services organization focused on debt-related crises, and on the board of the Council for Court Excellence since 2019. In 2022, she was appointed to a second 3-year term to the DC Bar Board of Governors as a non-lawyer representative. She has been a member of Leadership Greater Washington since 2005. She is also an active member of the Cosmos Club, since 2015, where she has served on the New Member Orientation Committee, the Finance Committee, chaired the Legal Affairs Group from 2017 to 2020, was a member of the Bylaws Committee from 2019 to 2020, a member of the Club’s Admissions Committee from 2020 to 2022, the Admissions Committee Chair from 2022 till May of 2023, and as chair of the Club’s revived Spanish Language Table from 2020 until May of 2023. Currently, she serves on the New Member Orientation Committee and the Admissions Advisory Council and has chaired the Membership Council since 2024. She was a resident of the District’s Glover Park community for more than 35 years and now lives nearby in the Cathedral Heights community.