We are excited to share with you the next interview in our “Beyond the Page” series featuring Carrie Abner.
What does true fairness look like in professional certification? Carrie Abner, Vice President of ICF Credentialing, pulls back the curtain on a groundbreaking initiative that’s transforming how coaches around the world become certified.
Four years ago, amid growing social conversations about equity, ICF leadership asked themselves a challenging question: were they truly living their values when it came to fairness in their credentialing process? This moment of reflection sparked a comprehensive equity assessment that would examine every aspect of how coaches earn their ICF credentials. The project, completed in October 2024, reveals both courage and commitment from an organization willing to look critically at its own practices.
Working collaboratively with ICF’s DEIB team and an academic researcher specializing in diversity, Abner’s team developed sophisticated methods to collect data, listen to stakeholders, and identify potential barriers in their processes. What they discovered led to meaningful changes: expanded assessor diversity to match growth in global markets, enhanced exam accommodations that benefit all candidates, and free exam tutorials that demystify the testing experience. Perhaps most importantly, they established ongoing feedback mechanisms that ensure continuous improvement.
“Most things that matter take courage,” Abner notes, reflecting on the vulnerability required to examine established systems for hidden biases. The assessment represents more than just procedural tweaks—it’s a fundamental shift in how ICF approaches credentialing, balancing rigorous standards with accessibility and cultural awareness.
For coaches preparing for ICF credentials, these changes mean a more equitable path to certification. For the coaching profession as a whole, ICF’s work demonstrates how organizations can move beyond good intentions to create measurable improvements in fairness and inclusion.
In this episode, I talk with Carrie about her article published in our June 2025 issue.
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