As a gerontologist, master coach, advisor, and speaker, Barbara is well known as a caring truth-teller, strategic thought partner, and accountability advocate. She brings evidence-informed, human-centered guidance to people and organizations navigating Middlescence and beyond.
Barbara Waxman, founder of The Odyssey Group, is a highly sought-after longevity and leadership advocate, advisor, coach, keynote speaker, and author. Barbara’s body of work—at the intersection of coaching, leadership, adult development, and longevity—translates cutting-edge science and collective wisdom into practical frameworks. Her mission is to help people, and the institutions that serve them, understand and act on the dynamics and potential of an aging world.
Barbara’s leadership as a gerontologist in the coaching field has culminated in the transformative coaching model Entrepreneurship Turned Inward™, the evidence-informed Seven Lifestyle Levers Assessment™, and the Longevity Lifeplan™, a framework that helps people and organizations align today’s decisions with the futures they want to create. She popularized Middlescence as a modern life stage and is advancing the Third Span™, longevity’s next frontier. Her upcoming TEDxBoston: Unlocking Longevity 2025 talk explores how we can make longer lives fully lived lives.
Her insights have appeared on CBS This Morning and in outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Thrive Global, Next Avenue, Marin Magazine, to name a few. Barbara is the author of The Middlescence Manifesto and contributed the chapter How to Avoid Burnout, Provide Exceptional Care, and Enhance Work-Life Integration to Springer’s The Successful Health Care Professional’s Guide. She holds master’s degrees in Gerontology and Public Administration from the University of Southern California, is a graduate of Colgate University, and earned coaching certifications through the International Coach Federation and The Hudson Institute.
Connect with Barbara’s team to inquire about your next event, workshop, or other opportunity.
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Gerontologist and life stage expert, Barbara Waxman, shares valuable insights that will turn everything you think about the future of aging and longevity in the 21st century on its head. During this dynamic presentation, Barbara distills decades of research to help you develop insights into how the aging of America and demographics of the 21st century have revealed the life stage Middlescence, creating a tremendous opportunity for communities, companies, investors and policy makers.
"Barb is singular as a teacher. She is an outstanding colleague and a phenomenal teacher. Barb has a unique adaptive teaching style. Barb is meticulous, organized, specific and precise but she is also extremely intuitive and able to flex toward the needs of the people in front of her. This makes working with Barb a powerful balance between structure and flow that few are able to match. Barb is deeply qualified and studied in her field. This depth of knowledge and practice is what allows her to shift so easily between the plan and the needs she sees. Be prepared, be professional, and be ready to go all the way with her because she is not f**king around. Best of all, be assured that she will get amazing results."
"Barbara facilitated one of the most impactful exercises I've ever been through. I left the workshop with the confidence I needed to leave my unfulfilling corporate job and pursue I life I now live and love everyday. Barbara is a highly skilled coach and facilitator with a deep understanding of what it takes to help people move through and towards what they want. She cares about the people she works with. She uses progressive tools to identify where we are what we need and want, and provides a map to see things more clearly so that decisions become easier."
"Before working with Barbara I did not understand the potential of coaching. Barbara has the ability to capture the essence of a complex situation and build a productive conversation around it. She understands the details and the players in my environment so we can dive into breaking things down in workable ways, she asks the right questions so I can determine the best answers. That is how you learn."
"Once I started working with Barbara, I identified ways in which I was working against myself work-wise, health-wise and even psychologically...[The] level of true support and concern for my well-being made it possible for me to be more creative in problem-solving across my entire life."
"Barbara Waxman's empathetic and practical approach to inspiring people to embrace midlife is a marvel to watch."
"Barbara has a terrific tool box and is very results driven, thoughtful and organized. She helps me see different ways of viewing a situation which are transformational."
"Barbara was a strong asset as I prepared to step into an executive role. She helped me articulate what was holding me back; create a plan to effectively transition my peer relationships into direct reports; then confidently step into the expanded external requirements of my new role."
Barbara blends together wisdom, leadership, coaching and business acumen to help you achieve your own goals. Whether it's a career transition, a challenge in your current role, a desire to create a long-term plan, or to have a Team Leadership Coach to help your team, Barbara does it all with grace, humor and incredible support.
"So many breakthroughs, impossible to count. Many of the things that I thought I cared about were utterly insignificant compared to what really mattered to me. She helped me attain clarity of purpose, both for "now" and for the longer-term; I was able to re-center myself on what I truly valued in all facets of my life and rechannel the courage that I deployed on behalf of everyone around me to courage in myself. "
"Barbara is compassionate, empathetic and challenges you to create the change you want to see so as to grow in all facets of life."
"Barbara’s energy is positive and comes from practicing what she preached. Before working together my leadership felt scattered with lack of appropriate focus at time. With Barbara’s insights I have been more self-aware of my strengths and challenges and have been about to strengthen my overall leadership as a result."
