About Pamela
Pamela is a trusted voice in leadership and transformation — devoted to helping women and mission-driven leaders translate their brilliance into influence, purpose, and powerful results.
Pamela J. Oakes is an in-demand business, leadership, life, and executive, Success Coach with a global track record of transforming leaders and organizations.
As Owner and Managing Director of The Profitable Nonprofit, she draws on decades of high-stakes experience—from advising South Africa’s top corporations during the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation era to shaping billion-dollar equity and economic initiatives in the United States.
Formerly with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Pamela has coached leaders across corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors to achieve clarity, confidence, and measurable impact.
Known for her strategic vision, results-driven approach, and powerful presence, she equips executives, entrepreneurs, and changemakers to lead with purpose, scale their influence, and achieve extraordinary results.
A certified state trainer and sought-after keynote speaker, Pamela is recognized for inspiring transformation at the highest levels of leadership.
Pamela’s coaching philosophy is simple yet profound: when leaders have the right vision, skills, and mindset, they have the power to transform not only their life, careers, and businesses, but also the world around them.
Fun Facts About Pamela
Travel is my Love Language!
Some people collect stamps, some designer handbags, — I collect passport stamps. My bucket list is a joyful jumble of dream destinations and accidental adventures.
Every trip gifts me a new story, a new flavor, and occasionally a new food group! I travel not to escape life, but to fill it with delicious, unpredictable magic.
I have only been to 33 countries which still leaves many, Many, MANY more places on my Wanderlust Wonder-List. So, here’s to boarding passes, brave taste buds, and blissful detours. Because when wanderlust calls… I don’t send it to voicemail.
I’m a Closet Crafter
While everyone thinks I’m off conquering the world or hosting transformative, enlightening coaching sessions, I’m actually knee-deep in washi tape, paper scraps, and an unreasonable amount of corrugated cardboard! Yes, friends — I’m a secret paper crafter and mixed-media collage magician aka Junk-Journal junkie.
There’s something oddly satisfying about turning magazine clippings, ticket stubs, found objects, rusty paper clips, and torn paper, into tiny works of chaotic beauty. It’s my creative outlet where used wrapping paper, grocery bags, and stray buttons become poetry, and “junk” becomes joy.
So if you ever can’t find me, follow the trail of hole-punch confetti, ink pads, and double-sided tape. I’ll be in my happy place — crafting worlds out of ephemera, bric-a-brac, bits-n-bobs and pretending not to panic when I run out of glue sticks.
I have a Secret Garden
Some people find peace in yoga. I find it in talking sweetly to my flowers. Yes, I’m officially that person — the aspiring plant whisperer cultivating paradise right here in the heart of the concrete jungle. Surrounded by apartment buildings and multiplexes, I’m blessed to have a bit of green space all to myself.
My back yard may be tiny, but it packs big Central Park and Botanical Garden energy! Complete with cobblestone paths, wrought-iron archway, and a waterfall, my transformed yard is a wildly charming secret haven where the hummingbirds, bumblebees and cabbage moths frolic blissfully amongst the hollyhocks.
Every new sprout feels like a story-book dream. When life gets too loud, I just step outside, to breathe in the petrichor (…that’s fancy talk for the way the earth smells after it rains…), and rejoice in my little urban paradise — wild, imperfect, and wonderfully green!
