Dr. Liz Pavese is an organizational psychologist, researcher, and advisor whose work centers on a question that most leadership development ignores: what actually happens to a leader's identity when the work they've been doing stops fitting who they are becoming?

It's a question she's watched play out across nearly two decades of work inside high-growth organizations, startups, global enterprises, and leadership teams under pressure. The pattern — what she now calls the Identity Transition Framework — maps the predictable phases leaders move through when the old playbook breaks down: from first friction, through disorientation, into the work of building a new internal operating system, and finally toward integration.

That framework is the foundation of Pavese Insights Lab, her research-grounded advisory and coaching practice, and of her forthcoming book, The In-Between.

Before founding the Lab, Liz held senior roles at Workday, Qualtrics, CoachHub, Limeade, and Healthfirst — organizations where she sat at the intersection of behavioral science, product strategy, and leadership development. She has led teams, advised executives, and built people strategies in environments where the pace was fast and the consequences of misalignment were real. She has been the external advisor and the internal leader, and that dual vantage point informs how she works.

Her advisory and coaching practice works with senior executives at inflection points, founders navigating identity compression as their companies scale, and organizations where leadership drift has become a systemic issue — showing up in decisions, culture, and team dynamics before anyone has named what's happening.

Liz holds a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and is an ICF credentialed executive coach. She has delivered keynotes and workshops at ATD, SHRM, SIOP, and Workday Rising, and her writing has appeared in Fast Company, SHRM, HR.com, and Training Industry. She is a contributing author to The Coaching Buyer's Handbook and The Ethical Coaches Handbook.

Her work begins with a single premise: the leaders who navigate transitions well are not the ones who push through fastest, they're the ones who understand what is actually changing, and why.