principal and co-founder of spiraling up solutions llc

soonalyn
jacob

is a seasoned businesswoman, mother of four, active in her community, and is an International Coaching Federation Certified life/business coach. She received her BA in Economics from the University of Denver (CWC), and her master’s degree in International Business/MIM, MBA from the American Graduate School of International Management. and was an International Market Analyst for AT&T before joining her husband in real-estate. Her work and leadership on non-profit boards led her, at a critical time to hire a coach.  The experience was transformative and using the techniques and tools effectively with others was the impetus to her obtaining her Professional Coaching Certification from the Institute of Professional Excellence in Coaching (IPEC), as well as to become a Gallup Certified Strengths Advisor. She has successfully coached hundreds of leaders and organizations locally and internationally and specializes in facilitating strategic direction and thriving relationships, including, the Directors of the City of San Antonio, VIA Metropolitan Transit, National Charity League, Harvard Women In Defense, Diplomacy, and Development, Communities in Schools, JDRF, Vital Voices.

Based in San Antonio Texas with her husband Daniel, she is also proficient in Spanish and provides coaching to clients internationally. Soonalyn’s top five StrengthsFinder strength indicators are: Positivity, Belief, Maximizer, Connectedness and Intellection.     

co-founder of spiraling up solutions llc

JINNYN
jacob

is an expert in international women’s leadership, social entrepreneurship, and innovation strategy.  She has a Masters Degree in Public Policy from Harvard, a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, and Certificate in Leadership Development from Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership.  Before starting Spiraling Up Solutions, Jinnyn worked with the world’s female heads of state at the Council of Women World Leaders, co-created a social enterprise providing English-language and leadership education to under-served female populations in Mexico, and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Turkey where she researched youth civil society and the role of women.  In Doha, Qatar, Jinnyn was instrumental in establishing an academic department of International Affairs at the national university and in creating leadership programming that resulted in the country’s first student political society and women’s political network.  Her work has been featured in multiple publications and has been translated into four languages.  

Based in Washington DC, Jinnyn is also a Senior Innovation Strategist at the consulting company, Booz Allen Hamilton.  In this role she works with public and private sector clients on how to empower their staff to create ecosystems where innovation can thrive.  She was recently named by DC Live as one of the NEW Power Women in DC Tech and by DC Inno Magazine as a 50 on Fire.

 Jinnyn’s top five strengths according to Clifton StrengthsFinder are:  Woo, Communication, Input, Positivity, and Activator.

digital Strategist

JEREMY
MASSEY

is a UX designer and passionate entrepreneur. He has a BFA in New Media Art from the University of North Texas, and is a member of AIGA San Antonio. He is a graduate of the Spiraling Up Your Strengths program and has been instrumental in forming the web and media content for the company as well as a key contributor for the Quest For Success program, from concept to implementation.  

According to one of his clients: “his greatest talents are that he listens carefully to what they want to convey for their business and helps them define their brand through what product or service they offer, to whom and how best to be represented in the marketplace.  His keen design style enables him to find the symbols, colors, materials for the print and online media that best describes them, and creates a fresh and unique identity for each of his projects.  He has a zen like calm yet and has the ability to laser focus to gets project done in the time specified”.

He is especially suited to working with “new concept” projects, companies, and individuals who are newly venturing into their business.   He is able to take difficult and vague concepts and quickly synthesize the information and design infographics for effective training and sales programs that are visually exciting and easy to understand with key visual and verbal messages.  

He is passionate about working with innovators and helping entrepreneur’s including Spiraling Up Solution’s clients develop their brand identity so that they have the tools and support they need to successfully run their businesses.

Jeremy’s top five strengths according to Clifton StrengthsFinder are:  Futuristic, Maximizer,  Strategic, Achiever, and Learner 

STUDENT PROGRAM DEVELOPER

ADRIANA

MERLO

Adriana was born in San Antonio, Texas but has called Mexico City, Boston, Geneva, Austin, and Hong Kong home. She is fluent in Spanish, French, and Italian. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin where she had the opportunity to  intern at top advertising firms such as Bromley Communications and Edelman. She is the founding member of Pure Fashion group, an organization that promotes modest and fashionable clothing, and Her Campus Magazine in Austin, Texas the top global online community for college women.  She also paid her dues copyediting for The Daily Texan and writing features for The Horn magazine.  Following her heart before reentering the corporate world, she completed a two-year assignment with Teach for America in the “third worst performing” high school in the state of Texas.  Her first year she was assigned to be high school social studies special educator, while her second year she was an 11th grade U.S. History educator.  

As a graduate of the Spiraling Up Program, she has taken the essential concepts of how to prioritize your strengths, time and energy and adapted them innovatively and successfully into the classroom. Under her unique voice and teaching methods she was able to have her students writing monthly essays, inviting holocaust survivors to speak on campus, fundraising to attend theater performances and increase their state assessment scores from a 38% passing rate the previous year to 90% passing rate. She has taken her marketing, communication and educational skills to be a chief educational specialist on the Quest for Success Program for high school students.

Adriana’s top five strengths according to Clifton StrengthsFinder are:  Strategic, Ideation,  Input, Context, and Achiever