Ruth Pearce, JD, MSc, PMP, PCC, is a certified Workplaces at Their Best Consultant with VIA and a leadership strategist dedicated to strengthening wellbeing within the legal profession.

An immigrant, parent, partner, friend, and lifelong learner, Ruth’s journey reflects both resilience and rigor. She earned her MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics, grounding her work in analytical depth and global perspective. After more than a decade leading complex financial services projects as a Program Manager, she returned to school at Purdue Global Law (then Concord Law School) to pursue law while continuing to work. She passed the California Bar and, most recently, the North Carolina Bar. Her multidisciplinary background spans economist, project manager, teacher, lawyer, and award-winning executive coach.

Ruth’s VIA certification builds on over ten years of integrating character strengths into leadership development, coaching, and professional education. She helps organizations create cultures where high performance and wellbeing reinforce one another rather than compete. Certified as a Professional Coach by the International Coaching Federation, and a Senior Practitioner by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council, Ruth has not only coached many leaders but also trained more than 60 new coaches. Ruth has explored coaching with some of the best coaches in the world including Robert Biswas-Diener, Christian Van Nieuwerburgh and Cathy Liska. Ruth’s favorite mentors are those that challenge the status quo and rattle cages. She is known to be a bit of a cage rattler herself!

Her work focuses particularly on lawyers and law students. Having navigated the demands of legal education and dual bar licensure herself, she understands the pressure and perfectionism embedded in the profession. She is committed to helping legal professionals protect their wellbeing—not only for their own sustainability, but to preserve ethical judgment, professional competence, and public trust.

Ruth is the creator of five LinkedIn Learning courses and the author of two books Be Hopeful, Be Strong, Be Brave, Be Curious (Wiley 2024) and Be a Project Motivator (Berrett-Koehler 2018). Chapter contributor to Projectland Goes to the Movies (Project Guru Press 2026)