Episode 9: Mary Kohler and Jennifer Arndt

This episode of Leadership in Flux features Mary Kohler and Jennifer Arndt.

Mary Kohler is Vice President of Transformation for the Publications Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS), where she leads the division-wide transformation across strategy, operating model, and organizational effectiveness. In this role, she
defines how the Division evolves to deliver on strategic priorities, ensuring vision translates into clear decisions, aligned execution, and measurable outcomes.

Mary is known for treating transformation as an ongoing organizational capability rather than a one-time effort. She partners closely with other executive leaders to align strategy with day-to-day operations, helping teams navigate complexity, make meaningful tradeoffs, and focus on outcomes with the greatest impact. Her leadership emphasizes clarity, consistency, and trust, creating the conditions needed for organizations to move through change with greater speed, adaptability, and confidence.

With more than three decades of experience, Mary has led large-scale transformation efforts across global organizations, including operating model design, performance management evolution, and culture change initiatives affecting thousands of employees. She brings a strong track record of building shared ways of working, strengthening decision frameworks, and embedding feedback loops to support continuous improvement and long-term value delivery.

Prior to her current role, Mary served as Senior Director of Human Resources at ACS, where she acted as a trusted advisor to senior leadership and led HR strategy and programs across domestic and international teams. Her work included organizational design, workforce strategy, talent management, and employee engagement, laying the foundation for the transformation work she leads today.

Earlier in her career, Mary held senior HR leadership roles at ICF International and Freddie Mac, supporting complex global organizations through business transformation, workforce planning, and organizational change. Across these roles, she developed deep expertise in aligning people, strategy, and execution to deliver measurable business results. Mary holds a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Trinity University and is a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). She also holds certifications in change management and strategic workforce planning and is an active member of the Society for Human Resource Management. www.linkedin.com/in/marykohler1

Jennifer Arndt has spent more than two decades at ACS Publications, one of the world’s largest and most highly cited scientific publishers, leading work that has evolved from complex program delivery to full-scale organizational transformation. As Director of Transformation Strategy and Execution, she works at the intersection of AI adoption, organizational change, and the stubborn human dynamics that determine whether change sticks.

Jennifer’s approach starts with a simple premise: People are the system. When they understand where they’re going, trust the people leading them, and can close the gap between ideas and daily reality, transformation is inevitable.

Her work focuses on building the infrastructure, shared language, and organizational conditions that make change not just possible but repeatable. She writes about transformation at the human level on Substack and LinkedIn, where she explores why lasting change is harder than it looks and closer than it feels.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jarndt/

https://jaarndt.substack.com/

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