My first real (not counting my paper route) summer job was teaching water sports, activity director and camp counselor for kids summer programs. During the winter I attended high school learned to restore old cars and rebuild and fly airplanes.
First year college was a French and language immersion in Collonges, France. I gained a BS in Theology and Humanities from Columbia Union College and started working with youth programs. After a brief failed marriage I entered Loma Linda University gaining a MS in Marriage Family Child Counseling.
While learning the practice of counseling over the last 30 years I've worked with child protective services in California, domestic violence, community mental health clinic in Leesburg, Virginia, an adolescent acute care facility near Boston, the Family Therapy Institute/NeuroLinguistics Training Center where I worked, trained and taught personal change skills in Alexandria, Virginia. Five other colleagues and I started an integrative medicine center in Alexandria.
Upon invitation I began consulting with two partners who had recently been purchased by a larger company and stated they needed a different perspective during difficult conversations. I learned Organizational Change shares many roots with family systems. I completed a certificate at Columbia University in Organizational Development and have since consulted to many family owned business and teams.
As a member of the International Organizational Development Association-IODA I attended a learning conference in Hungary and began sharing family business concepts. I was invited in 2002 and 2004 to the Hungarian O D Society-SZMT to present a further exchange of ideas on organizational change within the Small and Medium Enterprises-SME's emerging in the region and continue these learning affiliations.
I'm constantly informed by my work on boards as a volunteer member or consultant, and the interest of the family lens when teaching leadership, team performance, communication and culture.
A few years ago I started the Free to Fly Foundation, a social enterprise business incubator organized as a for profit and a Non-Profit Corporation that open training centers that teach youth to build and learn to fly airplanes while gaining certifications and education. The for profit sustains the non profit while allowing individual donations and volunteer opportunities and expansion. Our first facility will open on donated land near Bahia, Brazil as our South American headquarters to focus on developing projects in Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.
I enjoy teaching and facilitating learning groups. I've taught at Georgetown University with the Organizational Development Consulting certificate and facilitated learning groups for client practicums.
I continue to provide executive coaching with business leaders (and their spouses), team and organizational development to clients.
