Our Staff and Board
Meet our Affiliate Consultants and Trainers
Linda Guinee brings to her work a passion for social justice and peacebuilding, a lifelong commitment to social justice and a belief in the potential of groups of people coming together to create powerful approaches to social issues. Prior to coming to IISC, Linda was the Associate Director of Client Services at the AIDS Action Committee, the largest AIDS Service Organization in New England. She also worked as a tour manager with the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, traveling with the Quilt and organizing volunteers and displays around the United States. In a previous life, Linda worked at the Long Term Research Institute, where she was the senior researcher on a project studying the songs of humpback whales and co-discovered that humpbacks use rhymes as mnemonic devices in their songs. Linda was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Humanism and Cultural Change from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay and a Master of Arts degree in Conflict Resolution at Antioch University - McGregor. She is a trained mediator. Linda delivers facilitation services, helps manage the content of collaborative efforts with a wide variety of IISC’s clients and helps bring technological solutions to collaborative processes.
Past and current clients include:
- The Philanthropy for Social Justice and Peace Community of Practice
- Bernard van Leer Foundation
- The Ford Foundation
- Boston GLASS
- Women’s Action for New Directions
- Connect US
- Funders for Lesbian and Gay Issues
- The Peace and Security Initiative
- The Public Schools of Brookline(in a process to eliminate the racial achievement gap)
- Rockefeller Brothers Fund
- Growald Family Foundation
Greatest Life Achievement:
Getting my grandmother up out of her hospital bed and walking again.
Inspiration:
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there’s a field. I’ll meet you there.”
- Rumi
Marianne Hughes Executive Director
Marianne Hughes is the Executive Director of the Interaction Institute for Social Change where she combines her social policy expertise, organizing skills, devotion to social justice, and deep faith in the human capacity for goodness to furthering IISC’s mission. Marianne’s professional commitment to social change began in 1966, during an early life-directing experience as one of the original VISTA Volunteers. She followed this with years of anti-war, disarmament, and low-income grassroots organizing. From these experiences, a spiritual and political direction emerged and her work has followed. In 1993, Marianne was hired by Interaction Associates to launch the Interaction Institute for Social Change as a nonprofit partner organization to work in the social and public sectors as well as local communities. Since that time, she has taken IISC from its start-up phase and a staff of two to an organization with offices in Boston and Belfast and fifty staff and affiliates, serving hundreds of clients annually across the country and world. In addition to network building, consulting, facilitating, and training, Marianne builds strategic alliances and fosters connections among social change agents and organizations, and leads the development of new products and initiatives as well as organizational thinking and learning about innovative ways to create high impact social change. Marianne also provides consulting, facilitation, network building, leadership development, and training services to movement builders, nonprofits organizations, public sector agencies, and cross-sectoral collaborations to help them think strategically and take vision to action.
Past and current clients include:
- Barr Foundation
- The Boston Foundation
- DentaQuest Foundation
- Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative/Boston Promise
- Ford Foundation/Laboratory for New Thinking on Foreign Policy
- Ford Foundation/Philanthropy for Social Justice
- Grantmakers for Effective Organizations
- Institute for Civic Leadership
- Institute for Public Health, Dublin, Ireland
- Peace and Security Initiative
- Project Bread
- The Ten Point Coalition
- Union of Concerned Scientists
- Workers Educational Association, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Quote:
Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Charlie is a member of the support staff, lending administrative skills to IISC’s Senior Associates and service delivery support to clients. Prior to joining IISC, Charlie worked for eight years in the supported housing industry as a member of MMA Financial’s operations team. In addition, Charlie has worked in various capacities as a gardener, substitute teacher, waiter, short order cook, and as a laborer on a concrete placement crew. Charlie is also a guitarist & songwriter. He has played in numerous rock bands over the last 20 years and currently can be found playing around Boston with a local indie-pop group called the Mercy James Gang.
Sekou oversees IISC’s day-to-day financial and accounting operations. He began as a volunteer with a vision of giving back to the community. He wanted to work for a non-profit and be a player, not a spectator, in life. IISC has made that possible. Sekou feels very fortunate to be part of the IISC family. He is originally from Liberia, West Africa, and was brought up to value family. When he first began work with IISC, Sekou was overwhelmed by his colleagues’ outlook, attitudes, the ambiance of the work place, and the diversity that surrounded the organization. He strongly believes that we can get along and work toward a common goal of social transformation. Prior to working for IISC, Sekou managed a couple of family owned filling stations in Monrovia, Liberia.
Eileen Mayko Director of Finance and Administration
Eileen comes to the Institute with a passion for the contributions that nonprofits make to the world. She has focused her professional career on working within and in support of the nonprofit sector. She began with Facilities Resource Management Company, a small consulting firm based in Connecticut. There her clients ranged from Rockefeller University and Barnard College to the School District of Sarasota County and Ringling School of Art and Design. Eileen also has worked in the education sector for University of Pennsylvania, Sylvan Learning Centers, and Harcum College. Eileen received a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a master of science degree in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania. Outside of work Eileen serves as a member of the board of two Philadelphia-based arts organizations. Originally from New England, Eileen recently relocated back after spending ten years living in Philadelphia. She is thrilled to be a part of the Institute and is inspired by the work that the Institute is doing in the world.
Quote:
“You must do the thing that you think you cannot do.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt
Andrea loves people and life. She is driven by a desire to challenge inequity and bridge the divisions between people. Born in Chile and transplanted to the suburbs of New York at the age of 8, her boundary crossing experiences began at an early age. Andrea believes in the possibility of community because of her own experiences bridging cultural and socio-economic differences. Andrea began organizing around Latin American issues in college and then shifted her focus from global to local efforts in Roxbury, MA at the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, a multicultural resident-led community-based planning and organizing organization. Andrea delved more deeply into leadership development activities at YouthBuild USA and then IISC. Andrea delivers training, consulting and facilitation services to IISC clients in both Spanish and English. Andrea holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University and a Master in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When not working, Andrea enjoys dancing, dabbling in jewelry-making and sharing her home with family and friends.
Past and current clients include:
- Barr Foundation
- Boston Promise Initiative
- CARE
- Springfield Health Equity Initiative
- Thrive in Five Initiative
Sara Oaklander Senior Associate
Sara Oaklander was first inspired by IISC when, as a senior manager in a nonprofit human services agency, she participated in a Facilitative Leadership® workshop and realized that it was offering compelling new ways of thinking about and approaching common leadership and organizational challenges. With a clear intention in mind to merge her interests in organizational development and social action, she jumped on the chance to join IISC’s strategic planning team as a content manager. She has since considered it a privilege to be part of the IISC team where she does client content and project management and works on marketing and other special projects. Prior to coming to IISC, Sara held a variety of organizational and program management positions in local nonprofit human services organizations, did grant writing for several others, and was trained and served as a court-based mediator. Over the course of those 18 years, Sara pursued her longstanding interest in organizational development by participating in and leading the design and facilitation of processes to improve organizational effectiveness – both at work and in community settings. Sara holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master of Public and Private Management from Yale University.
Past and current clients include:
- Barr Foundation/Barr Fellows Program
- Barr Foundation/Transportation for Massachusetts
- The Boston Foundation
- DentaQuest Foundation
- Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative/Boston Promise Initiative
- Grantmakers for Effective Organizations
- Ms. Foundation for Women
- Sport in Society, College of Professional Studies, Northeastern University
- Project Bread: The Walk for Hunger
- Union of Concerned Scientists
Curtis brings to IISC his experience in education, community building, leadership development and program design, as well as a passion for efforts that support environmental sustainability. He has worked as an independent research, evaluation, and training consultant to a number of civic engagement and nonprofit support initiatives, including the Building Movement Project (currently housed at Demos), the Nonprofit Quarterly, and Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University. Prior to joining IISC, Curtis was the Program and Knowledge Manager of the Building Excellent Schools Fellowship for aspiring urban charter school founders. The son of two teachers, Curtis was raised in Flint, Michigan, and benefited from early experiences living overseas. After college, he returned to Africa to do community and youth development work in Zimbabwe through Silveira House, where he was introduced to and deeply influenced by participatory action research and Training for Transformation methods. He went on to create ImPACT, a model youth service learning program based at The Learning Web in Ithaca, New York. In addition to his work at IISC, Curtis is an adjunct faculty member at Antioch University and a board member of the New England Grassroots Environment Fund. He has a B.A. from the University of Michigan and a Master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School.
Past and current partners/clients include:
- Antioch University
- Barr Foundation - Transportation for Massachusetts
- Boston Collaborative for Food and Fitness
- City Growers, LLC
- Conservation International
- Council of Michigan Foundations
- Environmental Defense Fund, Oceans Program
- Grantmakers for Effective Organizations
- Graustein Memorial Fund
- Institute for Civic Leadership
- Leadership SouthCoast
- Mass Audubon
- New Hampshire Children in Nature Coalition
- New Leaders for New Schools
- Ontario Trillium Fund
- Southside Community Land Trust - Rhode Island Food Council
- The Trustees of Reservations
- Union of Concerned Scientists
- United Way of Connecticut - P20 Work Group on Educator Effectiveness
- Vermont Farm to Plate Network
Greatest Life Accomplishments:
Meeting and marrying my wife; fathering three healthy daughters; keeping good friends.
Inspirations:
“I’ve grown impatient with the kind of debate we used to have about whether the optimists are right or the pessimists are right. Neither are right. There is too much bad news to justify complacency. There is too much good news to justify despair.”
- Donella Meadows
“It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there.”
- William Carlos Williams
Cynthia Silva Parker Senior Associate
Cynthia Silva Parker is an advocate for equity and justice and builds the capacity of individuals, organizations and networks to work collaboratively for social justice. She has served as a Senior Associate at the Interaction Institute for Social Change since 1998 and was affiliated with the Institute for 5 years before joining the staff. She delivers training, consulting, coaching, and facilitation services to nonprofit and public organizations focused on racial equity, environmental sustainability, community development and other aspects of social justice work. She has led or co-led the development of several IISC workshops, including Diversity in the Collaborative Organization, Collaborative Social Change, and Fundamentals of Facilitation for Racial Justice Work.
Cynthia’s prior leadership experience includes Director of Boston Freedom Summer, the Ten Point Coalition’s faith-based youth leadership and community development project, and Project Administrator for the Algebra Project, Inc., a national nonprofit education group focused on access to algebra as a civil right. Cynthia holds a BA from Harvard-Radcliffe Colleges and a Master of Public Policy/MCRP from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
Past and current clients and partners include:
- Annie E. Casey Foundation
- Berklee College of Music
- Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation-MA Institute for Community Health Leaders
- Boston Public Health Commission
- Center for Effective Philanthropy
- City of Boston, Climate Action Planning Process
- My Sister’s Keeper and The Sisterhood for Peace: Transforming Sudan
- New Profit, Inc.
- Prevent Blindness America - New England Region
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Greatest Life Accomplishment:
My most important accomplishments are a work in progress: the ongoing journey to build a solid spiritual foundation, nurture a loving family, and carry hope into the world through my life and my work.
Inspiration:
“…And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
Toni Phillips Education Associate
Toni is a member of the support team and co-manages the information, administrative and financial systems for the Education Practice. In addition, she is responsible for the implementation of human resource systems. Prior to joining IISC, Toni was the Office Manager for Interaction Associates, IISC’s for-profit partner. She led the support team, working in numerous positions during nine years of employment. While at Interaction Associates, she traveled to the Sudan, Ethiopia and Nairobi as a member of a peace-talk delegation led by former President Jimmy Carter. This delegation facilitated conversations between Ethiopia and Eritrea as they worked toward peace agreements. Toni partnered with the Ethiopian delegation to manage their communications with other delegates. Toni is the church secretary at the historic 130 year-old Union Baptist Church in Cambridge and serves on the Board of Directors of the Cambridge Community Center, a 70 year-old organization providing after-school services to children. She also is a member of numerous community and fundraising committees. Toni graduated summa cum laude from the University of Massachusetts-Boston with a Bachelor’s degree in Black Studies, and a certificate from the Teacher Certification Program. She also had a Master’s degree in American Studies from the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
Greatest Life Achievements:
Watching with pride as my sons entered manhood, and enjoying my grandchildren.
Inspiration:
“Choose to live each day in purpose, on purpose.”
- Michelle McKinney Hammond
Gibrán Rivera Senior Associate
“Together we can do what we could not do alone.” With this in mind, Gibrán’s job is to help people work better together. He is a consultant committed to the development of leaders, organizations and networks and uses coaching, training, process design and facilitation in service of those who are committed to social transformation.
Gibrán works with people who understand that we must take our next evolutionary leap. In keeping with the overall focus of IISC, Gibrán uses three lenses in his approach to collaborative leadership:
- Shifting dynamics of power, equity and inclusion
- Shifting from organizations to networks
- Building beloved community
Gibrán’s graduate studies were in diplomacy and processes of negotiation and mediation. He has devoted much of his work life to the idea of democracy and to the work of emancipatory politics in urban communities.
Gibrán’s approach to his work today is particularly influenced by the work of Robert Gass, founder of the Rockwood Leadership Institute; C. Otto Scharmer and his peers at the Presencing Institute; the work and writings of Grace Lee Boggs at the Boggs Center in Detroit; and the forward thinking work of John Powell and the Kirwan Institute.
Current clients include:
- Barr Foundation
- Ford Foundation
- The Opportunity Agenda
- Rockwood’s Leading from the Inside Out Network
- Urban Bush Women
Greatest Life Achievement:
Daring to love with all my heart and committing my everyday to meeting others at a deeper place.
Inspiration:
“See God even in that moment of great loss, in profound pain, just as you visualize God in profound ecstasy.”
- Gurumayi Chidvilasananda
Christina Savage Operations Manager
Christina is responsible for the integrity of IISC’s systems, including contracting, invoicing, and technology. In addition she leads the IISC support team to ensure smooth communication with Senior Associates and service delivery to clients. Christina also contributes to the organization’s finance team and is a member of the implementation team overseeing IISC’s strategic plan. Prior to joining IISC, Christina held a number of diverse and interesting jobs, each one contributing to a rich background and variety of skills. These include managing director of a small theater, catering temp, medical receptionist, professional (non-equity) actor, box office manager, and candy store manager. Christina has a B.A. in Theater Arts from the University of Massachusetts.
Inspiration:
“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
- Sweet Honey in the Rock
Chris Toppin Resource Coordinator
Chris is grateful for the opportunity to connect and build relationships each day with her colleagues and clients at IISC. She is inspired by the passion of all those she has the privilege of encountering day after day who work tirelessly toward social justice. Chris is a member of the support team and coordinates resources around public workshops, staffing of trainings, and is the initial point of contact for anyone reaching out to IISC. She also co-manages the affiliate consultants and does project management for some of our west coast clients. Prior to joining IISC, Chris was the Public Workshop Coordinator for Interaction Associates. Chris is a musician and recording artist. Before starting a family she toured the United States and UK in the early 1990’s, promoting releases for the Atlantic recording rock group Fuzzy. She recently put together “Rock and Roll Coochicoo”, a children’s music compilation with musicians in and around the Boston area. Chris’ most cherished undertaking is raising her two daughters, Ella and Lucinda. She and her husband revel and delight in the daily inspiration their children bring.
Past and current clients include:
- Berklee College of Music
- Crime and Justice Institute
- Holyoke Food and Fitness Policy Center
- Active Living by Design
- Go Kids Inc.
- Oakland Youth Chorus
- Public Health Institute
- Oregon Catholic Press
Inspiration:
“Racism isn’t born, folks, it’s taught.
I have a two year old son.
You know what he hates?
Naps!
End of list.”
- Dennis Leary
“I feel a very unusual sensation – if it is not indigestion,
I think it must be gratitude.”
- Benjamin Disraeli
Jen is passionate about issues of racial justice, faith, queerness, transgender rights, and economic transformation. She is curious about new and creative ways to build community that will restore everyone’s humanity. She was raised in Rochester, NY and spent time in the San Francisco bay area working with organizations including Peace Action West, Critical Resistance, the Challenging White Supremacy Workshop, and Community United Against Violence. Jen has done organizing particularly around issues of class privilege and white privilege. At IISC, Jen’s work focuses on content and project management, facilitation, and training for clients who are seeking to make deep institutional, structural and/or community change. Jen also serves on the board of Resource Generation and is a passionate cook and accordion player. Jen holds a B.A. in religion and anthropology from Mount Holyoke College and a Masters in Theological Studies from Harvard University.
Past and current clients include:
- Barr Foundation Network Building Community of Practice
- Boston Public Health Commission
- City of Boston Climate Action Plan
- Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative
Sharon Duffy Administration Support, IISC Ireland Office
Sharon is the newest member of Interaction Institute for Social Change’s Ireland Office. Prior to joining IISC, Sharon worked as an IT trainer for 7 years before taking time out to travel. Since then she has worked for Oxfam Northern Ireland and is currently also working with Belfast’s South Eastern Education and Library Board as a Library Assistant. When not working, Sharon likes to cook for friends, take walks with her dog and read novels.
Stevie Johnston Senior Associate
Stevie Johnston is IISC’s new Senior Associate in Ireland. Until recently, Stevie was the Director of the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) in Northern Ireland, an adult education body whose mission is simply to ‘make learning irresistible.’ Before becoming director he ran community leadership programs for the WEA, and while on a research visit to Boston in 1995 to look for new leadership models, discovered IISC. A partnership quickly followed and since then thousands of participants in Ireland have had the opportunity to benefit from IISC’s workshops. As a long standing affiliate trainer with IISC, Stevie has delivered Facilitative Leadership many times.
Stevie holds a BSc in Social Administration, an MSc in Social Administration, Policy and Planning and an MBA from the University of Ulster, where he specialized in strategic development for not for profit organizations. He has attended the Federal Executive Institute’s Charlottesville, VA campus and graduated from their Leadership in a Democratic Society program (where he also got to see round the Pentagon on an electric buggy!). Steve has also worked in Eastern Europe helping build civic democracy in Russia, Lithuania and Georgia (where he ran collaborative leadership training in Stalin’s summer house!).
Active in community life, Stevie is treasurer of his local community development association and chairperson of Community Places, a not for profit agency that enables communities to have a voice in planning and regeneration.
Inspirations:
Stevie’s favorite quote is Ghandi’s “live every day as if it were your last and learn as if you’ll live forever”. As such he’s working hard to master Peter Senge Five Disciplines and draws something new from Gareth Morgan’s ‘Images of Organizations’ every time he lifts it.
Louise O'Meara Regional Director, IISC Ireland Office
Louise is the Regional Director of the IISC Ireland Office. She comes to IISC with a background in strategic planning, organizational development, evaluation and policy impact assessment. In addition, she has considerable expertise in the area of gender equality work, including the “gender proofing” of policies. Louise has worked as an independent organizational consultant, trainer, and facilitator; a rural development officer; and as an urban community development officer. Her experiences in the private, public and voluntary sectors in Ireland convinced her of the need for developing effective relationships and structures within and between agencies, organizations and groups, in pursuit of social justice. Furthermore, her international consulting work in Russia, Georgia, the Czech Republic, and other countries has deepened her commitment to ensuring that skills for collaboration are tailored to local cultural contexts. Louise received her Bachelor’s degree from University College Cork where she studied sociology and social policy. She is an active member of a number of nonprofit organizations and serves as a board member of the Belfast Film Festival and the Women’s Resource and Development Agency.
Past and current clients include:
- Age Concern Northern Ireland
- Institute for Public Health Ireland
- Belfast Community Safety Partnership
- Changing Aging Partnership
- Fabry International Network
- Pavee Point Travellers Centre
- Southern Health & Social Services Board Public Health Department
- West Belfast Advice Forum
- Worker’s Educational Association
- Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Dublin
Inspiration:
“In times of change, the learners will inherit the earth, while the knowers will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
- Eric Hoffer
Linda Dunkel President, Interaction Associates
Linda has been the President and CEO of Interaction Associates, the partner agency of IISC, since 2002 – and a consultant with IA for a decade before that. When she discovered IA’s original workshop, Facilitative Leadership, in 1993, she found a framework from which to operate as a leader that was both practical and “true.” She believes that very simply, if every leader could adopt the seven practices of facilitative leadership at least, and execute well with them, we would have organizations that were more worthy places for human beings.
Linda, an expert facilitator and coach to senior leaders, especially in new situations, change management and transitions, was recognized as one of America’s 2006 Best Bosses. Linda is among only 18 winners of the national award, which is sponsored by the national clearinghouse on best practices in workplace excellence, Winning Workplaces.
Linda has a BS in Education and a MA in International Business, both from the University of Texas. Prior to joining IA, she served as the Vice President of AMR, the parent of American Airlines, and as the Vice President of three training organizations. She began her career teaching anthropology and economics at a high school. Linda has two daughters, one husband, and two grandchildren.
Current and past clients include:
- CPS Energy
- STP
- SACU
- Pepsi
- Millenium Pharmaceuticals
- Centex Homes
- Comcast East Coast
Favorite quote:
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
- Anne Frank
Jeremy Liu Executive Director, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation
Jeremy spent the last 11 years at the Asian Community Development Corporation in Boston – nearly five years as the Executive Director and the previous six years as Director of Community Programs. During his time at ACDC, Jeremy oversaw a wide range of programs, including community media programs, housing and commercial real estate development, cultural heritage and tourism promotion, community organizing, neighborhood planning, community technology development, and social enterprise creation.
At ACDC Jeremy has worked with for-profit developers to ensure that large scale, high rise market rate developments also included affordable apartments and condominiums that served the local community on a long term basis. With researchers at MIT Media Lab, he launched an innovative multilingual program called Speakeasy that links English limited immigrants to services in their own languages through cell phone technology. As an artist, Jeremy has created community-based art projects, social practice performance art, and installations.
Idelisse Malave Organizational Consultant
Idelisse Malavé is an organizational consultant and coach committed to supporting social justice leaders, groups and networks. She has worked on a range of organizational effectiveness and design projects, including crafting strategic thinking processes, planning, organizational change management, team-building, mediation, meeting design and facilitation, leadership transitions and governance. In addition to her consultant practice, she serves as the part-time Director of Organizational Management at the Center for Social Inclusion.
Over a thirty-year career, Idelisse ran the Tides Foundation and served as Vice President of the Ms. Foundation. As a Columbia University-educated lawyer, she litigated civil rights cases with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund and represented women in family law matters and people of color and women in small businesses while in private practice. Idelisse is also co-author of the book Mother Daughter Revolution: From Good Girls to Great Women (Bantam Books, 1993).
Idelisse serves as board chair of the Rockwood Leadership Institute and on the board of MamaCash, a Dutch-based international women’s foundation.
Thomas Rice Chairman of the Board
Thomas J. Rice, Ph.D. is a co-founder and Chairman of the Interaction Institute for Social Change and CEO Emeritus of Interaction Associates, Inc., IISC’s for-profit partner and an employee-owned consulting and training firm. Thomas’ specialty is consulting with leaders and leadership teams to forge value-based strategic alignment and building collaborative work cultures that achieve breakthrough results. Through a combination of organizational assessment, personal coaching, reframing issues and modeling new behaviors, Rice has established a reputation in private, public-sector and community-based organizations for catalyzing rapid and lasting change.
Before joining Interaction Associates, he was a Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University and a Research Associate at Harvard University School of Education. He has published over fifty articles and reviews (topics include: Leadership; American Public Policy-making; Education; Workplace Democracy; Processes of Social Transformation) and has contributed chapters to five books, including; Using Sociology (R. Straus, ed. General Hall, ‘92) The Post-Bureaucratic Organization (C. Heckscher & A. Donnelon, eds. Sage, ‘94), and The Collaborative Leadership Fieldbook (D. Chrislip, ed. Jossey-Bass, forthcoming, 5/02). Current projects include: Strategies to end homelessness; Civic leadership; Grassroots leadership in Northern Ireland, Disruptive innovations (in private and public organizational contexts) and Leadership wisdom. Thomas is an inspirational keynote speaker at national and international conferences and has conducted workshops in over twenty countries over the past twenty-five years.
Past and current clients include:
- Benjamin Moore & Company
- Oxfam America
- Irish Public Health Institute
- Du Pont
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Institute for Civic Leadership, Portland, ME
- Belfast Regional Stewarship Initiative
- Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co.
Frank Robinson, Ph.D. Executive Director, Partners for a Healthier Community, Inc.
Frank is a public health professional with more than 30 years of experience working in community health education and has served as executive director for Partners for a Healthier Community for the past 13 years. Under Frank’s leadership, PHC has become a preeminent public health promotion organization in western Massachusetts and well-regarded as a community nonprofit incubator and capacity building organization.
Before joining PHC, Frank worked for four years as director of the City of Springfield’s Community Partnership grant for substance abuse prevention. Earlier in his career, he directed the development of local and regional systems operated by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.
Jamil Simon Founder and President, Spectrum Media
Jamil is founder and president of Spectrum Media, an award-winning producer and director of educational videos and documentaries, and an expert in development communications. He has produced many films and videos on teaching and learning for organizations such as Harvard University, MIT, Oxfam America, WGBH and Children’s Television Workshop. He has produced and directed documentaries on topics ranging from science education and early childhood development to environmental and energy conservation. He also designs and implements communications programs to promote reform in developing countries. He designed public awareness programs to support democratization in Mali, water conservation in Tunisia and conflict resolution education in Jordan. He has also worked on environmental reform in Malawi and Madagascar. He has worked for several donor organizations, including USAID, DFID, Asia Development Bank and the World Bank. Jamil spent most of the past year in Haiti, working for USAID as an advisor to the Haitian government to help improve communications between the government and the people, following the earthquake.
Mr. Simon has continually championed the use of multimedia tools to advance conflict resolution education around the world, and has produced several projects to promote peacebuilding and reconciliation. He is currently in pre-production on a documentary about the peacebuilding process in Burundi. In addition, along with a team of curriculum developers, media producers and communication specialists, he has developed the Peace Teaching Project to make multilingual, video-based conflict resolution training materials accessible to educators everywhere, especially those in developing countries. Jamil is also an accomplished photographer. Click here to check out Jamil’s still photography.
David Straus Treasurer of the Board
David Straus is the founder of Interaction Associates, Inc. and has over the years served in every major leadership position, including President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board. Under his guidance, Interaction Associates has become a recognized leader in organizational development, group process facilitation, training, and consulting. Under grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Carnegie Corporation, David has conducted research in creativity and developed training programs in problem solving. Mr. Straus coauthored the bestseller, How to Make Meetings Work (Wyden Books, 1976) and has just completed a new book, How To Make Collaboration Work: Powerful Ways to Build Consensus, Solve Problems, and Make Decisions (Berrett-Koehler, 2002). David’s service with nonprofits includes: The Interaction Institute for Social Change (on going), Shady Hill School (late 80’s), Boston Institute for Psychotherapy (early 90’s), Cambridge Center for Adult Education (mid 80’s), Mt Auburn Cemetery (current), Mass Audubon Society Council (current).
Akaya Windwood President, Rockwood Leadership Institute
Prior to becoming president of Rockwood in January 2008, Akaya served as Rockwood’s director of leadership development for three years. An executive leadership coach and organizational consultant, Akaya has more than 30 years of experience working for social justice. She is known nationally for her commitment to social and economic justice, and for building a compelling vision for effectiveness and collaboration in the nonprofit and social benefit sectors.