The Action Inquiry Community
Embodying and Facilitating Timely, Collaborative, and Transforming Leadership
Since his retirement from Boston College in 2008, Bill has cultivated an informal community of persons devoted to leading, coaching, consulting, and workshop activities, as well as research and publications, that embody and further encourage the practice of timely, collaborative, self-and-other-transforming leadership. For the decade before Covid-19, we devoted two three-day retreats each year to developing our own capacities for liberatory organizing, for exercising mutual power, and for attention to feedback. In recent years we’ve convened via zoom. Throughout the year, we work, alone and in different combinations, with clients and research projects, having pledged ourselves to the following mission:
We embrace a commitment to timely action inquiry
That plays a collaborative and transforming role
On behalf of developing, amongst ourselves and across generations,
Personal integrity and friendly mutuality,
As well as a just and sustainable society.
Meet the Action Inquiry Community
The image below was taken at an Action Inquiry Community Retreat.
Action Inquiry Community members:
Jane Allen, Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, England
janecatherineallen@icloud.com
Jane Allen is a co-founder and Chair of Amara Collaboration – an experienced international consultant and leadership coach working across public and private sectors. She provides advice and support for consultants working in the field of transformational organizational and leadership development with particular expertise and enthusiasm for the Global Leadership Profile and the practices of action inquiry and authentic leadership. She has extensive experience of running action-learning sets and providing a leadership coaching and mentoring practice at a strategic level.
Hilary Bradbury, Portland OR, hilary@hilarybradbury.net
Professor of Management
Oregon Health & Sciences U.: Editor-in-Chief, Action Research
Hilary Bradbury, Ph.D., is a scholar-practitioner focused on the human and organizational dimensions of creating healthy communities. Principal at AR+ Foundation – a global community of participative action researchers – she supports educators of all types, as well as educational institutions, in transforming in response to the social-ecological crisis of our times. She emphasizes the integration of research and practice, as “Action Research for Transformations.” Her global role and reputation for her work is reflected in her position as Editor in Chief of the international peer reviewed Action Research Journal. Her degrees are from Trinity College Dublin, Divinity School at U. Chicago; her PhD is from Boston College. She is a charter member of the Action Inquiry Community. Author of dozens of peer reviewed journal articles and editor of the bestselling series Handbooks of Action Research (Sage), her latest books include Eros/Power: Love in the Spirit of Inquiry (Integral Publishers, 2016, with Bill Torbert) and the popular multilingual AR+ Cookbooks (Bradbury and AR+ Associates, 2017, 2019). Born and bred in Dublin, Ireland, she lives with her family in Portland, OR.
Dana Carman, Ashland OR, dana@danacarmanintegral.com
Principal, Integral Consulting
Dana Carman is an expert in human and organizational transformation. Since 1985, Dana has worked as a senior advisor, consultant and executive coach to leaders of more than 200 visionary organizations on five continents. His clients include multi-nationals; small and mid-sized market leaders, governments and NGO’s that are committed to making a significant impact nationally, regionally and globally. For well over two decades, Dana has brought an Integral Whole Systems Approach to complex organizational change. His clients typically engage him when the cost of not succeeding with a key strategy or initiative is unacceptable.
Anne Donald, Oxford UK, anne.donald@oxfordmeta.co.uk
OxfordMeta,
“I have many years’ experience in facilitating individual and team change in the corporate world, working in the UK and internationally, including sub-Saharan Africa and Malaysia. I am currently an analyst in training, studying and working in Jungian depth psychology. What gives me life is to explore with others the inner cultural, spiritual and psychological aspects of our being, and how they manifest in our practical world. Jung asked not only the question “why did something occur, but to what end or purpose?” I am exploring the value of this approach in teams and organisations, beyond the usual individual and team typology to a deeper, more archetypal analysis of our collective experience and aspirations. A constant human challenge is to contain fear and liberate love. How much more successful we could be if we could manage this.”
Erica Foldy, New York NY, erica.foldy@nyu.edu , Associate Professor,
Wagner School of Public Service,
NYU
Professor Erica Foldy teaches at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU where she leads the Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy Program. She is affiliated faculty with the Center for Gender in Organizations at the Simmons School of Management. Her research addresses the question: What enables and inhibits collaboration and learning across potential divisions like race and gender, profession, or differences of opinion? Professor Foldy is co-author of The Color Bind: Talking (and not Talking) about Race at Work and co-editor of the Reader in Gender and Organizations. She has more than forty papers in a variety of journals and edited volumes. Professor Foldy has consulted on strategic planning, organization development, and diversity and inclusion. She holds a BA from Harvard College and a PhD from Boston College, was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Harvard Business School and a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation.
Jennifer Garvey Berger, Paekakariki NZ, jennifer@cultivatingleadership.co.nz
CEO, Cultivating Leadership
Jennifer has been researching, writing, and working with leaders in complex settings for 20 years. She is CEO of Cultivating Leadership, a consultancy that serves executives in the private, non-profit, and government sectors around the world (like Google, Novartis, Oxfam International). In her programs and in her two books, Changing on the Job, and Simple habits for complex times (with Keith Johnston), Jennifer has developed a series of tools and approaches that help leaders around the globe to grow their inner agility to thrive in uncertain and complex circumstances. She has a masters and a doctorate from Harvard University. Jennifer alternates her time between the vibrant city of London and the quiet beauty of seaside New Zealand.
Heidi Gutekunst, Helsinki, Finland, heidi@amara.fi
Amara Collaboration,
Co-founder and CEO of Amara Collaboration and currently works as a facilitator and coach, creating conditions for personal and organizational transformation. She believes in bringing heart, connection and courageous leadership to a grounded and practical level in her own life, her collaborations and her work with clients. Heidi has worked most of her career in leading positions in traditional and digital advertising agencies. She has won several awards in innovative advertising, branding, and design. As CEO for a digital agency, she led a transformation with results in employee engagement, financial performance, and new offerings. Heidi’s powerful speaking capacity has made her a regular speaker at Business Forums interested in her entrepreneurship and transforming ability.
Elaine Herdman-Barker, Sonning UK, elaine@gla.global
Co-founder and President Global Leadership Associates: Lead scorer, Global Leadership Profile
Elaine Herdman-Barker is Co-Founder & President of Global Leadership Associates and co-creator (with Bill Torbert) of the Global Leadership Profile. Her interests span working at C-Suite to finding ways to make Vertical Development and Action Inquiry ever more inclusive. Her hope is that people have the opportunity to feel at home with this developmental approach, whatever their context. In this endeavour she has been (and continues to be) greatly influenced and helped by Bill and many of the people listed here.
Richard Izard, London, England, rich@gla.org
Co-founder and Managing Director Global Leadership Associates,
Richard is a leadership development consultant and executive coach, specialising in team growth and development. He is passionate about helping leaders see new possibilities, enhancing their own and their company’s effectiveness. He has worked in senior positions across a wide range of organisations including the Kingfisher retail group (where for many years he was the music and film industry’s biggest customer) and Mars Confectionery. Richard spent eight years on the board of one business that became the largest company globally in its field. With over fifteen years at board level, he has held board responsibility across diverse areas including Sales, Marketing, Commercial, Finance, Supply Chain. As Managing Director and CEO of GLA, he brings a deeply practical and creative approach to organizational change.
Ed Kelly, Dublin IRE, ekelly11@gmail.com
Founder The Third Act
“Over the past 5 years, I’ve been working with people in transition, mostly from their second to third act in life, which has been engaging and rewarding work. Turning 60 last year, however, also felt like an opportunity for a pause. Since then I have been writing, playing golf and rediscovering my interest in other things. That said, I have time to collaborate on projects of a development nature so please contact me if you feel I might be able to contribute”.
Alevtina Kraseninnikova, Woudrichem, Netherlands, info@alevtinakraseninnikova.com Leadership Development Coach and Consultant
Alevtina is a leadership development coach and consultant, working with for profit and non-profit leaders to embrace transformational change and inspiring vision; think strategically, systemically and contextually; and build relationships, collaborating across diversity while engaging in mutual decision-making in organisations they lead and in the lives they live. Alevtina held management and senior leadership positions for nearly two decades in the mining and commodities trading industries. She has held roles leading Financial and Commercial teams ranging from 2 to 70 people spanning cultures, backgrounds and locations across the globe. She has led and participated in multiple change and transformational initiatives such as post-merge integration and systems and organisational redesign. She is a global nomad who worked and lived on three continents and in five countries, currently calls The Netherlands her home.
Valerie Townsend Livesay, San Diego CA, vlivesay@me.com
Valerie Townsend Livesay has spent most of her life in the classroom, on one side of the podium or the other. Valerie feels most at home when she is playing in the space of research, facilitation and practice in the company of others willing to co-create and push up against the edges of the learning environment. Valerie’s research and writing endeavors focus on individuals navigating what it means to be human…and the growing and shedding inherent in that process. She is currently researching and writing a book exploring the lived experience of falling back to an earlier meaning-making capacity than that which we optimally have access, and the tools that may be used to both identify and grow from it. This forthcoming book expands upon her prior theoretical research on fallback with key thinkers in the fields of human and leadership development. Valerie has been an administrator in and consultant to organizations, primarily in the fields of healthcare and higher education, working in the space of leadership and team development, human relations, strategic planning, and various aspects of nonprofit governance and fund development. Valerie earned a master’s degree in Nonprofit Leadership and Management and a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies from the University of San Diego. Valerie and her husband live in San Diego with their two children who serve as the biggest reflection of her own fluid development.
Rev. David C. McCallum, S.J., Ed.D, Rome, Italy, david.mccallumsj@discerningleadership.org
Executive Director, Program for Discerning Leadership
David is a Jesuit priest and educator working at the intersection of spiritual maturation and leadership development. After twelve years working in higher education, he now serves as the founding Executive Director of the Program for Discerning Leadership, a special project of the General Curia of the Society of Jesus, Georgetown and the Gregorian University. The Program provides leadership formation for senior Vatican officials and major superiors of religious orders in Rome, Italy, as well as internationally. He serves as a facilitator for mission driven, personal and organisational development programs, provides developmentally informed executive coaching, and delivers leadership development programs and spiritual retreats internationally. Currently, David lives in Rome and serves as a member of the Secretariat for the Synod Commission on Methodology, supporting the global Synodal process initiative by Pope Francis, and as adjunct faculty in the Institute for Anthropology, Interdisciplinary Studies of Human Dignity and Care (IADC) at the Pontifical Gregorian University. A fan of his confrere, Teilhard de Chardin, David is of the same mind- that we are “spiritual beings having human experiences.”
Grady McGonagill, Boston MA, grady@mcgonagill-consulting.com
Principal, McGonagill Consulting
For more than thirty years, Grady was Principal of McGonagill-Consulting, with clients in the business, government, and social sectors world-wide. In 2013 Grady felt called to help build a movement to address climate change. He founded and leads the Massachusetts chapter of Elders Climate Action. ECA aims to mobilize elders throughout the United States to address climate change while there is still time to protect the wellbeing of future generations. Grady holds a doctorate from Harvard University, an M.A. from Stanford University, and a B.A. from the University of Texas. He is a contributor to the Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, edited by Peter Senge et al. (New York: Doubleday, 1994) and the author of a chapter in Executive Coaching, edited by C. Fitzgerald and J. Berger (San Francisco: Davies Black Publishing, 2002)
John B. McGuire, Colorado Springs CO, mcguire@ccl.org
President, McGuire Consultant Group
John is President of the McGuire Consultant Group, an Honorary Senior Fellow at the Center for Creative Leadership, and an Action Inquiry Associate charter member. He specializes in Vertical Leadership Culture as the core method of change leadership for executives, their teams and the transformation of organizations. As a researcher-practitioner, speaker and author, John’s innovation essentially reforms traditional change methods to be consciously driven toward senior leadership’s culture developing interdependent beliefs and practices. Since 2006 his publications comprise the book Transforming Your Leadership Culture, professional journal articles from Integral Review and Leadership Quarterly to Forbes.com and HBR; multiple Handbook chapters from Sage to HBS to CCL; Op-ed columns in the Washington Post and other popular press; and an action research series of CCL Vertical White Papers. John has assisted organizations across market sectors in transformation toward Interdependent Leadership Cultures, and practiced vertical transformation through senior business management positions across industries. He holds master’s degrees from Harvard and Brandeis Universities.
Jesse McKay, Munich GE, jesmckay@gmail.com
Systems Engineer, INSYEN, European Space Agency: OD Consultant
- Russia, USA, Australia
Jesse McKay majored in psychology, has an MBA in corporate strategy, and trained in software design, development and architecture. He has worked as an engineer with a team of scientists responsible for designing and building command and monitoring systems for the International Space Station, and as a management consultant helping leaders achieve greater impact through improved management on the individual, team and organisational levels. Jesse has a broad inter-cultural background with professional engagements in Russia, Brazil, Germany, Korea, USA, Ethiopia, Australia, Estonia and Canada.
Verónica Menduiña, Alicante, Spain, veronica@veronicamenduiña.com
Consultant, GLP in Spanish
Verónica Menduiña is a highly experienced business consultant and systemic family therapist who uses the Constellation approach, and also sponsors the GLP in Spanish, holding Action Inquiry and GLP Workshops in Alicante. Verónica graduated in Communication Sciences, specialising in intercultural conflict management, at the University of United Nations in Japan; and is trained in Gestalt Therapy as well.
Aliki Nicolaides, Athens GA, : alikin@uga.edu
Associate Professor & Graduate Coordinator,
College of Education, University of Georgia, Athens
Aliki Nicolaides Ed.D, is Associate Professor of Adult Learning, Leadership and Adult Development at the University of Georgia in the program of Learning, Leadership and Organization Development. Dr. Nicolaides seeks to optimize vital developmental conditions for adults, groups and systems to learn and grow. Through the past decade of research and teaching, she has developed a theory of learning-from-and-within-complexity called ‘Generative Learning’. This theory highlights and explores how adults may learn from within the complexity and ambiguity that is so prevalent in this period of ‘liquid’ modernity. Specifically, her work suggests that under certain conditions and with intentional scaffolding, encounters with ambiguity and complexity can evoke deep learning and reveal hidden potential that can generate more timely, sustainable action. Dr. Nicolaides’ facilitation approach is grounded in Collaborative Developmental Action Inquiry (CDAI); a methodology which consciously develops adult’s intra-and-inter active collaborative capacity to better respond to the fluidity of the 21st century lifeworld. In addition to her academic scholarship and facilitation, Dr. Nicolaides currently serves as the Director of the International Transformative Learning Association.
Nick Owen, London, England, nick@nickowen.net
Principal, Nick Owen Associates
Nick Owen is a consultant with an international reputation whose work has been acclaimed across a variety of contexts: corporate organisations, the professions, the arts, and education. Drawing on a rich and diverse background as writer, theatre director, actor, storyteller, coach, facilitator, and company director, he is known for his creative and alternative ways of exploring some of the key issues that affect individual and organisational success, innovation, and transformation. Nick’s particular areas of expertise include coaching and facilitating individuals and senior teams, assisting leaders to develop their own story and their organisation’s narrative, supporting individuals to develop their own uniquely engaging presentation style and working with metaphor to unlock difficult issues.
Charles J. (Chuck) Palus, Philadelphia, PA, palusc@ccl.org
Research Faculty & Senior Fellow
Center for Creative Leadership
Chuck is a Senior Fellow and a Research Faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership, with projects in the areas of relational leadership, leadership culture, and vertical transformation. He is a co-founder of CCL Labs, an innovation network hosted by CCL which has produced a series of practical tools for democratizing leadership development on a global scale including Visual Explorer®, Experience Explorer™, Transformations™, Leadership Culture Map™, and the Vertical Self-Estimate™. He is a co-founder of the Organizational Leadership practice area at CCL. His publications are collaborative efforts and include Making Common Sense, Evolving Leaders, Putting Something in the Middle, The Leader’s Edge, Relational Leadership in Africa, Vertical Transformation of Leadership Culture, and Direction, Alignment Commitment: Toward a More Integrative Ontology of Leadership. A significant portion of this work has been in alliance with Bill Torbert and Global Leadership Associates. Chuck has a BS in chemical engineering from Penn State University and a PhD in social psychology from Boston College.
Irena Pranskevičiūtė Blazevice, Vilnius, Lithuania, irena@amara.fi
Amara Collaboration
Organisational consultant, researcher, public speaker, facilitator, member of Action Inquiry Fellowship, engaged in series of systemic transformations on organizational and state level. She facilitates transition of organizations and institutions towards network based polycentric organisational systems, consults start-ups in designing sustainable business models based on self-organization and evolutionary purpose. Vast experience of leadership and systemic transformations she integrates into academic research of polycentric systems and self-management models applying them for the decentralised management of public services in fields of education, social care and environmental preservation. Action Inquiry and Integral approach are at the heart of all her activities and way of living.
Michael Quoia, San Francisco, michael@assessinginaction.com
Co-Founder and Head of Products, Assessing in Action
Michael Quoia designs and delivers leader development, team development, and organizational effectiveness programs and engagements. He is an expert in developmental action inquiry, transformational leadership, adaptive leadership, and structural team dynamics. Michael designs and manages the development of AinA’s suite of effectiveness and transformational tools, including the flagship Team Dynamics Profile (TDP). He also works with start-up CEOs in support of increasing agility and readiness to scale. He is currently working on a book on Team Dynamics for leaders and consultants, which will be published in late 2020.
Yumi Sera, Tokyo, Japan, yumirx7@gmail.com
ChangeAgent
An organization development consultant and facilitator at Change Agent Inc, the company that brought the idea of “Systems Thinking” from Peter Senge, John Sterman and Donella/Dennis Meadows to Japan. Yumi has a bachelor degree with a major in Law and is now taking her master’s degree at Graduate School of System Design and Management, Keio University. She is interested in developing individuals to impact organizations and the world, using experience and somatic based learning. She has founded and presided over several non-profit organizations offering youth leadership programs in Japan. Yumi contributed to the publication of the Japanese translation of Action Inquiry (2016), as well as to organizing the first Action Inquiry workshop in Japan with Bill.
Shakiyla Smith, Atlanta GA, shakiylasmith@gmail.com
Vice-President, Corporate Culture, Fetzer Institute
Shakiyla Smith is a scholar-practitioner and action researcher whose primary question is how we develop the individual, relational, and collective capacity to meet the demands of the 21st century. She is currently the Director of Organizational Culture at the Fetzer Institute where she leads efforts to foster a spiritually-grounded, growth-oriented community of freedom. She has a master’s degree in public health and a doctorate in adult education with a focus on organization development. Prior to her current position, she worked in the areas of injury and violence prevention research, program development and evaluation, and research administration for more than 15 years both within academia and the federal government. She is also a proud tree hugger, trained yoga and meditation instructor, and energy medicine (reiki) practitioner.
Lisa Stefanac, San Francisco CA, lisa@assessinginaction.com
Co-Founder and Head of Programs, Assessing in Action
Lisa Stefanac is committed to team and leadership effectiveness and talent management across the globe with clients ranging from high growth VC-backed startups to five of the largest companies in the world and across several industries including technology, oil & gas, consumer, and digital health. She is a leading master in structural team dynamics, building upon the work of Dr. David Kantor. Lisa is also an interpersonal dynamics ninja, dedicated to teaching all humans how to give/receive feedback and engage with one another in a way that sustains if not strengthens relationship. Lisa is Co-Founder and Head of Programs for Assessing in Action LLC. She teaches Interpersonal Dynamics as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She is also on staff at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she serves as a master coach in exec education programs, and as a lead master facilitator in the prestigious Women’s Circles program serving Stanford Alumnae.
Eric Svaren, Seattle, Washington USA, eric@incubate-activate.com
Principal, Incubate Activate LLC
Eric is a leadership coach, teacher and thinker. He’s been an organization development consultant for 25 years, working primarily in the social sector (government, non-profits, health care, and higher education), though his practice increasingly focuses on coaching. Eric is an affiliate coach of Global Leadership Associates and two other consultancies. He also teaches leadership at the University of Washington. He is consistently awed by the implications of adult development theory in his professional and personal life. In repose, Eric spends time hosting friends and neighbors around his backyard firepit and at the family retreat on Orcas Island.
Steven S. Taylor, Worcester MA
, USA, sst@wpi.edu
Professor of Leadership and Creativity, WPI Business School
Steve’s research is focused in two areas: organizational aesthetics and reflective practice. The former applies art-based scholarship and practice to management and organizations. The latter focuses on the ability to analyze our own actions and learn how to be more effective, ethical, and artful as managers and leaders. His books include: Leadership Craft, Leadership Art; You’re a Genius: Using Reflective Practice to Master the Craft of Leadership; and Staging Organization: Plays as Critical Commentaries on Workplace Life. He is the founding editor of the journal Organizational Aesthetics. Steve is also a playwright, whose plays have been performed in England, France, Poland, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, Italy, Australia, and the United States. He received a PhD in management from Boston College; an MA in performing arts from Emerson College; and a BS in humanities from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Pablo Tovar, Alicante, Spain, pablo.tovar@addventure.es
Addventure
Pablo is Managing Partner of AddVenture and Senior Fellow of Oxford Leadership. He is an Executive Coach to senior executives and a Senior Consultant and Facilitator with over 30 years of experience. In AddVenture and Oxford Leadership he has been project and programme leader in projects of leadership development and large- scale organisational transformation in multinational companies from industries such as banking, pharma, telecommunications, consulting, retail, infrastructures… Pablo holds a degree in Psychology, with a major in Organisational Psychology and a Masters Degree in HR Management. He has completed several business administration and leadership development programmes at IESE, ESADE, Harvard University and San Jose State University. Pablo’s accreditations include Professional Certified Coach (PCC) by ICF, Certified in the Co-Active Coaching programme (CPCC) by CTI, and ORSCer by CRR. He is also certified in several methodologies including TLC (The Leadership Circle) and AI&GLP (Action Inquiry & Global Leadership Profile) by Bill Torbert.
Nancy C. Wallis, Santa Barbara CA, www.drnancywallis.com
Principal, Wallis Consulting
With a PhD in Human and Organizational Systems, Dr. Wallis has concentrated her managerial, consulting and teaching on the practice and development of leadership within complex and vibrant organizational settings. She received her MBA and MSPH degrees from UCLA and holds a Change Management Leadership Certificate from the National Training Labs (NTL). She is a member of the Academy of Management and serves on the board of its Organization Development and Change Division. She is a professor at Pitzer College in Claremont, CA, enjoys adjunct leadership faculty positions at Pepperdine and Danube Universities, and is a faculty member with the Center for Creative Leadership. Nancy skilfully employs the Global Leadership Profile in leadership classrooms and corporate contexts in the USA and EU.
Rosa Zubizarreta, Great Barrington, MA, rosa@diapraxis.com
Principal, DiaPraxis
Rosa Zubizarreta lives in service to our growing societal capacity for arriving at powerful truths, together — the cultural shift from argument-as-battle to collaborative epistemologies. She practices, writes about, and researches relational approaches to group facilitation that tap the energy of divergent perspectives to generate shared systemic understandings, felt wholeness, and inspired action. Author of “From Conflict to Creative Collaboration: A User’s Guide to Dynamic Facilitation”, she teaches this practice internationally. Having earned three master’s degrees – multicultural education, social work, and organization development – along the course of her journey, she is currently completing doctoral studies at Fielding Graduate University, where she is writing a dissertation on the growth of relationally-based participatory public policy processes in Austria and Germany. An activist at heart, she has also written about the synergy between direct action and deep dialogue.
Romeck van Zeijl, Klosterneuburg, Austria, romeckvanzeijl@protonmail.com
Global Leadership Associates
Mostly since coming into contact with the Ridhwan (aka Diamond Approach) work, I’ve become a lover of Inquiry – first and then second and increasingly third person. I love the depth of connection that emerges from it, and the Eros dimension – to use Bill’s words. Where the Unkown emerges, not only at the meaning making cognitive level but at energetic and embodied levels – where we emerge feeling energised and nourished. More and more, such impactful conversations – whether with colleagues or coachees or loved ones – have become the center of my life. And I have recognised so much of myself in Bill’s work, I have rarely if ever experienced such resonance with a book as when reading Numbskull or Eros/Power, that I feel lucky to be invited into this AI community. I’m also delighted to be, since a few months, part of the GLA community. My work experience: I went from teaching psychotherapy and supervision into leadership and org development, with a passionate interest in creating transformational learning journeys. My website in case you are curious is: www.relationalleadership.academy.
Riina Raudne, Tallin, Estonia
Riina has a background in social sciences and in public mental health. Over the last 15 years, she has found her missions in stigmatized public health issues such as alcohol policy, HIV/AIDS and mental health; and has weaved together multilevel interventions that have led to systems and discourse change. Currently in the trenches of parenthood, she is working on concepts that could help parents of young families avoid isolation and other mental health risks; and to cultivate local, real-life community.
Marcelo Cardoso, São Paulo – Brazil, marcelo@chieintegrates.com
Founder of www.chieintegrates.com
Marcelo has held C suite executive positions over the past 25 years in large organizations in Latin America. With a degree in Business Administration and extensive studies on human and organizational development – involving Ken Wilber’s Integral Approach, adult’s devemopment, Otto Scharmer’s Theory U, Complexity Theory and training in coaching and facilitation, Marcelo has been working to create conditions for people and organizations to transform. He recently published the book – Gestão Integral – where he shares his learning from the last 20 years and leads CMI a training program in consulting and Integral facilitation in partnership with Sean Hargens , Amara among others. Marcelo is also the founder of Instituto Integral Brasil in 2011.
Gideon Culman, Washington DC, USA, gideon@kstreetcoaching.com
K Street Coaching, Executive coach
Gideon Culman lives with his family in Washington, DC. He enjoys inspired company. In his role as a coach, Gideon accompanies folks who are brazen enough to question the necessity of how things are right now on their quests to breathe heart and soul into spaces that were not built with most people’s wellbeing in mind. Gideon has a soft spot for transportive meals, narratives, ideas, and conversations that heighten our experience of the innumerable moments in between. Gideon’s community garden plot is a source of profound joy and vexation, kind of like liberal democracy and every relationship that matters.
Akasha, St. George’s, Grenada, akasha@cultivatingleadership.com
Cultivating Leadership, Gardener of Belonging
Akasha spends most of his time between Grenada and Bermuda with his partner, their son, and a very protective cockapoo dog. He is a pilgrim who seeks out interactions that go beyond intimacy. He stands for cultivating spaces and designing experiences that facilitate liberatory-growth. He works with Cultivating Leadership as a coach, facilitator, and the firm’s Gardener of Belonging. His research and practice are at the intersection of adult development, complexity, and intercultural awareness. Akasha is an educator. He teaches developmental psychology and gender inequality at St. George’s University in Grenada. He has a doctorate in Human and is credentialed through the International Coach Federation as a Professional Certified Coach.
Halim Dunsky, Redmond, Washington USA, halim@fullpresencecoaching.com
Founder, Full Presence Coaching
My career has spanned more than 40 years in commercial software, consulting, corporate IT, education, and community organizations. I have held leadership and technical positions in large global corporations, small organizations, and startups; started a consultancy and a non-profit; and co-founded a graduate school in Green Business. I’ve been a student of adult development since the ‘90s. In 2002 I completed a Master’s in Organizational Systems with a thesis on transitions in consciousness. I’m in private practice and am also a coach, facilitator, and commentary writer with GLA. I have lived my adult life at the meeting place of the world of organizations and the world of spirituality. I have a lifetime of practice in inner work including Subud, Iyengar yoga, bhakti yoga, meditation, psychotherapy, Authentic Movement, Sufism, the Dances of Universal Peace, and the Diamond Approach. I am dedicated to ongoing embodied inquiry. My arts are music and poetry. https://weedsdreamsandflowers.com
Reo Watanabe, San Diego, California, USA, reo@watanabe-associates.com
Consultant, Watanabe & Associates
Reo is a scholar-practitioner of leadership development. He believes anyone can exercise leadership to make a meaningful life and a better world. He is also convinced leadership can be learned and therefore should be taught properly and efficiently. His passion is to strengthen world peace by promoting leadership not only at an individual level but also at a systemic level. He teaches adaptive leadership using the case-in-point method and offers executive training both in the United States and Japan. His research focuses on the intersection of adaptive leadership and adult development. He is a certified Reliable Subject-Object Interview Scorer and a certified Global Leadership Profile Coach. He is also a trained facilitator of the Immunity to Change and the case-in-point pedagogy of adaptive leadership. https://developingleadership.net/
Alis Anagnostakis, Queensland, Australia, alis@verticaldevelopmentinstitute.com
Founder of the Vertical Development Institute
Alis is a facilitator and researcher walking the line between the practice and the study of leadership development and human transformation. Her work focuses on understanding the process by which ever more conscious leaders can be supported to bloom into their full potential and then turning the science into novel leadership development practices. Alis holds a Masters’ degree in Positive Leadership and Strategy and has completed her PhD studying leaders’ consciousness transformation as they navigate executive development programs. Her research uncovered a previously unstudied aspect of vertical development, showing that growth into later stages comes with embracing and skilfully navigating contrasting emotions. As the founder of the Vertical Development Institute (VDI), Alis aspires to create a meeting place for the various schools of thought in the field. In working with leaders, teams, and organisations internationally she hopes to make the practices of adult development ever more accessible at a time when mature leadership seems more needed than ever. www.alisanagnostakis.com, www.verticaldevelopmentinstitute.com
Frank J. Barrett, PhD, fbarrett@yes2themess.com
https://www.yestothemess.org
Frank J. Barrett, PhD is Professor of Management in the Graduate School Defense Management at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He also is a faculty member in Human and Organizational Development at Fielding Graduate University. He received his BA in Government and International Relations from the University of Notre Dame, his MA in English from the University of Notre Dame, and his PhD in Organizational Behavior from Case Western Reserve University. Frank consulted to various organizations including Boeing, U. S. Navy, Ford Motor Manufacturing Division, Ford Motor Information Strategy Group, Bell South, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and University Hospitals of Cleveland. He is the author of Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz. He is also an active jazz pianist. In addition to leading his own trios and quartets, he has travelled extensively in the United States, England, and Mexico with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.
Dana Carman, Portland, USA, dana@danacarmanintegral.com
Dana Carman Integral Consulting, https://danacarmanintegral.com
Dana Carman is an expert in human and organizational transformation. Since 1984 he has worked as a senior advisor, consultant and executive coach to leaders of more than 200 visionary organizations on five continents. The majority of his past clients have been with healthcare systems across the globe. His clients include multi-nationals, small and mid-sized market leaders, governments and NGOs that are committed to making a significant impact nationally, regionally and globally. Dana has co-founded several pioneering consulting firms including Clarion Consulting, Action Inquiry Associates and Pacific Integral. He has co-designed and helped birth two groundbreaking development programs for global change agents: CHIE Brazil’s Certification in Integral Consulting and Facilitation and Pacific Integral’s award-winning GTC program. Dana has developed a deep appreciation for both our profound differences and our essential humanity. He is a lifelong learner and has studied with many extraordinary teachers. His greatest source of sustenance is his relationship with the natural world, his family and community. His passions include telemark skiing, hiking, backpacking, and stand-up paddleboarding. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his spouse and life partner, Hilary Bradbury, step-daughter Riane, and mischievous dog, Clementine.
Jeremy Hirshberg, PhD, San Diego, USA, jeremy.hirshberg@gmail.com
From Founder to Executive roles, Jeremy guides a portfolio of companies each focused on animating a distinct mission to build impactful leaders, teams, and organizations. Known for his executive coaching, and leadership development, Jeremy brings an interdisciplinary background developing leaders from across sectors including energy, defense, finance, and manufacturing. With direct experience in the C-Suite alongside consulting expertise in supporting executives, his approach is marked by pragmatic and genuine partnership in addition to being informed by formal training in industrial and organizational psychology. Jeremy has published several pieces on vital topics that leaders regularly navigate and offered practical insights that are readily implementable. Jeremy thoughtfully collaborates to clarify underlying values that produce meaningfully lasting outcomes. Teams that work with him are galvanized towards progress in complex work having created space to bring out the best in all involved.
Trish Silber, Washington, DC, USA, trish@aliniad.com
Aliniad Consulting Partners, Inc.
Trish has over 25 years of experience consulting with organizations facing rapid and unprecedented changes in technology, markets, strategy, and leadership. As a result, her consulting and coaching processes are nimble. She integrates leading edge research in fields such as systems thinking, complexity science, and adult development with creative design and the realities of her clients’ context. She is known for crafting inclusive consulting engagements that strengthen an organization’s leadership practices and culture while achieving the task at hand. Clients frequently contact Trish to design and facilitate strategic, generative, and high-stakes conversations, particularly when multiple stakeholders are involved. Trish enjoys partnering with Global Leadership Associates in various capacities such as: developmental leadership coach; GLP certification shadow coach; GLP commentary writer; program facilitator; and friend. She has provided pro bono coaching to social entrepreneurs through organizations such as The Climate Breakthrough Project, SupporTED, and Uncharted. Amidst the spaces Trish can be found in her wild native garden.
Aftab Erfan, Vancouver, Canada, aftab.erfan@gmail.com
Chief Equity Officer, City of Vancouver
Aftab Erfan (she/her) is a scholar-practitioner currently serving as the City of Vancouver’s first Chief Equity Officer, where she leads a form of internal transformation for a public organisation of nearly 10,000 employees. Originally from Iran and born into a family of down-to-earth Sufis, she moved to Coast Salish territories as a teenager. Her formal education is in environmental sciences, fine arts, and urban planning. She did a significant part of her growing up inside the youth environmental movement in Canada, where she learned that activism is an effective antidote to despair. In her late 20s, Aftab completed an action-research-based PhD in Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia, where she subsequently taught for nearly a decade and completed a 4 year stint as Director of Dialogue and Conflict Engagement for the university. She was introduced to Action Inquiry in 2009 through the Authentic Leadership in Action Institute (formerly Shambhala Institute), where she was a member of the governing council when Bill Torbert joined the faculty. Aftab has been involved with the CDAI community of inquiry in one way or another since 2012 and has found many of her most meaningful friendships through this network. Next to her family (two sons, three nieces, three nephews and all the adults) her primary engagement is with the large systemic issues of our times. She wonders how we can become somewhat useful leaders in times of societal struggle, collapse and transition. You can read some of her thoughts on the intersection of social justice and adult development theory in this paper https://integral-review.org/issues/vol_17_no_1_erfan_the_many_face_of_jedi.pdf
Julie Freyberg, Seattle WA
Financial & Organizational Consultant
freebird@well.com
Michael Krot, San Francisco CA
Co-CEO and Managing Partner, Americas
Sequoia Change
michael.krot@sequoiachange.com
Cara Miller, San Diego CA
Interindependent Researcher & Consultant
miller@sandiego.edu
Robin Postel, Tempe AZ
Founder, TLIO – Transformational Learning for Individuals & Organizations
robin@tlio.com
Jenny W. Rudolph, Boston MA
Director, Institute for Medical Simulation Graduate Programs
Harvard Medical School & Mass General Hospital
JWRudolph@partners.org
John Sabbage, Kent UK
Senior Scorer, Global Leadership Profile
johnsabbage@btinternet.com
Brian Sumner, Revelstoke CAN
Independent Organisation Development Consultant
British Columbia Ministry for Children and Families
briansumner@rctvonline.net
Karen Yeyinmen, Cambridge MA
Editor and Co-Chair, Harvard Educational Review,
Doctoral Student in Adult Development, HGSE
kyeyinmen@gmail.com
Gayle Karen Young, San Francisco CA
Cultivating Leadership Colleague
gayle@cultivatingleadership.com
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