Albie Davis brings her experience as a mediator, trainer, systems and opportunity analyst to bear upon today's most vexing questions. As one of twelve mediators, including Jimmy Carter, profiled in When Talk Works, she lives up to her reputation as a "field builder." Albie is a sought-after consultant and keynote speaker who addresses organizational challenges from a fresh perspective, identifying natural human talents to create vision and energy. Albie began mediating in 1980 with the multicultural Urban Community Mediators in Boston. When she joined the administrative staff of the District Court Department of Massachusetts, Albie created a program to promote mediation and became its first director, helping 69 community courts develop locally run mediation programs. Additionally, as the court's Human Resources Specialist, she conducted focus groups and provided communication, conflict resolution and sexual harassment seminars for judges, clerks and employees. She has authored numerous articles on such topics as "logic behind the magic of mediation," systems design, ethics, power, culture, trust building, school mediation and "liquid leadership." Internationally, Albie has worked in South Africa with a multiracial conflict resolution program to develop training materials and methods. In Budapest, she was part of a four-country team (USA, Bosnia, Hungary and the Czech Republic) under the auspices of the SOROS Foundation, offering school mediation training for educators from 20 former Iron Curtain countries. Most recently, she has provided conflict resolution & communication skills coaching for the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and for the National Institute of Preparedness Leadership, a program of the HSPH and Kennedy School of Government, for policy makers responsible for Homeland Security. Her evolving relationship with Mary Parker Follett (1868 - 1933), an early advocate of interest-based negotiation, and called the prophet of management by Peter Drucker, has led her to bring Follett alive through performances where audiences meet Albie in the guise of Follett, hearing Follett's wise words and asking questions from the organizational to the personal. Jane Zirlis has been a management consultant and facilitator since 1985, specializing in the planning and implementation of corporate and organizational initiatives. These initiatives have included conflict resolution programs, aligning business process with corporate strategy, new product development and roll-out, revamping of management style, revision of employee assessment process, and service and quality improvements. She is an experienced trainer in the areas of conflict management, management skills, and workplace communication. Jane partners with clients at all levels, strategic through tactical, including executive planning, process and organizational redesign, as well as design and delivery of workshops and skills training. To enhance the sustainability of each initiative, she integrates models of conflict resolution and culture change, as well as exit strategies into each engagement. She has extensive experience in the financial services industry, and has also worked with intellectual research firms, the retail food industry, the travel industry and small business start-ups. She is an arbitrator with FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and is a mediator in the Massachusetts District Courts. Jane has a BA in Cross-Cultural Studies from Harvard University, and an MBA from New York University, where her thesis project was International Business Negotiations. She has traveled extensively, has worked in Europe, Japan and the Caribbean, and is fluent in Lithuanian. Patty French has more than thirty years of experience in the corporate arena in the areas of corporate policies, employment issues, DOT drug and alcohol regulations, workman’s compensation, healthcare and benefit packages, professional standards, critical incident/post traumatic stress situations, mental health practices and aviation concerns. She provides expert witness testimony for the mental health and aviation fields. Patty has developed and overseen the employee assistance program as well as headed the health department for an association with an employee group of more than 25,000 members. Active in consensus building and mutually beneficial negotiations between management and labor groups for a major corporation, she has assisted in the program development and training of labor/management team building and alternative dispute resolution. An experienced curriculum developer and trainer, Patty provides training on topics that are of interest and relevance to the workplace that promote conflict resolution management and skill building to both employee and management personnel. She is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and is certified as an alcohol and drug counselor as well as a employee assistance professional The author of a quarterly column on workplace issues, she is a graduate of the University of Kansas and Roosevelt University and holds a masters degree in counseling. |