We have 17 participants in our group, although Mike Smith and Bruce Gregory will not be able to attend the Napa meeting.
Information provided by each of the following:
Andrew Cohill, Ph.D. is Director of the Blacksburg Electronic Village (BEV) for Virginia Tech and an information architect with an educational background in architecture, ergonomics, and computer science. His career in computing and networked information systems covers twenty years work in private industry, consulting, and academia. Cohill has been the Director of the BEV for almost four years.
The BEV is the most successful community network project in the world. More than 40% of the town population is connected directly to the Internet via modems and high speed connections, and 62% use electronic mail. More than two-thirds of the local business community uses the Internet to advertise products and services. Uses include educational, medical applications, government and general information, and other retail and commercial opportunities.
The BEV is a model for the development of community networks around the country and the world. Much of Cohill's efforts are related to teaching others how to create healthy electronic communities. The project has been covered widely in the media nationally and internationally, with more than 150 articles, from The New York Times, to major television network coverage. A steady stream of international visitors come to Blacksburg to learn more about the project. Current activities include fiber to the home in Blacksburg and other communities, supporting electronic commerce, and the design of a new generation of network information tools developed specifically for community use.
He is an adjunct professor in the Department of Architecture at Virginia Tech, and is affiliated with the Industrial Design program. He teaches classes on information design regularly. He has published numerous papers, articles, and book chapters, and has spoken widely on networked information systems, the Internet, and software systems design. He is the author and co-editor of Community Networks, a new book from Artech House.
Cohill is active professionally in the Environmental Design Research Association and the Association for Computing Machinery. He is also the founder and principal of Design Nine, a consulting firm that specializes in using technology in creative ways to solve business and management problems.
Gordon Feller is the President of Integrated Strategies. He conducts research for private companies and government agencies on the processes of change unfolding inside the former USSR and Eastern/Central Europe, where he has worked since 1979. His work is published weekly by The Financial Times of London and The Economist. He also contributes research and commentary on a regular basis to a host of other publishers. As reflected in public lectures and his writings, he has a life-long interest in the mechanisms and systems that stimulate and sustain fundamental societal, economic and political change at all levels, including at both "the mass" and "the elite" levels. His latest endeavor is "Quantum Leaps", an IBM-sponsored magazine where he serves as Editor. It's electronic version is located atwww.ibm.com/OtherVoices/QuantumLeaps
Bruce Gregory, Ph.D. has been a licensed therapist for 25 years and for the last 15 years has been involved with a variety of business organizations in leadership training, crisis intervention and team building. He's particularly interested in how leadership characteristics at the top of an organization create and influence the environment, culture and opportunities within the organization. He uses a "process emphasis" on accountability, boundaries, vision, intimidation, and communication skills.
Bruce James, a visionary leader and successful entrepreneur, has spent a lifetime building and managing technologically innovative printing and publishing businesses. He pioneered the use of computers in the production of printing and forged many industry innovations in electronic image generation. He has founded a number of businesses in the U.S. and Poland while developing a lifelong pattern of support for organizations which embrace the principles of freedom through democracy and the values of the American enterprise system. He has served on the boards of numerous civic, educational and business organizations throughout America, including the Rochester Institute for Technology, the National Technological Institute for the Deaf and as Chairman of the Congressional Roundtable of Printing Industries of America in Washington, D.C. He retired in 1993 at the age of 51 from the active management of businesses to devote his time and energy to private passions which include education, technological innovation and community service. He recently announced his candidacy for 1998 election to the United States Senate for Nevada. He has three sons, and his wife Nora and he live at Lake Tahoe.
Prasad Kaipa is primarily a researcher and thinker in the areas of learning, thinking and innovation. My interest is to integrate many facets of human and organization development from neurology, psychology, philosophy, education and spirituality perspectives and come up with a sustainable, holistic and meaningful framework that allows individual and collective growth to take place. Since 1990, I have been able to develop and apply my conceptual models in organizations to design executive education, creativity and leadership development, and in designing CD-ROMs for coaching executives. My special focus is aligning soft and hard sides of business like integrating strategy, processes and people through three dimensional models like pyramids and tetrahedrons and create tangible ways for people to relate to systems and difficult concepts. Before starting the Mithya Institute for Learning and Knowledge Architecture in 1990, I was a manager for Apple Computer in the international product marketing group, an Apple University Fellow researching learning processors, an assistant professor in University of Utah researching Hiroshima/Nagasaki radiation effects and a post doctoral fellow in Physics. I spend about 100 days a year consulting, 100 days researching and 100 days in India every year.
Dr. Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer is founder and director of America Speaks. This year-old not-for-profit seeks to link authentic citizen voices with the governance of the nation, enabling people who are already making a difference in their communities to experience their vital role in influencing what happens in the nation's capital.
Dr. Lukensmeyer brings extensive experience in both public and private large systems change. She served as Consultant to the White House Office of the Chief of Staff from November, 1993, through June, 1994. She ensured that systemic thinking was part of the White House's work on internal management issues and on government-wide reform. Previously, Lukensmeyer was the Deputy Project Director for Management of the National Performance Review (NPR), Vice President Al Gore's reinventing government task force. Besides ensuring that the NPR staff and the external stakeholder community have understood the mission and methods of NPR, Dr. Lukensmeyer contributed to NPR's analysis of training, performance agreements, and community empowerment.
From 1986 to 1991 Lukensmeyer served as Chief of Staff to Governor Richard F. Celeste of Ohio. She was both the first woman to serve as Ohio's Chief of Staff and, at the time of her appointment, the only Chief of Staff recruited from the professional management field. As Chief of Staff, she managed the operations of 28 state agencies and 200 boards and commissions comprised of more than 55,000 employees with a 23 billion dollar budget. She led the modernization of Ohio's state bureaucracy with innovative approaches to systems design, professional development, human resource and crisis management, and strategies for problem solving and communications.
Dr. Lukensmeyer has run an organization consulting firm, Lukensmeyer Associates, Inc., since its founding in Cleveland in 1974. Her consulting projects have included private/public partnerships, education reform, the transformation and revitalization of bureaucratic systems and planning processes to integrate corporate strategy, structures and human resources. She has developed programs to move women into top management positions and enhanced the curricula of law schools, liberal arts schools, post-graduate training institutes and corporate executive development programs. Her clients have ranged from organizations employing ten people to those with more than 350,000 in both the public and private sectors throughout the world.
Raised in a small Iowa town, Lukensmeyer has a doctorate in organizational behavior from Case Western Reserve University and post-graduate training at the internationally known Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. She is a charter member of the Certified Consultants International and has served on the Board of Women Executives in State Government. She is affiliated with the American Management Association, National Training Laboratories, Organization Development Network and the Organization and Management Division of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Lukensmeyer serves on the Board of the Fielding Institute.
An avid traveler and outdoor adventurer, Lukensmeyer has led a rafting expedition down the Colorado River, tracked panda bears in the remote Sichuan Province of China and scaled major mountains all over the world.
William Minnis, President of Performance Advantage, is a nationally recognized motivational consultant, facilitator and trainer with over 20 years experience as an external change agent to business organizations, including Fortune 500 and large international firms. Bill's contributions to client companies over the years include executive facilitation, coaching high performance sales forces, management team building, implementation of sales process design, development of self-sufficient internal support teams, conflict resolution, and dealing with the on-going environment of change. His activities have spanned a variety of industries, recently focused on the critical importance of relationships - both external and internal - to an organization. The former has become increasingly critical as organizations strive to orient activities towards their customers, and to respond more appropriately to changing environments. Bill's work on internal relationships within organizations has increasingly been oriented toward "selling change" - increasing management's effectiveness in presenting programs such as "re-engineering' or "total quality management," and enhancing receptivity of employees to the organizational changes necessary for the ongoing well-being of the company and themselves. His work with senior executives in major corporations domestically and internationally has created an on going focus on leadership and the components for successful leadership. His current focus is expanding this set of tools and practices throughout organizations. Prior to working with corporations, Bill had private psychology practices in Minneapolis and Atlanta. His academic credentials include an undergraduate degree and studies in Psychology and Business Management at the University of Evansville, a Bachelor of Divinity from Northwestern University, and an MSW and related work in Psychology at St. Louis University.
Kenneth H. Oilschlager is President and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, the state's largest broad-based business association. He previously held positions as President of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, as well as CEO of local chamber and economic development groups in Louisiana and Mississippi. During his tenure in Shreveport, the Greater Shreveport Economic Development Foundation was the first recipient of the Arthur D. Little Award for Excellence in Economic Development for the "Shreveport Initiatives", one of the first successful community visioning projects in the U.S. While in South Carolina, he also served as Chairman of the Board of Regents of the Leadership South Carolina Program. Ken received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Mississippi in 1971, and is a graduate of the Institute for Organizational Management and the National Economic Development Institute. He is currently dean of the National Economic Development Institute, a fellow member of the American Economic Development Council, and has held the designation Certified Economic Developer since 1982. He is also a licensed Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Instructor/Facilitator. At the present time, Ken serves as a member of the Kentucky Workforce Partnership Council, the Kentucky Sustainable Development Roundtable, serves on the national steering committee of the Center for Communities of the Future, and is a member of the World Future Society and the Southern Growth Policies Board.
Michele Perrault is International Vice President of the Sierra Club and an original member of the President's Council on Sustainable Development, which she continues to serve. She has twice served as President of the Sierra Club and has been active for over 25 years at regional, state, and local levels in Massachusetts, New York and California. She has also been active in many of the Club's activities and programs, serving on its Planning, Fundraising, Finance, Investment, Military Impacts, Coastal committees, and as Foundation Trustee. She has been a representative on numerous national and state advisory committees on environmental education, coastal, solid waste, and land use, and has received conservation awards for her contributions.
Cynthia Schmidt, a management consultant in the area of business organization and intelligence, has been the innovator and founder of seven businesses in her thirty year career, including most recently Prism Solutions, Inc. a NASDAQ listed company. She has spent the last two decades creating business plans, raising capital, managing marketing objectives, and organizing and creating processes for growth for two successful software companies in the areas of networking and data warehousing and decision support. In her role as Vice President of Marketing, she has managed cross functional teams responsible for product planning and development, created value-based marketing and public relations programs, has developed strategic relationships with multi-national partners, and has focused on improving information content for global enterprises. Prior to her software businesses, Cynthia spent twelve years in a human resources career. She has owned and operated seven recruiting firms, was Personnel Director and executive recruiter for technology firms in Silicon Valley and organized the HR function for her more recent software ventures. She has also been an active group facilitator in areas of spirituality training.
Cynthia is now interested in taking the experience that she has garnered in creating businesses, and focusing her skillset in the area of organizing self-sustaining communities. She would like to utilize the insight, intuition, creativity and spirituality that has helped her become a successful entrepreneur and apply them in a way that will support and fulfill the needs of newly formed public communities.
Cynthia has often been a "catalyst for change" always looking to inspire people into new ways of thinking. She is now envisioning new ways of living that will inspire larger populations into focusing on how to more effectively balance environment and lifestyle.
F. Michael Smith has over twenty five years experience in the design, development and implementation of medium and large scale Management Information Systems. He has expertise in the areas of systems architecture and management, data management, project management and systems integration. He has been a senior management consultant to major corporations for over 16 years, consulting in all areas of business management and function redesign and is responsible for the integration of all enterprise data in the City of Oakland. He has taught all areas of data systems management and is a member of numerous professional organizations, serving on the Boards of organizations like the Urban & Regional Information Systems Association (URISA). He has regularly authored and published his work, presenting them at international conferences. He is also a master and teacher of martial arts, including a 5th Degree Black Belt in Tang Soo Do.
F.L. "Rick" Smyre is a nationally recognized futurist specializing in the area of building "capacities for transformation" in local communities. He is president of the Center for Communities of the Future and is the architect of the new field of "process leadership," a systemic approach for creating a shared vision among diverse people and organizations. With 20 years' experience at the local level, including school boards, chambers of commerce and director of the first local foundation in the nation focused on community collaboration, he understands the challenge of helping to create a different mindset.
Recently, Rick has concentrated on developing a network of over 1500 individuals in 30+ communities and 17 states involved in some way in a collaborative effort to integrate the idea of "capacities for transformation" into their thinking and operation. These "capacities" include 1) process leadership training, 2) developing a community electronic infrastructure, 3) understanding the "digital economy" for economic development, 4) "consensus democracy", a new institutional structure for 21st century governance, and 5) designing a framework for "transformational learning" in public schools and colleges.
He works as a strategic facilitator for "network groups," individuals from different states interested in developing innovative cornerstone ideas for the 21st Century. The framework for the expanding "consensus democracy" idea was developed in such a way as a result of a two year dialogue among city managers from communities in seven states.
He is also Chairman of the Board of the American Association of Retirement Communities and on the staff of the National Economic Development Institute. Married for 33 years to Brownie Allen, Rick has three children, Cinda (32), Deric (29), and Beth (27). In the '70s he was the CEO of a textile yarn spinning firm.
Some call me a renaissance man, some call me a maverick, some call me a businessman, some - a woodsman, some - an artist, some - a futurist, some - an ecologist, some - a project developer, some - a corporate advisor, and so on..... My background is multidisciplinary.... technology to business to ecology, to new methodologies to better meet our current and future societal needs. I consider myself an independent thinker, a strategist, and a person concerned about enhancing the quality of life on this planet.... all life.
Martha White is a social architect, entrepreneur, executive coach, business woman, writer, author, poet, interior designer, psycho-spiritual intuitive, futurist, corporate advisor, facilitator, trainer, wife, mother, friend, lover, maverick, renaissance woman. Her background is multidisciplinary - from finance to marketing to architecture and design to corporate consulting. She is dedicated to becoming the embodiment of that which supports and sustains the spirit of Life, transcending differences, in order to inspire others with the creative energy of evolutionary faith in the potentiality and possibility of the human race.
Bruce Wilcox is president and founder of the Institute for Sustainable Development at the Presidio of San Francisco and presently heads ISD's recently established Asia-Pacific branch in Hawaii. Educated at the University of California, San Diego, Yale, and Stanford, he taught and conducted research in conservation biology, a field he helped pioneer, before founding ISD in 1987. He has had broad experience in international environmental trends and policy issues, and currently works on domestic and international projects that attempt to bridge ecological, economic, and cultural aspects of the sustainable development of land and renewable natural resources. His most recent research and consulting work has focused on applying sustainability concepts to integrated resources management planning for the DoD lands in Hawaii and the Pacific.
Angela M. Woodward is a native of Jefferson County, Kentucky and holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration/Community Development from the University of Louisville. Angie has served two terms on the National Association for Community Leadership Board of Directors; is a member of the charter Steering Committee for Leadership U.S.A.; is a co-founder of the Kentucky Women's Leadership Network; is an Associate of the Kettering Foundation; has served as a faculty member for the Community Development Institute held in Arkansas; served on the curriculum committee for the Economic Development Institute; has served on the Governing Board of the Bingham Fellows leadership program in Louisville; and was recently elected as Vice President of the International Association for Public Participation, a 1000 member international organization. She is a graduate of Leadership Kentucky, Leadership Louisville, and Leadership America. She is President of Leadership Kentucky where she has directed the program for nine years.