Sessions and Speakers
Joe Schumacher (Keynote/Workshop): Taking Over and Taking Charge-Jobholders
seek someone to stir their emotions and earn their ad-miration—that
person can easily be you!
Joe’s formal leadership journey began in 1972 as the seventeen
year-old manager of a high-traffic truck stop on the northeast side
of Denver. One year later, he joined the U.S. Army serving in increasingly
respon-sible leadership roles at Ft. Campbell, Ken-tucky and in Germany.
Joe is a graduate of the 101st Airborne Division’s Leadership
School and the 1st Armored Division’s Lead-ership Course. Joe
served in uniformed po-sitions with two metro-Denver fire depart-ments
before completing his fire service ca-reer as Fire Chief in 2000. Joe
has an MBA and completed PhD courses at the University of Colorado’s
Graduate School of Public Af-fairs and Michigan State University’s
College of Education. Today, Joe is a Training Pro-gram Director with
the Office of Personnel Management Development Center in Aurora.
This interactive workshop examines the cur-rent practice that the
best and brightest of successful leaders employ when taking over a
work group including clearness of direc-tion, boldness of leadership,
an injection of kindness, a mega dose of common sense, a laser focus
on people and appropriate speed of execution. Special emphasis will
be placed on taking a troubled workplace from worst to first, and the
rudiments of a leader-ship legacy.
Jennifer Barber: How Does Your Brain Think Like Others— For
Ever Wondering About Your Wondering
Jennifer Marie Barber is a native of New Or-leans, Louisiana but
grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Her family moved to South Jersey
where she completed high school and an undergradu-ate degree in
education from Rowan State Col-lege in Glassboro. She holds a graduate
de-gree in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix
and is in the final stages of research on a Doctorate in Systems
Manage-ment where she is studying Women in Leader-ship and their
Decision Making Strategies. She has been at Colorado Technical
University in Colorado Springs for 16 years and is currently an
Associate Professor in the Management De-partment. She has been
the Faculty Coach, the Faculty Advisor for Student Senate, the
Faculty Liaison for Graduate International students and coordinator
for the Study Abroad Program at American Intercontinental University
in London, England.
Jennifer’s doctoral research is in the area of left and right
and whole brain thinking with a con-centration on women in leadership.
The moti-vation for and difference in this research is that she elected
to focus primarily on women’s thinking and decision making
strategies, as opposed to focusing on the status quo (male) thinking
and decision making strategies and then trying to deduce how women
must think based on that evidence. This presentation will give women
some insight into their own pre-ferred thinking styles.
Arlena Fitch-Gordon, FEW National Executive Vice President All
About FEW: Compliance, Diversity, Legislative, and Training
Arlena is a Supervisory Security Specialist for Defense Industrial
Security Clearance Office, Columbus, Ohio. She has held Chapter,
Re-gional and National offices since 1985. She served as Vice President
for Diversity 2001-2006 and Vice President for Training 2006-2010.
She received the 1997 FEW Barbara Boardman Tennant Award; 2006 FEW
National Champion of Diversity Award and the 2007 FEW Allie Latimer
Award. She attended Ohio State University, Columbus Community State
College and is a graduate of the 1993 Leader-ship Columbus. She
is listed among Columbus' Most Influential in the Who's Who in Black
Co-lumbus 2010 Edition.
Scott Andrews: Workplace Conflict
and Changes = Communications Problems—HELP!
Scott has over 20 years experience in human resources, organizational
and leadership devel-opment, coaching and work/life initiatives.
He has done change work in start-ups, existing organizations
and federal government agencies with complex cultures. His expertise
of part-nering at all organizational levels and with line employees
creates environments, processes and structures where both organizations
and individuals win. He has worked as a consultant and developed
a career in assisting organiza-tions in transforming themselves
by creating strategic focus for the individuals and teams behind
organizational goals and initiatives. He holds a Masters Degree
in Social Work from Brigham Young University and is a graduate
of the College of Executive Coaching. Scott is currently at the
USAF Academy as Director, Employee Assistance Program.
Many times conflict in the office stems from communication problems
and constant changes. How many times has your organiza-tion made
changes that you or others dis-agreed with? Conflict and change
is inevitable in your personal lives and the workplace. This
is not necessarily bad. Some conflicts and changes can be productive—differing
points of view can lead to creative solutions to problems. You
will learn the skills and tools in order to communicate differing
views so as to avoid the problem of mismanaged agreements and
make certain you are heading in the desired direc-tion.
If you have requests for reasonable accommodations, need additional
information or if have questions, please contact Linda Kopman,
lindakopman@comcast.net
