PUBLIC SECTOR - Key Persons
Bette Novak is a professional with twenty-five plus years of leadership, management, supervision, performance, organizational development, and human resource consulting in both the public and private sectors. She is sought after for her extensive experience in designing federal executive leadership and coaching programs, including the hiring of qualified coaching staff and matching coaches with mid and upper-level managers. Her expertise includes curriculum design, adult training for federal executive development and coaching with special emphasis on different learning styles. She is a qualified organizational facilitator with extensive knowledge and experience working with diverse teams.
Bette has comprehensive knowledge and capabilities in the fields of organization development, human resource development, human resource management and training, and extensive experience as an educator. Her ability to apply those methods and concepts to strategic corporate imperatives and goals has won her promotions and rewards. She held leadership and supervisory positions in regional and senior management in the hospitality, service and sales industries. In 1979, she was awarded the "Outstanding Merit Award" for service to the Atlanta community, and in 1989 she was awarded membership in the honor society Delta Epsilon Sigma. She has Master's degrees in Education from Georgia State University and in Human Resource Management from Marymount University, and certificates in Organizational Development, (Georgetown University) Leadership Coaching, (George Washington University) and Coaching and Organizational Learning (George Mason University and Newfield Networks). In addition, she has worked extensively with the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) as an internal coach on demonstration projects in the government from 1997- 2003, and continues that work as a member of the leadership group. She co-authored "Ten Conditions for High Performing Organization's" and "8 Roles that Managers Expect for HRD Professionals." Bette maintains active membership in nationally known professional organizations in her field.
Job Titles:
- Researcher
- Software Engineer
Christopher L. Averill is a neuroscience researcher and innovation specialist with a background in data science, magnetic resonance imaging, biotechnology, and development of biopsychosocial and organizational assessments. His academic interests include the study of chronic stress and applications of neuroimaging in the practice of precision psychiatric medicine.
His work at the Yale School of Medicine and other educational institutions has given him a deep appreciation for the interplay between the parallel goals of teaching and research while dealing with internal, public, and private funding. His affiliation with the Department of Veterans Affairs, and past consultation at VA Hospitals around the country have also developed a broad perspective on some of the challenges facing monolithic government entities. Few stakeholders in these large systems are given the opportunity to understand the full system or identify variables affecting them. This makes it impossible for them to invest in critical leverage points, conserve limited resources, and have the support to reach outside of silos to bring about sustainable solutions to challenges.
Chris is also an accomplished computer programmer and digital systems architect, with an impressive track record of platform evaluation/development/implementation for institutions of higher learning, local and state governments, and private citizens spanning over the last 15 years.
Chris grew up informally studying leadership with his father, who was passionate in his commitment to serving his employees and organization, and to growing as a leader within the corporate strictures of the international industry in which he worked. This inculcated in Chris an intimate appreciation for the role of leadership in an organization, and a desire to better understand the challenges of leadership, particularly when desire to grow and capacity to serve are challenged by limitations of funding, time, support, or by other systemic complications. Chris has also experienced the challenges of public leadership from his work with the Department of Veterans affairs and his attendance at the Systems Thinking for Public Leaders program. His work as a consultant with his own business, a member of the Yale and Baylor College of Medicine communities and his current work with the VA gives him a unique view of leadership in different sectors. Chris began working with the Public Sector Consortium as a website consultant, and soon began investing his time with the PSC in other ways. He welcomes the responsibilities of Board membership, and continues to explore new ways in which his experiences and interests can be applied in service of the Public Sector Consortium's mission.
Job Titles:
- Principal and Founder of the Glastonbury Company
Eleanor Mulvaney Seamans is the principal and founder of the Glastonbury Company, a Waltham, Massachusetts based consulting firm that specializes in personal and corporate transformational learning. She has more than twenty years of experience as an educator, trainer and organizational consultant, working primarily with senior corporate leaders and entrepreneurs to translate vision into organizational effectiveness. Eleanor's expertise lies in the understanding and communication of complex situations, which results in improved leadership and management of company resources. Using behavioral science principles in combination with emerging work in neurobiology, she partners with business leaders to harness the powers of intention, command and emotion to manifest targeted objectives.
Eleanor introduces her clients to the value of scenario planning and systems thinking in order to circumvent problems early on and increase the utility of resources. She helps entrepreneurial leaders understand the significant roles a firm's leadership style and cultural dynamics play in achieving financial goals. By presenting business leaders with new frames of reference wherein intuitive and rational ideas are in greater balance, Eleanor has helped her clients begin the shift from a climate of simply managing change to an environment where change is viewed as a constructive force for building trust in the process of transformation. With the energy of new insights, behaviors become more goal focused thereby eliciting new strategies of achievement, and ultimately driving up revenues while managing costs carefully.
Eleanor frequently customizes a Personal Discipline Process (PDP) for individuals, pioneering the use of alternative medicine and meditation practices in business contexts, and her clients include Massachusetts Mutual, Lincoln Financial Advisors, Forrester Research, Inc. and Seamans Capital Management. She has worked with clients to improve selection and retention programs, increase market share through channel marketing programs, and to facilitate succession plans by implementing organizational models developed specifically for each situation. Over the years, Eleanor has also worked extensively in family owned firms where the role of emotional intelligence is a particularly powerful cultural component in creating productive organizations.
Eleanor has appeared as a featured speaker at conferences and seminars, speaking on business development, strategies for success, and innate leadership. Most recently she published a chapter, "Embracing Creative Tensions" in the book A Search for Purpose, compiled by Steven E. and Lee Beard. Before founding the Glastonbury Company in 1988, Eleanor was a director at New England Financial, an educator in the Brookline Public Schools, and an educational consultant. She holds a B.A. in Sociology from Emmanuel College in Boston and an M.S. in General Special Education from Simmons College in Boston. A frequent participant in the Harvard Medical School Continuing Program in Spirituality, she is a member of the Organizational Development Network, the Noetic Sciences Institute, and a consulting member of the Society for Organizational Learning.
Kirke Harper is a retired Federal executive who worked directly for more than 20 political appointees over a thirty-year career. He held senior level positions in the Federal government in executive and management development, strategic planning, organizational analysis, human resources management, and organizational transformation. He was also chairman of the Public Employees Roundtable Advisory Board at the Partnership for Public Service, which sponsors Public Service Recognition Week, an annual national celebration of public service in America.
Before leaving Federal service Kirke was responsible for managing the Graduate School, USDA's corporate strategic planning process, and prior to holding this position Kirke was Director of the Graduate School's Leadership Development Academy.
At the Office of Personnel Management he was Director of Human Resources and EEO, director of Contracting and Administrative Services, Assistant Director for Government-wide Training Policy, Assistant Director for Executive and Management Policy, and Director of the Office of Executive Personnel.
Kirke was a member of the Office and Management and Budget's team that established the Environmental Protection Agency, and he worked there in a variety of positions, including Director of Administration and Director of Human Resources Management. At the Consumer Product Safety Commission, he was Director of Budget, Program Planning, and Evaluation; Acting Director of Congressional Relations; Deputy Executive Director; and Acting Executive Director.
Kirke began his Federal career as a Management Intern at the Agency for International Development. He was a Budget Examiner and Management Analyst at the Bureau of the Budget and the Office of Management and Budget. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian Area Studies from Ohio State University and studied public and business administration as a Wolcott Fellow at George Washington University. He attended the Federal Executive Institute's 7-week program, and he received the Presidential Meritorious Rank Award in 1991. Kirke was an officer in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam conflict. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Vietnam Service Medal, First Class, for his service as an Intelligence Advisor.
Patty Guard spent her entire career in education, first as a speech pathologist in a school, then as a district administrator in Indiana prior to coming to Washington where she spent most of her twenty-seven year career as the Deputy Director of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in the United States Department of Education. OSEP administers the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which authorizes formula grants to states and discretionary grants to institutions of higher education and other non-profit organizations to support research, technology, personnel preparation, technical assistance and parent training - all focused on improving results for students with disabilities. As Deputy Director, Patty was responsible for providing policy guidance, managerial direction and supervision of OSEP's programs. In 2010, OSEP had 120 staff and a budget of $12 billion. Throughout her tenure, Patty worked with numerous presidential administrations, and consistently and thoughtfully led the effort to improve federal programs benefiting children and youth with disabilities. In 1997, she was selected to lead OSEP's participation in a five-year pilot project with the Office of Personnel Management designed to apply the techniques and tools of a learning organization in federal agencies. As a result of this experience, OSEP moved from a top-down organization to a team-based organization focused on its customers. Staff used the tools and concepts to redesign OSEP's systems for monitoring and providing technical assistance to states. As a result of this work, staff felt more engaged, State officials were seen as partners, and outcomes for children with disabilities improved. The tools and concepts provided the framework for OSEP's future strategic planning and continuous improvement efforts. Patty has a deep understanding of how schools operate and the challenges schools and families face based on her experience at the local level and her decades of work with state education agencies.
During her tenure at OSEP, Patty served as Acting Director through eight changes in political Directors. The leadership of the career SES staff is critical to ensuring that the high performance of the organization is sustained as political appointees come and go at all levels of the agency. Patty is recognized for her extensive expertise in the competencies and skills needed to be successful during these transitions. Her experiences contributed to the development of The Public Sector Consortium's Leadership Transitions Project.
Patty has received numerous awards including Distinguished Alumnus from Purdue University, Outstanding Public Service Award from the Council for Exceptional Children, Outstanding Leader Award from the Council for Administrators in Special Education, and a Policy Fellowship from the Institute for Educational Leadership.