CREATIVE LEARNING INTERNATIONAL - Key Persons
Desmond Berghofer is a leader of new thinking for a sustainable future. He brings a lively and diverse perspective to his work, ranging from business management consulting to the writing of futuristic fiction. He is an educator, author and consultant on leadership and the creative management of change.
Desmond holds a Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of Alberta and a BA from the University of Queensland. He is President of Creative Learning International, which he co-founded with his wife and business partner, Dr. Geraldine Schwartz, in 1988. They work as strategic coaches to organizations in business, education, government and the community. Desmond's professional career includes 11 years, from 1977-88 as Assistant Deputy Minister of Advanced Education with the Government of Alberta. He has represented Canada internationally through the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
As an author and speaker, Desmond displays a passionate concern for the future of the planet and its citizens. His powerful first book, The Visioneers, floods with his strong belief that people who understand the larger picture will care for their earthly home. He developed this value growing up in a farming family in Queensland, Australia. It was here that he first learned to love the Earth.
A lifetime of experience in teaching, government service and entrepreneurial work in business brought him to Vancouver, Canada, where he now makes his home. As well as being President of Creative Learning International, Desmond is Chairman of the International Foundation of Learning and Co-founder of the Institute for Ethical Leadership. All three of these organizations are committed to acting to raise the quality of human interaction towards peace and sustainability.
Desmond has been editor and contributor to the The Visioneeer Newsletter since 1993. He is author of A Christmas Wish (1996), a delightful Christmas story for people of all ages, and Producer and Director of the film When the Earth Still had 1000 Days, which features the inspirational message of Dr. Robert Muller to the Global Citizenship Youth Congress in Vancouver in 1997. Desmond is also a contributing author to Prayers for a Thousand Years (1999), a collection of blessings and expressions of hope for the new millennium from leaders and visionaries around the world.
Desmond's current writing project is The Millennium Diary, which is being written day by day throughout 2001 to stimulate new thinking and energy for the momentous task now facing humanity of shifting economic, social and cultural life on Earth towards sustainability, equity and peace.
Job Titles:
- Psychologist
- Scientist
- President of the International Foundation of Learning
- Writer
Geraldine Schwartz is a psychologist, a scientist-practitioner, a businesswoman, an author, a poet and a leader who expresses in her life's work and writing the strong feminine spirit of the present and the future. Dr. Schwartz holds a Ph.D. in Psychology and Education, an MA in Educational Psychology, a Teacher's Diploma and a BA from McGill University.
Her principal work with the Vancouver Learning Centre, established in 1980, is with people with learning differences including learning disabilities, brain injury and giftedness. Through this work she expresses her deeply held conviction in the profound value of a good comprehensive education, which at every level from kindergarten to graduate studies, allows an individual to achieve at the leading edge of his or her potential, whatever that may be.
To that end, Geraldine leads a team of teacher-therapists who also act as coaches and mentors to students and clients of every age and ability. They deliver a dynamic and unique educational experience designed to achieve each individual's highest potential. The Vancouver Learning Centre team acts in partnership with parents and families to support the achievement of their highest goals, based on the belief that, at any level of ability, satisfaction and meaning in life come from delivering a personal best performance.
Geraldine has co-founded and continues to play leadership roles in three complementary organizations, with her husband and partner, Desmond Berghofer: Creative Learning International, The International Foundation of Learning and the Institute for Ethical Leadership.
Creative Learning International focuses on teaching leadership and the creative management of change to leaders and teams of leaders in business, government and the community. Together and with other partners Geraldine and Desmond act as teachers, strategic coaches and partners to innovative and forward-thinking organizations, who are looking to achieve a dynamic 21st century organizational culture that promotes outstanding performance and results as well as the highest quality customer service. This work has a history of more than a decade's success nationally and internationally. Creative Learning International is now offering new programs at the leading edge of thinking on principle centred ethical leadership based on high order emotional intelligence.
Geraldine is the creator and author of the Children's Literature Language Box which she developed as a program for young children to enhance literacy and school performance. The program operates at the Vancouver Learning Centre and is available as a workshop for teachers and parents.
Geraldine is President of the International Foundation of Learning, founded in 1983 as a non-profit organization whose aim is to bring leading edge thinking and learning to strategic partners in education and the community. It acts in concert with other community partners in bringing outstanding learning experiences to British Columbia.
Geraldine co-founded the Institute for Ethical Leadership in 1997 as a membership organization whose function is to create a "social commons" or forum for learning about important issues that impact the creation of a civil society. Working around five themes, members of the Institute adopt, support and create projects that serve to enhance a peaceful, sustainable and healthy society. Its projects are celebrated in events called Connections: Creating a Web of Good Work.
Geraldine has been a writer and poet all her life. Samples of her poetry and articles from her column "Journeys of Second Adulthood" are presented under Written Works as a first step in assembling her collected works.