THELEADERSHIPGROUP.COM - Key Persons
Darlene has more than 25 years of experience in the area of nonprofit, with a special emphasis on sophisticated fundraising and marketing techniques. She is highly skilled in all forms of development including individual and foundation outreach, capital campaigns, events management, database development and membership programs. She has an established record of accomplishment from a broad range of organizations including social service institutions, children's service organizations, zoos and museums.
Because Darlene has served nonprofits both as an executive director, development officer and as a consultant, she has an in-depth understanding of the challenges facing organizations, coupled with the expertise to address those issues. She has earned a reputation for thinking "outside the box" to impact the bottom line. For example, Darlene pioneered the use of technology, including donor database management and sophisticated bar-coding techniques, to target and significantly expand the membership base for the Detroit Zoological Society. As a result of her efforts, the Zoo saw a sharp increase in members (160%) and in member revenue (topping 200%) in just five years. As a result of her success, Darlene was invited to share her techniques at national professional conventions.
In addition to the Zoo, Darlene served as Executive Director of Boys Hope Girls Hope Detroit, guiding that agency through the severe economic downturn of 2008-2010. Despite the general decrease in donations experienced by nonprofits in Michigan during this period, the outreach program she created increased the number of foundations supporting the organization by 1400%, including the first-ever support by United Way. As a result of her efforts, the agency received the largest foundation pledge in its history ($600,000).
Darlene has been a community volunteer for years through her church and other local organizations including the YMCA of Auburn Hills.
In summary, Darlene brings an entrepreneurial approach to the challenges facing organizations and the practical knowledge that comes from years of hands-on experience.
Joanne joined TLG after a successful career in healthcare and senior services. She has extensive and diversified executive leadership experience including strategic planning, market positioning, new business development and growth, mergers and acquisitions, and improvement of operational outcomes through service excellence and culture change.
Joanne led the senior service strategy and operations at the Detroit Medical Center (DMC) for over nineteen years. After leaving the DMC she provided operational leadership to senior living organizations including Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, Mercy Bellbrook, Homestead Management Group and Presbyterian Villages of Michigan, where she served as Chief Operating officer. She recently served as the VP of Integration and Strategy for Trinity Health Senior Communities, a national division of Trinity Health. Joanne holds a master of science degree and specialist in aging certificate from the University of Michigan and a bachelor's degree from Michigan State University. She is a Registered Nurse and a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator in the State of Michigan.
Joanne is committed to helping health and human service organizations to achieve optimal effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability by strengthening leadership teams. Her approach to consultation is collaborative and client centered. Areas of focus include organizational assessment, team building, culture change to achieve operational results, strategic planning/positioning and team preparation/integration for mergers, acquisitions and divestitures.
Joanne is actively involved in community and professional organizations having served on the Boards of Leading Age Michigan and PACE Southeast Michigan. She currently serves on the Senior Executive Forum of HealthcareNEXT which is the health care sector group for Inforum, a statewide career and leadership development organization for women.
Lynda has an extensive corporate background in human resources and performance assurance. Her expertise includes adult learning, facilitation, organization development, and human performance technology. As a Senior Consultant with The Leadership Group, Lynda consults in diversity, inclusion, conflict resolution, team building, performance management, and executive coaching. She has a particular passion for assisting organizations in capacity building and leadership development. She custom-designs and facilitates strategic planning sessions, board retreats, and assessments to guide organizations toward growth and improvement.
Lynda has a PhD in Education - Training and Performance Improvement from Capella University, a M.B.A. in Management from the University of Detroit Mercy, an Education Specialist Certificate from Wayne State University, and a B.S. in Business Administration from Lawrence Technological University. She taught Leadership and Nonprofit Management at Lawrence Tech and also taught Social Diversity, Business Ethics, Management Principles, and Speech Communication at Davenport Univ. Lynda is certified in Management Research Group's Leadership Effectiveness Assessment and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. She is a leadership coach with the Council of Michigan Foundations and United Way/BEST Project in Flint.
Lynda is co-author of the article "Increasing Diversity of Leadership in Environmental Nonprofit Organizations in a Major Brownfield City: Phase 1". Her published dissertation topic was "Referral Decisions as a Core Competency: Experiences of Coaches of Nonprofit Executives".
Lynda is actively involved in her community and serves in leadership roles on a variety of nonprofit and faith-based boards and committees. She is an AARP Life Reimagined Guide and was named Trustee of the Year by LeadingAge of Michigan and Distinguished Volunteer by the Association of Fund Raising Professionals, Greater Detroit Chapter.
Lynda joined The Leadership Group in 2003 with 25 years of experience in human resources, training, education and general management. She brings expertise in organization assessment and development, strategic planning, leadership coaching and development, communications, and human resource management. Prior to joining TLG, Lynda served for more than 22 years in key corporate human resources and general management positions with The Auto Club Group where she was responsible for all learning and leadership development for the Corporation, including the development and management of a comprehensive leadership curriculum for all levels of management.
Lynda's consulting work has included a wide range of clients and services including executive coaching and team building, organizational assessment and strategic planning for both for-profit and non-profit clients. Lynda has provided executive coaching and leadership development to key executives in higher education (University of Michigan) and for small and large businesses, including Nissan, Bloom Energy, Walbridge Aldinger and Barton Malow Construction. She has served as a long term consultant with the BEST Project, a Flint, MI collaborative focused on building community leadership and nonprofit capacity.
Lynda is committed to a client-centered, collaborative approach to consulting. She approaches organization analysis and development as a dynamic but disciplined process with a focus on bringing key stakeholders to hold a common vision and future oriented goals.
Lynda holds a masters degree in communication from the University of Maryland and has taught speech communication at University of Maryland and Wayne State University. She is active in the community and has served in leadership positions on numerous boards including Haven, ArtServe Michigan (now Creative Many Michigan) and as Past President of the Women's Economic Club (now Inforum).
Bob Brewster is a business partner with 3 decades of experience in Human Resources and Manufacturing with Ford Motor Company, Visteon and Nissan Motor Manufacturing, USA including work in the US, Mexico, Japan, and Europe.
His background includes extensive experience in greenfield and brownfield startups, product launches, and business turnarounds from components to complete vehicles. Using skills in organizational design and development, team building, and inclusion he has been able to create high-performing teams.
In recent years, he has served as Interim Senior HR Manager at numerous Ford manufacturing facilities, providing leadership and coaching to operational teams engaged in difficult contract negotiations always with successful outcomes.
During the COVID pandemic, he was part of Ford's Project Apollo assisting with the manufacturing and staffing at 3 locations making PPE and ventilators for FEMA.
Outside of Ford, he has had a positive impact at Troy Design and Manufacturing, Suntory-Jim Beam Distillers, Webasto Group, and Tribar Technologies Inc, for HCI Equity Partners providing leadership and coaching.
Bob's approach is to understand the people and organization by observation, interviews, and engagement. His next step is to map the process of the enterprise of their product or services to understand what is stable and repeatable. Once that is established, there is a platform for making lasting improvements.
His ability to build relationships makes him an excellent coach for new and experienced leaders.
Bob has been engaged in his local community serving on numerous non-profit organizations' Boards of Directors. For the past 5 years, he has been on the Board of the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County where he chairs the HR Advisory Committee.
Ted is experienced in organizational issues through organizational and legal consulting. Ted has a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School, a Graduate Certificate in Organization Development from Eastern Michigan Univ. and a B.A. in Economics from Wayne State Univ. Ted for many years was a Certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).
Ted has extensive leadership and project management experience. He was a partner in the Dykema law firm for many years, where he managed one of the firm's largest project teams of 20 lawyers, paralegals and specialists for General Motors and Ford Motor Company work. He was CEO of a national nonprofit start-up for 3 years, has served as President of several nonprofits (International Institute of Metro Detroit, Model of Racial Unity, Inc., and the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association Foundation), and been a Board member on other organizations' boards. Ted is familiar with organizational financial issues since he represented KPMG, a major accounting firm, as a lawyer for many years.
Ted has worked with governmental agencies and nonprofits to conduct community assessments, including: Macomb County Assessment creating OneMacomb, an "umbrella" organization to encourage diversity; Genesee County Parks and Recreation Commission for creation of its Strategic Direction; and, Community Assessment/Strategic Planning for Berston Field House (www.berston.org). Ted has also worked extensively on diversity inclusion for 30 years, has three diversity training certifications and has published three articles on diversity.
Ted's strategic planning approach focuses on creating a flexible strategic plan with specific, measureable objectives. Ted's consulting work involves many other aspects of organizations, including regular team building/project management training workshops with a multi-national tier one auto supplier, senior leadership team building with a new President/senior leaders of a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, strategic planning/team building with a major Chamber of Commerce, problem solving/conflict management workshops, organizational assessment, change management and cultural transformation. He focuses on finding collaborative solutions and managing/resolving conflicts appropriately. He has a conflict mediation certification and was a commercial mediator for seven years.
He has worked in Flint MI at various times since 2004 on many issues, such as the lead contaminated water crisis, higher education and nonprofit organizational assessments, strategic planning, cultural change and collaborative projects. Ted also consults in leadership development and succession planning. Ted is certified in Management Research Group's Strategic Leadership Development. He is also MBTI certified. He has coached many executives on development of leadership skills.
Job Titles:
- Senior Consultant With the Leadership Group LLC