INCLUDE - Key Persons
Dr. Jamila Rufaro is a lifelong-learner, executive coach, artist and educator. With a strong focus on diversity, Jamila is dedicated to deepening and widening human connections by moving past our emotional legacies of fear and shame and reaching for the compassion, empathy and love that is at the root of our human experience.
Dr Rufaro is a Senior Facilitator for the renowned Interpersonal Dynamics course at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business and for the Building Interpersonal Skills course through Stanford's Continuing Studies Program. These experiential courses utilize the T-group methodology of group dynamics to create a learning laboratory where students develop their skills in emotional intelligence, authentic communication, effective feedback, conflict management, and effective influence. Over the past decade, she has coached hundreds of students through these and similar courses.
Jamila has extensive experience in leadership training and facilitating groups for communication skills, diversity and power dynamics, suicide prevention, relationship violence prevention and sexual assault prevention. She has a demonstrated commitment to diversity, ability to create safety within groups, model effective practices and intervene in ways that enhance learning and empowers her clients to meet their goals.
Also an artist, Jamila creates mixed media assemblage using discarded books and other found objects. Her artwork is about reuse, reconstruction and renovation of everyday elements sometimes in absurd ways. They hint at aspects that lie just beyond recognition and delude us with ethereal illusions of likenesses that are nonexistent in reality.
Dr. Paul Loper is a consultant, facilitator and cultural change agent, committed to human flourishing. Paul has served organizational clients across sector, including EDF Energy, Non-Violent Communication, Cheil Worldwide, Kellogg's, Kerry Foods, Franklin Templeton Investments, Glide Memorial Church, and Flixter. He has collaborated with the Story Bridge Project, Dreamfish, and The Banff Centre of Leadership on projects applying movement and performance to leadership development, and organizational culture change initiatives.
"Because he has fully worked through the integration of mind, heart, and body in himself, Paul is able to empower others to do the same and bring all of themselves in their place of work. He is an exceptional change agent within organizations, who combines the power of movement with psychological insights and strategic understanding of a company's needs." - Consulting client
"Paul is an excellent facilitator, very sensitive to everything going on!" - Participant, Interpersonal Leadership Skills course
Gabriel Cooper, MA, has been leading group process experiences in various settings for nearly 40 years. Early in his career, Gabriel led large groups of up to one hundred participants in business development and conflict resolution sessions using a consensus-based decision making model. More recently, he has taught interpersonal skills since 1997 to Stanford MBA students through facilitating small groups in the renowned course, Interpersonal Dynamics, and has had the same role for similar courses at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and the University of San Fransisco School of Law. Previously he taught or served as a teaching assistant in the Psychology, Business, and Humanities Departments at Sonoma State and San Diego State Universities.
After receiving his MA in Organization Development from Sonoma State University, Gabriel served as a Senior Business Consultant at Kaiser Permanente focusing on change management, training, and business process improvement. As an independent consultant, he had an extensive client list including local and national businesses, nonprofit organizations, and state and federal government agencies. He was Chief Operating Officer at a small, socially responsible investment firm, and later worked as an investment and insurance advisor for a decade. As a young man, Gabriel managed several consumer-owned grocery cooperatives, one of which quadrupled its annual sales in two years under his leadership.
Leslie Chin has taught interpersonal dynamics skills at the Stanford Graduate School of Business for 12 years through facilitating MBA student T-Groups, coaching emerging leaders as they practice new behaviors, coaching senior executives in Executive Education courses, and training group facilitators. Leslie has developed and taught a course on Social Intelligence and Lawyering at four law schools and a workshop on interpersonal leadership skills at Stanford Graduate School of Education. Her private group facilitation practice includes women's leadership circles and grief support groups.
Job Titles:
- Organization Development Consultant
Richard De León is an Organization Development consultant who elevates underrepresented voices. Skillful in building the capacity for collaboration, Richard facilitates leadership development, strategic planning, negotiations, experiential learning, and coaching to support individuals, teams, and organizations. Client-centered in his consulting, Richard begins with understanding the client groups' needs, then designing processes that deliver sustainable positive outcomes. As a consultant, he has served corporations, non-profits, small businesses, community groups, and individuals.
Currently, Richard is facilitating a community empowerment initiative in Sonoma Valley at Hanna Institute. Previously, after working in large corporations, Richard served in several roles for Sonoma State University. He co-facilitated the SSU Faculty Retreat and the Sustainability Summit, using World Café to gather information to restructure General Education. Inspired by the joy of being an ally to youth, he served as an Educational Opportunity Program Advisor to incoming SSU students from diverse backgrounds to support their empowerment and academic success.
With his parents having immigrated from Guatemala, Richard identifies as a proud Latino. Richard is the first in his family to graduate from college with a B.A. in Chicano and Latino Studies in 2005. In 2018, Richard earned his MA in Organizational Development at Sonoma State University.