A little background
I have been working as a professional facilitator and community change consultant since 2000. Since then I have facilitated hundreds of meetings around the world.
My strength lies in my diverse experience, which has included holding leadership positions in business, not-for-profit organizations, and academia. Originally trained as an economist, I taught environmental economics at New College of California and history of economic thought at University of Rhode Island.
My business career has focused primarily in marketing, management, and conference development and has included positions at Pacific Bell, MCI, Ziff-Davis, and O’Reilly and Associates where I was Director of Business Development.
I am an experienced nonprofit organization manager, having spent 7 years as Executive Director of Resources for Creativity, an organization that trained group facilitators.
As an entrepreneur I helped build Childkind Schools, which offers early childhood education programs in Sonoma County, California. I began my career as a VISTA volunteer working as a grantwriter/planner for a Native American community development organization.
I have served as a Teaching Assistant in the Sonoma State University Organization Development program. I am a member of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation" and the International Association of Public Participation.
I hold a MA in Psychology, Organization Development emphasis from Sonoma State University, a MA in Economics from the University of Rhode Island, and a BA in Liberal Arts with Honors from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA.
I live in Sonoma County, California. I love biking, tennis, the beach and mountains, and have a weakness for farmer's markets.
My personal mission
My personal mission is to be in service to the emerging understanding of how we can co-create sustainable and just organizations, communities, and human systems. To accomplish this mission I work from several core principles:
- We know or can learn the way to make the needed changes given the right support and processes.
- To find our way today, we must think ahead to the needs and rights of those generations that will succeed us.
- We are held back from creating the communities, organizations, and human systems we most want by limiting assumptions that are often hard to find or articulate.
- That compassion for the human and world condition is a necessary precursor for being effective as leader and supporter of change.
The Akous Group is a certified microbusiness
The California Department of General Services has certified The Akous Group as microbusiness eligible to contract with the State of California and other agencies. Our certification number is 45244. You can learn more about DGS' small business programs online.