You are doing what you were meant to do.
Participant, Strategic Planning Retreat
Cathy brings a warm, confidential style to her work with individuals and teams to discover creative strategies for advancing, organizing and sustaining our work and our lives. She is an effective facilitator and coach in a variety of areas related to organizational effectiveness, strategic planning, leadership and personal development with experience in education, non-profit, and business settings. Cathy utilizes her experiences and training along with their intuition, courage and grace to increase respectful dialogue and action. Cathy delivers intentional, comprehensive, user-friendly processes, events and documents to meet the unique needs of each client. Cathy welcomes cutting edge thinking and practice. Her experiences and talents allow her to model and inspire others to be effective leaders within organizations which value and promote authenticity, integrated and sustainable lives, meaningful work, inclusion, social equity and justice.
Cathy effectively utilizes her specialized training and experience in participatory facilitation methods including Open Space Technology, The GROW model for personal and group coaching, and various methods for guiding authentic individual reflection and group development. Throughout her 15-year career in higher education, she created and implemented a variety of leadership development opportunities for diverse youth and adults, including comprehensive university-wide programs, student advisory boards and intensive leadership development programs. Regarded as a national leader in service-learning, she utilizes the knowledge and skills gained through her experiences as the founding Director of the Center for Community Outreach and Service-Learning at Texas Christian University, the Director of Student Development and Leadership Programs at the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University, and as the co-created and director of California Campus Compact’s Bridge-Building Leadership Initiative, a comprehensive professional development program designed to cultivate and retain both emerging and long-time leaders of color in the field of service-learning and civic engagement at colleges and universities throughout California.
Cathy is a skilled and creative leader with extensive supervisory experience ranging from recruitment, selection and training; building inclusive and accountable teams; and resolving staff issues. Cathy led staff teams to design and coordinate programming and special events such as community service projects, trainings, retreats, conferences, and recognition events for groups of 20 to 500 people. Cathy secured and administered private and federal grants from $25,000 to $2 million budgets.
A native Californian, Cathy earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology from California State University, Chico and her M.Ed. from Loyola University Chicago in Educational Leadership and Policy with an emphasis in College Student Personnel. She strives to live an integrated life with her partner of twenty eight years, Kelly; and their sons, Kenneth and Carter (pictured below with Mary, her mom too). She has a strong commitment to creating a more just world. Her experiences and talents allow her to model and inspire others to be effective leaders within organizations and communities that value and promote social equity and justice.
Cathy effectively utilizes her specialized training and experience in participatory facilitation methods including Open Space Technology, The GROW model for personal and group coaching, and various methods for guiding authentic individual reflection and group development. Throughout her 15-year career in higher education, she created and implemented a variety of leadership development opportunities for diverse youth and adults, including comprehensive university-wide programs, student advisory boards and intensive leadership development programs. Regarded as a national leader in service-learning, she utilizes the knowledge and skills gained through her experiences as the founding Director of the Center for Community Outreach and Service-Learning at Texas Christian University, the Director of Student Development and Leadership Programs at the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University, and as the co-created and director of California Campus Compact’s Bridge-Building Leadership Initiative, a comprehensive professional development program designed to cultivate and retain both emerging and long-time leaders of color in the field of service-learning and civic engagement at colleges and universities throughout California.
Cathy is a skilled and creative leader with extensive supervisory experience ranging from recruitment, selection and training; building inclusive and accountable teams; and resolving staff issues. Cathy led staff teams to design and coordinate programming and special events such as community service projects, trainings, retreats, conferences, and recognition events for groups of 20 to 500 people. Cathy secured and administered private and federal grants from $25,000 to $2 million budgets.
A native Californian, Cathy earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology from California State University, Chico and her M.Ed. from Loyola University Chicago in Educational Leadership and Policy with an emphasis in College Student Personnel. She strives to live an integrated life with her partner of twenty eight years, Kelly; and their sons, Kenneth and Carter (pictured below with Mary, her mom too). She has a strong commitment to creating a more just world. Her experiences and talents allow her to model and inspire others to be effective leaders within organizations and communities that value and promote social equity and justice.
Cathy provides consultation and coaching in the following areas:
- Creating inclusive and effective work and learning environments;
- Enhancing the capacity of leaders and teams;
- Facilitating meetings, workshops and multi-day retreats;
- Facilitating discussions to create and strengthen healthy work environments;
- Strategic planning and goals development;
- Conceptualizing and implementing processes, turning long-range goals into every day actions;
- Designing and coordinating intentional, developmental 360-degree, professional appraisal processes;
- Coaching individual staff and leaders;
- Developing team building exercises;
- Technical writing for grants, manuals, reports, and press releases;
- Discovering strategies for organizing individuals’ workspace and work-life, time and project management; and
- Coordinating special events for small or large groups.
Cathy's Consulting Experiences Include:
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· Guide and facilitate activities to strengthen staff capacity including the implementation of a five-year strategic plan, staff development workshops, monthly meetings, and overall team development.
· Co-designed and co-facilitated an intensive two-day professional development retreat for seventy-five system-wide leaders with responsibility for advancing diverse styles of public engagement. · Guided, shaped and facilitated the strategic planning process of community engagement offices on multiple campuses within the California State University System. · Collaborated with a student-driven leadership program for students who integrate social justice, community service, sustainability, equity and multiculturalism with the interests of improving society. Designed and facilitated a two-day retreat to design the coalitions’ vision, goals, and strategic actions. · Co-developed a 50-page Faculty Toolkit that addresses the history, purpose, and processes in relation to the critical questions faculty ask about community-engaged scholarship through teaching and research. · Co-facilitated departmental Work-Flow Analysis Process including Discovery, Analysis, Re-Design, and Implementation to strengthen the department's effectiveness. |
· Designed and facilitated the Diving Deep Institute, a 4-day intensive professional development opportunity for a group of 35 faculty and staff regarded as national leaders in the field of service-learning and community engagement.
· Designed and implemented an intentional comprehensive 360-degree review of the Director. Provided coaching and support in the creation of the Director’s professional development plan. · Designed and implemented an intensive leadership development initiative for professionals of color in the field of community engagement dedicated to issues of social justice, equity, and multiculturalism. Provided long-term one-on-one coaching to program participants. · Provided individuals and teams with professional organizing (e.g, effective calendar usage, coordinating multiple projects, managing excessive email, etc.). · Coordinated special events including community service projects, parent education workshops, University Presidents' recognition events, and college tours for 20 to 300 participants. · Designed and facilitated a two-day staff retreat focused on strategic thinking, planning and goal development using Appreciative Inquiry. |
More about Cathy's Approach
Cathy works with individuals and teams to discover creative, culturally appropriate strategies to advance the mission of their organizations, relying on Cathy to:
Create learning environments for diverse groups and individuals to share resources and achieve common goals.
Guide groups in collecting, synthesizing and prioritizing their ideas, goals and strategies to support their vision.
Break down complex issues into manageable chunks allowing participants to easily engage in the process.
Support and guide the group in making tough, sometimes unpopular or uncomfortable, decisions.
Accomplish goals quickly and efficiently while upholding the meaning and complexity of the issues at hand.
Create learning environments for diverse groups and individuals to share resources and achieve common goals.
- Tend to every detail of each gathering, thoughtfully crafting the most appropriate invitation, space, methods, activities and follow-up
- Develop environments that enable participants to trust, share, risk, collaborate, and learn with each other; often creating or maintaining authentic relationships with stakeholders across sectors and ideology
- Appropriately identify and direct group dynamics in support of the overarching goal
Guide groups in collecting, synthesizing and prioritizing their ideas, goals and strategies to support their vision.
- Harvest the knowledge and ideas of all participants
- Honor diverse ways of knowing and learning through the use of interactive and highly participatory methods that utilize many types of intelligences
Break down complex issues into manageable chunks allowing participants to easily engage in the process.
- Introduce organizational frameworks, tools, and resources when appropriate
- Provide practical, honest feedback, questions, and recommendations without judgment
Support and guide the group in making tough, sometimes unpopular or uncomfortable, decisions.
- Identify core issues and persistent barriers to success
- Assist the group in discovering what really matters in order to enhance effectiveness
Accomplish goals quickly and efficiently while upholding the meaning and complexity of the issues at hand.
- Assist teams in conceptualizing and implementing processes, moving ideas into action
- Deliver intentional, comprehensive, user-friendly processes and documents to meet the unique needs of each client
