Defining Your Purpose
Alana Muller is a Networking speaker, workshop facilitator, coach and author of the book, Coffee Lunch Coffee: A Practical Field Guide for Master Networking and a companion blog, CoffeeLunchCoffee.com. Alana is the former President of Kauffman FastTrac, a global provider of training to aspiring and established entrepreneurs, providing them the tools, resources and networks to start and grow successful businesses. Additionally, Alana spent a number of years as an executive with Sprint Corporation serving in a variety of general management roles, including marketing, talent management, corporate strategy and wireless data product marketing
Waiting for the Fog to Lift
CEO and Top Executive Advisor, Bonnie is the CEO of Executive Development Associates, a boutique consulting firm specializing in top-of-the-house executive development. She has 15 years of experience successfully leading consulting firms through times of rapid growth, acquisition, economic downturn, and downsizing. She is a highly regarded Executive Coach for CEOs and C-Suite Leaders, as well as a trusted advisor to members of the board. Bonnie leads biennial research on Trends in Executive Development, and has 32 published woks including a book on shifting workforce demographics and their impact on leadership, called “Decades of Differences”
Navigating a Relational System
Christopher Habben is a Professor of Marriage and Family Therapy at Friends University in Kansas City and is the Program Director of the Friends University Master of Science in Family Therapy program in Kanas City. Dr. Habben is a member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) as a Clinical Fellow, is an AAMFT Approved Supervisor and has been licensed for over 15 years in Kansas as a Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist. Dr. Habben’s clinical practice has endeavored primarily to assist couples in relational distress. Dr. Habben is a former President of the Kansas Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and he has received various teaching and professional service awards.
Art Therapy: International Service and Disaster Response
Prior to joining the faculty at ESU, Gaelynn taught art therapy coursework at Florida State University (Tallahassee, Florida), the University of Louisville (Louisville, Kentucky), and La Trobe University (Melbourne, Australia). She has presented throughout the United States, Brazil, England, Jamaica, Haiti, India, the Islands of the Bahamas, Germany, South Africa, Thailand, and Australia on art therapy intervention in response to natural disasters, pediatric medical art therapy, using photography in therapeutic and special education settings, art therapy with geriatric populations, and art therapy with children with special needs. She has also served as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in Melbourne, Australia, and as a member of a Rotary Group Study Exchange Team in Amazonia, Brazil.
Jazz Music
Mark Lowrey, a well known jazz pianist in the Kansas City music scene, is a versatile and experienced musician. Mark is integral to the vibrant jazz tradition in Kansas City, and might just be one of the hardest working guys in show biz.
The Irena Sendler Project
Megan Felt is one of the founders of the internationally known Irena Sendler: Life in a Jar project that began in 1999, which discovered Irena Sendler, a Holocaust rescuer. Irena Sendler was a Polish Catholic woman who saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust. Her story was unknown to the world until the "Life in a Jar” performance began sharing her story around the world. The performance has been presented more than 380 times. As the Program Director of the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes, Megan works with teachers and students all over the world developing projects by sharing the stories of Unsung Heroes as role models. Megan’s work with Life in a Jar has been featured in over 2500 media stories around the world including: TODAY, USA Today, CNN, NPR, PBS and the Chicago Tribune.
The Power of (secure) Love
Omri Gillath, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Psychology and the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center at the University of Kansas. His work focuses on close relationships, and he uses diverse methodologies including neuroimaging, gene mapping, and advanced cognitive techniques to study attachment, sex, and caregiving. He has published extensively on the topics of interpersonal relationships and relationship neuroscience in leading academic journals, and has two books focusing on these topics; Adult Attachment: A Concise Introduction to Theory and Research, and Relationship Science: Integrating Evolutionary, Neuroscience, and Sociocultural Approaches. Dr. Gillath is an associate editor for the journal Personal Relationships, a member of the editorial board of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and a fellow of the Society for Experimental Social Psychology and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.