As a human relations specialist, during a tumultuous period (the 1960s -1970s) of school desegregation in Florida, my performance was driven by raw intuition. The situation demanded power, risk, courage, a knack for survival and a passion for creating a better world. Untrained but buoyed on by a courageous superintendent of schools, we designed programs, mediated and trained school administrators, police, parents, and teachers in how to live together in the face of great resistance. The NTL trainers whom I brought in were people “called to change agency.” They walked their talk. My perspective on the situation, my understanding of the diverse views of people and my unifying presence, impressed my new NTL friends  and thus began my membership into the club (NTL). They saw potential in me that would not be limited to working in schools. Radford Wilson and Bill Moore made such an impact that the superintendent acquired funding for me to attend a full, intensive summer of training in Bethel, Maine. The foundation I received from my summers at Bethel, Maine and as part of an intervention team at the University of Massachusetts, sitting at the feet of the masters such as Edie Seashore, laid a solid foundation for my future work.

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As a graduate student and consultant to the U.S. Navy, I was again positioned at a time and place when the stakes were high and the clients were dedicated, putting their careers on the line for the sake of needed change. With direct engagement and support of the Chief of Naval Operations and several high ranking officers, this work became an action-learning doctoral dissertation that was valued as documentation of a period of change in race relations in the military.

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The milestones I accomplished at Exxon, with no previous corporate experience, helped to transform executive education into a strategic tool. Several of my change interventions translated into documented policy and practices across international business lines.