Presenters
Presenters for the 2017 Annual SMART Staff Retreat
Sessions 1A and 2A
Associate Director, Instructional Technology David serves as the Associate Director of Instructional Technology for the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He has been working in the Audio Visual and Information Technology fields for 10 years. He is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University with a Bachelors of Science in Audio Production. He began his professional work as the Technical Director for a university fine arts center, and then transitioned his career path into the corporate show A/V industry as a Production Manager, providing production technology for corporate, presidential, and celebrity events. David now brings his depth of experience, technical skills, and management capabilities to his team of Learning Space Technologists who install, operate, and maintain classroom technology for the medical school. Presenting: |
Director, Get Healthy Now Patricia Benson is the Director of the University of Louisville’s award winning health management program, Get Healthy Now. The health management program is an integral part of a comprehensive benefit package offered to University employees. This successful initiative was implemented under Patricia’s leadership in 2005 as a healthcare-cost containment strategy and has received local, state, and national recognition as a highly effective health management model. UofL’s demonstrated impact on the bottom line coupled with high employee engagement and retention in the wellness program for ten consecutive years provide ample evidence of Patricia’s steadfast leadership and drive to build a sustainable program with measurable impact. In the early years, Patricia aligned the employee wellness program to support the President’s seven-point fiscal management strategy and transformed the medical plan, previously referred to as underperforming, to a performing asset. The year-over-year success of Get Healthy Now ultimately led to 1.3 million dollar renovation of a state of the art wellness facility dedicated to all employees and alumni of UofL and the national recognition of UofL’s President, Dr. James Ramsey, as the recipient of the 2014 HERO Jerry Noyce Executive Health Champion Award. Prestigious recognitions secured through Patricia’s efforts include the National and Southern Region Award of Excellence in HR Practice from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR); American Heart Association Platinum Start! ‘Fit-friendly’ recognition; Business First Healthiest Employer of Louisville award, American Heart Association Corporate Leadership Award and the Mayor’s Healthy Hometown Worksite Wellness Veteran Award. Patricia completed her Bachelor of Science with a concentration in Health Promotion and Master of Education with a concentration in Fitness and Wellness at the University of Louisville. Presenting: |
Consultant, Human Development Company Rodney Brannon has been serving as a consultant for Human Development Company for over ten years. His work includes providing a wide range of training programs from Organizational Development to Compliance issues, such as Harassment and Diversity. In addition, he also conducts mediation and provides individual and family counseling. Rodney received his undergraduate degree from Spalding University where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Social Work and then completed his graduate degree from the Kent School of Social Work at the University of Louisville. Presenting: |
Outpatient Provider, Creative Spirits Behavioral and Addiction Health Center Cassandra is a dynamic gifted speaker, author, teacher, columnist, lecturer counselor, corporate trainer and workshop conference leader. She is a skilled counselor with her Bachelors of Psychology from Kentucky State University and Masters of Science in Counseling -Marriage and Family Therapy from Campbellsville University. She has 25 years of experience in behavioral and mental health services. She is a Marriage and Family Therapist Associate, Mental Health Therapist, Licensed Clinical Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LCADC) and Certified Autonomous Domestic Violence Counselor. She currently provides outpatient services in her agency Creative Spirits Behavioral and Addiction Heath Center and serves as a consultant/trainer for Human Development Company, UofL’s Employee Assistance Program. Presenting: |
Sales Director, Whil Concepts Derek graduated from the University of Oklahoma in Finance, before following his career around the U.S. and eventually settling in San Francisco. He has over 12 years of successful sales and leadership experience. Derek has won some of the highest team accolades and has developed/promoted incredible individuals. He's at Whil to help create happier, healthier and high-performing workforces. Presenting: |
Harry Pickens is an award-winning musician, educator and life transformation strategist. His multifaceted background includes certifications in Applied Positive Psychology and Energy Psychology, extensive experience as an educator on elementary, secondary, college and adult levels, and an international career as a jazz pianist, collaborating with hundreds of the worlds top jazz artists and educators. He is also a a certified Havening Techniques® Practitioner/Trainer and founder/director of Havening Louisville, which is bringing these cutting-edge tools for emotional, psychological and physical healing to our region. Harry is author of Fifteen Minutes To Freedom: The Power and Promise of Havening Techniques, and In Tune: Lessons In Life From A Life In Music. Based in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, he works with clients throughout the world via Skype, phone, and in person. Presenting: |
Keynote Address
Senior Vice President and Regional Executive, Louisville Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Nikki Jackson is senior vice president and regional executive of the Louisville Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, serving metro Louisville, southern Indiana and western Kentucky. In her role she focuses on community development and education as well as regional economic research and policy input. Prior to joining the St. Louis Fed in 2014, Ms. Jackson served as personnel cabinet secretary for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, chief human resources officer for Charter Schools USA, vice chancellor of human resources for Maricopa Community Colleges, and other positions in btoh the health care and legal fields. In her positions, she focused on strategic planning, community partnerships, succession planning, recruitment and retention, and labor negotiations. Ms. Jackson earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Miami School of Law and bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Hampton University. She is considerably involved in the Louisville community. Ms. Jackson is a member of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and the Women’s Club of Louisville. She serves on the boards of One West, Louisville Public Media, the Louisville Regional Airport Authority, University of Louisville’s College of Business Board of Advisors and Family Scholar House. Previous board memberships include Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest, Women for Women, Kentucky Retirement Systems, Kentucky Deferred Compensation Authority, and Kentucky Mutual Employers Insurance. In 2017, she was selected as Louisville Business First’s “Woman of Influence”. She has also been honored as one of the “20 People to Know in Banking and Finance”, “Forty Under Forty” and recognized as one of the “10 Most Influential Women of Louisville”. In 2015 she authored a chapter in the book “Rethinking Human Resources”. |
Sessions 1B and 2B
Ph.D Candidate, Kent School of Social Work Samantha Cotton, MSSW, is a PhD Candidate at the Kent School of Social Work, University of Louisville. She works as the Program Manager for the Flourish Prograam and the Coordinator for the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias initiative through a Human Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant at the Institute for Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging. She is currently a part-time faculty member at the Kent School of Social Work, teaching in the Advanced Research Practice sequence. She provides supervision to Kent School of Social Work students completing practicum through the Institute for Sustainable Health & Optimal Aging. Her research interests focus primarily on the needs of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers including developing innovative evidenced based practices for caregiving, infusing compassion into caregiving in both community and long-term care settings, and implementing alternatives to pharmaceutical interventions for individuals with dementia. Presenting: |
 Kent GardnerDirector, Office of Academic Technology Kent is the director of the School of Medicine Office of Academic Technology at the University of Louisville, a position he has held since 2010, before that he was the Technology Coordinator for the School from 2004. Kent started in the technology field in the private sector in 1987 and worked as an I.S. manager for a medium sized company specializing in computer controlled digital audio routing and announcement systems until 2000. After a brief stint as a private consultant, Kent took a position in technology with U of L’s Medical School in 2001. His team currently provides support to over 600 medical students, academic support to the Medical School faculty and administration including assistance in curricular development, management of the Curriculum Database and all other academic technologies, manage all classrooms for the Medical School and the Nursing School, and manage video conferencing and cloud based learning spaces for the University. Kent also represents the School of Medicine in all strategic level technical discussions with the University and outside entities. Recent Presentations: UBTech - Collaborative Classroom Panel and Presentation Campus Technology 2015 - Design and Implementation of a Complete Medical School Renovation in Less than a Year Presenting: |
 Cassandra D. Harris GrayOutpatient Provider, Creative Spirits Behavioral and Addiction Health Center Cassandra is a dynamic gifted speaker, author, teacher, columnist, lecturer counselor, corporate trainer and workshop conference leader. She is a skilled counselor with her Bachelors of Psychology from Kentucky State University and Masters of Science in Counseling -Marriage and Family Therapy from Campbellsville University. She has 25 years of experience in behavioral and mental health services. She is a Marriage and Family Therapist Associate, Mental Health Therapist, Licensed Clinical Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LCADC) and Certified Autonomous Domestic Violence Counselor. She currently provides outpatient services in her agency Creative Spirits Behavioral and Addiction Heath Center and serves as a consultant/trainer for Human Development Company, UofL’s Employee Assistance Program. Presenting: |
Intuitive, Mindful Coach Intuitive Vanessa F. Hurst is a mindful coach, compassion consultant, author, and professional speaker. As a mindful coach, Vanessa shares her vision while engaging her clients' wisdom to identify blockages to change and create plans of transformation. As a compassion consultant, she develops and facilitates action-producing resources for identifying compassion competencies, stakeholder/community building, mindfulness coaching, and organizational culture strengthening. Vanessa holds a Master's Degree in Natural and is the author of Engaging Compassion Through Intent and Action (Wildefyr Press, 2014), and A Constellation of Connections: Contemplative Relationships (Wildefyr Press, 2016). Vanessa nationally presents programs featuring compassion, mindfulness, contemplative living, and intuitive awareness. She is the innovator of Compassion Conversation© and Compassion’s Circle©. Her intent is to create a lived experience of heightened awareness, in herself, clients, and students, in order to encourage ever-increasing compassionate action in individuals and organizations. Contact Vanessa for mindful coaching, Intuitive Conversations, compassion competency evaluation for organizations, or information on programs. Presenting: Learn to Do Body Scan, Mindfulness |
Director, Counseling Center at the University of Louisville Dr. Aesha L. Uqdah is a licensed clinical psychologist and the Director of the Counseling Center at the University of Louisville. She has also held adjunct faculty status at UofL and Spalding University, teaching courses related to the clinical applications of multicultural psychology. Dr. Uqdah is responsible for all program areas and activities of the UofL Counseling Center, and her clinical interests in include multicultural/diversity issues, LGBTQ concerns, anxiety & depression, health psychology, and stress management. She uses Cognitive Behavioral, Interpersonal, and Multicultural theories and interventions in her clinical work. Presenting: |
Associate Professor, Pediatrics Dr. Lawrence Wasser, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, was born in the Bronx, New York and grew up in New Jersey. He received his B.S. From Yale University and his M.D. from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He was a pediatric resident at Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston and a Senior Registrar at Paddington Green Children’s Hospital in London, England. He completed a fellowship in Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics at the Child Development Unit at Harvard Medical School, working under Dr. T Berry Brazelton. Dr. Wasser then moved to Louisville and joined a private practice in primary care pediatrics, where he practiced for 27 years before joining the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 2006. He was an attending at the UCHS Clinic/U of L Pediatrics Downtown before moving to his current position as the Director of the Newborn Nursery at University of Louisville Hospital. Dr. Wasser has presented parenting workshops locally and nationally, and has a parenting blog at toddlerdoc.blogspot.com. Dr Wasser is married to Laura Melon, a teenage crush that took 37 years to mature. Together, they are the proud parents 3 children and 5 grandchildren. Presenting: |
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