Instructors
With exceptional educational and professional backgrounds, our instructors are experts in their fields. In addition to outstanding interpersonal communication and presentation skills, their on-the-job experience ensures that they deliver the newest best practices and will share insightful secrets and tricks to excel in your organization.
Diane Banic
Dr. Diane Banic is a licensed psychologist specializing in executive coaching, leadership development and team building. She began her career in human resources and organizational development at General Motors and has since led professional development and training for companies such as American Commercial Lines, LLC, Jewish Hospital, US Coal and Churchill Downs.
Joseph Barimo, Ph.D.
Dr. Barimo currently holds the position of president of Professionally Speaking & Managing Inc., a consulting company specializing in speech therapy, teaching as a management competency, healthcare education and university clinic operations. He previously served as vice president of corporate learning for a national long-term care corporation, responsible for education and training, with a focus on adult learning strategies. Dr. Barimo is seasoned in conceiving and building programs from the ground up through proven competencies in planning and administration, project and program management, and staff development and empowerment. Dr. Barimo holds a doctorate in education, an executive master of business administration degree, and a master of science in speech-language pathology.
Tony Belak
Mr. Belak is an internationally respected trainer and consultant in workplace dispute resolution. In his current role as ombuds for the University of Louisville, he provides informal, impartial and confidential dispute resolution services for faculty and staff. He previously served as executive director of the International Center for Dispute Resolution at Sullivan University and faculty member in its online master's in dispute resolution program, as well as senior dispute resolution counsel for the Department of Veteran Affairs.
Vivian Hairston Blade
Vivian Blade works with ambitious professionals who are determined to win. She is a recognized author, keynote speaker, trainer and executive coach whose passion is to Build Leaders and Develop Excellence, empowering organizations and individuals to achieve their dreams. Vivian has over 20 years of experience working for Fortune 100 companies, GE and Humana. She holds an MBA and B.S. in Business Administration and teaches aspiring leaders at the University of Louisville College of Business. Vivian’s professional certifications include GE Certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Black Belt and Green Belt, Certified Project Management Professional, Certified Net Promoter Associate, and ATD Training and Consulting Skills Certificates. She has worked with many global organizations, such as Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, Brown-Forman, and GE, and individual professionals to help them realize their full potential.
Brian Buford
Brian Buford is the director of the Office for LGBT Services at the University of Louisville, the first office of its kind in Kentucky. In this position, he helped implement health insurance and other benefits for domestic partners, added gender identity to the university's nondiscrimination policy, and initiated nine new LGBT organizations to enhance campus life. Prior to that, he worked as a director of organizational effectiveness for UofL's human resources department, where he facilitated supervisory training and employee recognition. In 2010, Buford was selected as one of Louisville's "connectors," people who achieve remarkable results through their unique style of trusted leadership. He counts among his most treasured accomplishments a through-hike of the 2,175 mile Appalachian Trail in 2007.
Lee Cowherd
SPHR
Lee Cowherd has over 20 years' experience as a consultant, facilitator and trainer. A graduate of the Ohio State University and Vanderbilt University, Lee has worked extensively in the public sector, developing and delivering training to thousands of government employees, leading planning sessions for top leaders, and developing innovative HR practices. His public sector expertise is tempered by his experience with the for-profit world, having worked with clients from Main Street retailers to Fortune 500 companies. Lee's specialty is helping his clients prepare for the future by identifying key workforce and societal trends and helping them develop the systems, structures and skills they need to thrive in a changing world.
Rebecca Crump
Becky Crump has more than 20 years working with all phases of grant development including proposal reviews. She has a BSW, MA and EdS degree. She is also certified by the Grants Professional Certification Institute, a certification program that measures a grant professional's ability to provide quality grant-related services within an ethical framework. She has served as a peer reviewer for 16 different state and federal grant competitions. As current director of resource development for the Jefferson County Schools (JCPS), Ms. Crump develops and oversees grant development for the district. JCPS is the 29th largest district in the nation with more than 100,000 students. In her position, she has primary responsibility for directing the ongoing search for external funding opportunities from federal, state, private and corporate sources. Prior to JCPS, she worked with grants and contracts at the state level and the University of Louisville. In all her positions, she has developed and implemented grant training workshops.
Denise M. Cumberland, Ph.D.
Dr. Cumberland is an assistant professor in the Organizational Leadership and Learning program at the University of Louisville. She teaches organizational analysis, ethics, organizational change and consulting. Before joining academia she spent 20 years working in franchise organizations. One of her roles at Yum! Brands was Director of Innovation and Consumer Insights, where she created and managed the Explore Team - a partnership of food scientists, marketers and suppliers responsible for inventing new products and expanding business platforms. Dr. Cumberland’s expertise is innovation and group dynamics. She assists franchise organizations, nonprofits, and small businesses with team building, conflict resolution, and innovative problem-solving techniques.
Virginia Weber Denny
Virginia brings over 30 years of training experience to her participants. Throughout her career, she has helped thousands of participants get the tools they need to excel in their positions. As the director of professional development and conference services, she provides strategic consulting and facilitation services to area businesses. Degrees in psychology and organizational communication contribute to a human-potential focus in her work. Additionally, her master's in human resource education provides the most cutting-edge information in the field to help learners get the tools they need to be effective.
Sara Fulmer, Ph.D.
Dr. Sara Fulmer is a developmental and educational psychologist with expertise in leveraging the power of the human brain for learning and effectiveness. As program manager at the Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning, Sara helps faculty expand teaching excellence at UofL. With teaching experience in K-6 and higher education, Sara brings a depth of experience to help professionals leverage the power of learning and thinking skills. Sara has published articles on student motivation and learning, and has also developed and facilitated interventions to help teachers understand and support student motivation. Before joining UofL, Sara was an assistant professor of educational psychology at SUNY Oneonta.
Steve Goodwin
Steve has worked for 35 years in the experiential education field for Jefferson County Public Schools, Gheens Academy and Project ID; the Kentucky Department of Education; Emergency Services, UofL; Ivy Tech; the Boy Scouts of America; and the Jefferson County Memorial Forest, where he developed the Experiential Education Institute. He also works as a facilitator for Louisville Metro Government training programs, a facilities manager for Metro Louisville, and a consultant for other corporate organizations.
James Hale
James Hale is founder and CEO of PathChoices, a company of risk takers dedicated to helping people ascend on their career paths. His focus is on the journey of change, where people create a work environment different than what they currently have. He loves the classroom and development of video training programs, but also has a passion for personal coaching to help people thrive in their chosen careers and at times of transition.
Derrick Jack
Derrick Jack is a Gallup Certified Strengths-Performance Coach® and is trained to coach entrepreneurs using the science of the Entrepreneurial Profile 10® (EP10®). He is one of a small number of people globally who is able to coach individuals, teams and organizations through the process of executing a talent-focused system using both of these powerful tools. Derrick’s workshops are high energy, rich in content, and aimed to transform your naturally reoccurring thoughts, feelings and behaviors into the defining qualities of your consistent performance. He energizes the existing talents within your company with his relentless drive for innovative knowledge and a fearless hope that your current obstacles will soon become the centerpiece of your most treasured achievements. Top 5 Strengths: Learner | Ideation | Restorative | Achiever | Strategic
Jud Hendrix
Jud Hendrix is a consultant and coach with New Possibilities Associates, the executive director of The Global Human Project, the convener of Louisville Integrative Practitioners Association (LIPA) and an adjunct faculty member at Bellarmine University. He has worked in the area of personal and professional development for over 20 years and has certifications in Integrative Coaching, Enneagram facilitation, Theory U facilitation and the Conversation Arts. Jud specializes in integrative theory and practices, vertical leadership development, and cultural proficiency training.
Maryanne Honeycutt
Maryanne works with business leaders who want to be more productive and reach more of their potential. One of her specific areas of expertise is working with leaders who have multiple priorities and demands, and want to feel less stress and overwhelmed at work and in their personal life. By combining the latest in emotional intelligence and interpersonal techniques, she works with leaders to create sustained and measurable change. Part of her solution includes the Priority Management curriculum - a global leader in workload management training.
Sharon Kerrick, Ph.D.
Dr. Kerrick is the assistant dean at Bellarmine University’s Rubel School of Business. She was formerly the associate director of the Forcht Entrepreneurship Center at UofL’s College of Business for 14 years where she taught/co-lead the top-ranked Entrepreneurship MBA program and Entrepreneurship minor, a degree she created in 2008. She also created VetStart in 2012, a program to help military veterans launch businesses. Her research is in teaching entrepreneurship, e-learning and financial literacy. Prior to joining academia, she was one of the founder/owners of a technology firm that grew to over 300 full-time staff and was in business for nearly 20 years. Dr. Kerrick has received numerous awards including SBA’s Veterans Small Business Advocate of the Year, Business First’s 40 Under 40, Greater Louisville Inc. Technologist of the Year, Women 4 Women Champions for Her, Junior Achievement Worldwide Leadership Award, and was a National Association of Women Business Owner’s finalist and the recipient of UofL’s prestigious campus wide Paul Weber Award for Excellence in Teaching. Career highlights include accompanying two Entrepreneurship MBA business plan teams, after winning global business plan competitions with awards of over $1.1M, to ring the bell at NASDAQ.
Elizabeth Jenkins Kimbell
Elizabeth Jenkins Kimbell is a professional writer with more than 25 years of experience. Her expertise includes advertising support, sales, marketing, copywriting, and designing and writing corporate and nonprofit newsletters. She teaches online writing courses for UofL's Department of Communication.
Elizabeth Krauss
Elizabeth Krauss is an adjunct faculty member in UofL's College of Education and Human Development, where she teaches undergraduate courses in leadership and management. Prior to joining UofL, she was a leadership development instructor for Central Texas College. An Air Force veteran, she also served as faculty at U.S. Air Force Officer Training School. She holds a master's in human relations from the University of Oklahoma and a master's in kinesiology and health promotion from the University of Kentucky.
Kimberly May
Kimberly May is founder of Inspire Wellness LLC, a partner in Intentional Wellness and a wellness coach specialist at the Institute for Integrative Medicine. She has over 12 years experience in the health and wellness field, providing wellness coaching and leading wellness workshops for companies such as Zappos, Pikeville Medical Center, Metropolitan College and Mercer. Kimberly combines her corporate management background with her experience in wellness to help others to create better health, peace of mind, and greater performance.
Rebecca Miller
Rebecca Miller offers over 25 years experience in brand management, marketing, communications, media, advertising and corporate cultural change. She has managed, facilitated and/or assisted in reinventing marketing and communications systems in the healthcare, financial, insurance, transportation, construction, manufacturing and the arts industries. Her expertise includes improving internal and external brand management, communications and marketing at all levels of the organization/business. Ms. Miller’s talents also include the ability to translate senior management objectives into comprehensible communications for varied audiences. Ms. Miller works individually with CEOs and their teams from Fortune 100 companies to those with less than 50 employees. Most of her work involves brand management and extreme presentation training. This includes writing, editing, and packaging everything from RFP written responses and oral presentations to the actual delivery, tonality, and construction of the message.
Don Odom
Don is the owner and founder of SalesTilt, LLC, a company dedicated to showing small business owners and sales people how to excel at landing new business, sell more profitably and automate their prospecting efforts. He shares his 25-years of real-world, firing line experience of owning four companies, selling in six different industries, managing sales team and running a $20 million manufacturing company to coach and lead owners and sales people away from falling short and being frustrated to excelling and achieving the life they want.
Johna Rodgers
Johna Rodgers, GPC, is a technical writer with nearly four decades of experience across multiple genres. From her high school days as a weekend obit and “cop shop” reporter for her hometown paper to more recent years working with public and private agencies of all sizes, Johna brings a practical and common sense approach to every writing task. Focused on purpose, audience, content, and format, she now works with clients to make to make writing more practical, productive and less painful. As a trainer, she presents complex, potentially dull content in a seamless, entertaining fashion to ensure engagement and understanding for all.
Lewis Rudy
Lewis Rudy is founder and president of Rudy and Associates and works with business owners and their teams to build strong, intentional business growth. He identifies, isolates and eliminates the root causes of margin compression and under-performance. He has worked with dozens of regional, national and international companies to redefine and add real value to the organization. Typically, year-over-year results turn into triple digit profit improvement. Lewis’ workshops are challenging and always bring about actionable change. He actively facilitates a number of CEO and Senior Leadership round tables as well as educational programs such as REDI.
Mark Scureman
Mark Scureman is a West Point graduate who retired from the U.S. Army as a full colonel. Col. Scureman graduated from every leadership school the military has to offer, including the prestigious Army War College. He has worked with some of the most outstanding leaders in the military, including General Colin Powell. Following retirement, he discovered that his philosophies of leadership and teamwork also worked well in the civilian world. Since 1992, Col. Scureman has presented hundreds of leadership, management, and communication seminars to both for-profit and non-profit organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Cara Silletto, MBA
Cara Silletto is a national speaker and consultant on bridging generational gaps in the workplace, and currently sits in a unique sweet spot for this specialty. She is an early Millennial herself, born in 1981, yet she has more than 13 years of experience learning the unwritten expectations of seasoned managers and business owners in order to advance her own career. As the Founder and President of Crescendo Strategies, she is committed to reducing unnecessary employee turnover for clients by making managers more effective in their roles. Cara earned a Corporate Communication degree from the University of Indianapolis and an MBA from the University of Louisville's top-ranked Entrepreneurship program. Cara is a true connector and active member of several professional associations. In 2013, she was featured in both “Today’s Woman” and “BG” magazines as the featured young entrepreneur, and in early 2014, she was named a Top 3 Finalist for the One Southern Indiana James W. Robinson Young Professional of the Year Award. She was recently named a “Game Changer” by Workforce magazine in Chicago, and is the co-author of “What’s Next in HR.”
Jim Thorp
Currently based in Louisville, Kentucky, Jim brings over 30 years of experience in designing and delivering leadership management training programs to clients around the world. A native of Washington, DC, Jim was on the faculty at Cornell University, the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business and Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, where he was also director of the MBA Leadership Program. His management training expertise in the areas of leadership, conflict resolution, team-building, diversity and sexual harassment has been utilized by numerous clients, ranging from training for top level executives to production line workers.
Hope Zoeller, Ph.D.
Dr. Hope Zoeller is founder and president of HOPE (Helping Other People Excel), LLC, a firm that specializes in facilitating leader success at every level of an organization. For over 13 years of her professional career, Dr. Zoeller worked at United Parcel Service (UPS) in various roles including customer service, training and development, and employee relations. For the past 11 years, she has been consulting with organizations on leadership development. Dr. Zoeller is also a professor at Spalding University instructing in the Master of Business Communication program. She has a Doctorate in Leadership Education from Spalding University, a Master of Education in Training and Development from the University of Louisville and a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Psychology from Bellarmine University. Dr. Zoeller recently released a book HOPE for Leaders Unabridged. She originates from Southern Indiana and lives in Louisville, Kentucky with her husband Dr. Joe DeSensi. In her spare time she enjoys international travel and yoga.
Project Management Instructor Team
Kay K. DeVincentis
Kay is a senior program manager at Churchill Downs Incorporated and has over 20 years of experience in project management. She also has nearly 25 years of teaching experience for various accredited universities. The twice published author also facilitates Project Management courses for working professionals. Kay serves as an active member of both the Project Management Institute (PMI) and Kentuckiana PMI chapter. She serves as Vice President Elect of Membership of the Kentuckiana PMI chapter. Kay is also a member of Pi Mu Epsilon, National Mathematics Honor Society.
Kay earned her Bachelor of Science in Mathematical Science in 1990 through the University of Kentucky, her Master of Arts in Mathematics from the University of Louisville in 1992, a Master of Arts in Computer Resource and Information Management from Webster University in 1995 and a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Louisville in 2001. Kay’s certifications include Project Management Professional (PMP) and Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma.
Gary W. Hughes
Gary, a native Kentuckian, has been a professional trainer and motivational speaker for many years. He spent many years traveling across the United States and Europe training programmers, web developers, project managers, and other trainers. He has a keen ability to take any topic and present it in a way that enable all learning types to absorb, understand and apply the material. With a thorough understanding of adult learning styles, hemispheric brain dominance theories and physiological learning constraints, he is able to conform to any classroom or audience environment to provide a positive student experience. Gary has multiple Microsoft certifications, as well as multiple trainer and teaching certifications. He has delivered custom curriculum to many well know corporations including LG&E, Pacific Gas and Electric, Shell Oil, Dell Computers, Compaq Computers, Kindred Healthcare, Humana, NASA, Six Flags and many others.
Dr. Chuck Millhollan
Chuck is the vice president of process improvement and execution for Farm Credit Mid-America. He has over 25 years of experience in personnel management, quality management, and project, program & portfolio management. Chuck is a member of the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), a senior member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and Kentuckiana PMI chapter. Chuck holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from Southern Illinois University, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Florida, a Master of Science in Project Management from the University of Wisconsin, and a Doctorate of Professional Studies in Information Management from Syracuse University. Chuck’s certifications include Project Management Professional (PMP), Program Management Professional (PgMP), Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP), Six Sigma Black Belt, Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE), Certified Software Quality Engineer (CSQE), and Certified Managed Healthcare Professional (MHP).
H. Ray Pait, Jr.
Ray is director of program management for Churchill Downs Incorporated’s Program Management Office (PMO) in Louisville, Kentucky. He has been instrumental in defining the processes necessary to develop and implement a standardized project and portfolio management process at Churchill Downs. His project management experience includes web development projects, system upgrade and enhancement initiatives, and process improvement projects. Ray has extensive speaking and training experience with the Department of Criminal Justice Training (DOCJT). In addition to his project management role, Ray completed a distinguished career with over twenty years of service in law enforcement. He has not only led the planning and coordination efforts for security teams representing both national and international dignitaries, but also provided personal security for some of the world’s most influential leaders. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Justice Administration and is currently completing his Master of Science in Justice Administration.