I view myself as a visionary academic leader with a strong global vision. I enjoy balancing my business interest with academia as a university administrator, professor, scientist, author, and a practicing consultant. I have more than 25 years of academic and research experience. My academic experience includes being a tenured professor, adjunct faculty member, and administrator at higher education institutions in the United States, South Africa, and Australia. During my research career I was leading national and international research projects and also awarded the President's Medal of the Human Resources Council in recognition for my international contribution to the field of Career Development. I worked on longer and short-term projects, or presented at national and international conferences in Australia, Japan, Israel, United States, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Czech Republic, Egypt, South Africa, and Brazil. I have more than 20 publications with articles in international peer-reviewed professional journals and books. I am a people- and results-oriented executive coach who worked with more than four hundred professionals and executives representing a variety of industries in global and national companies during the past 15 years. In my different work environments I positioned myself as a strategic thinker and team builder with strong core values of integrity, compassion, growth, and a global vision. My graduate qualifications were obtained on three different continents: I received my Masters' in Business Administration from the University of Iowa in the United States in 2006; my Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Johannesburg in South Africa in 1989; and my Masters' of Science in Psychology from the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia in 1984.
I love being a wife and mom! My husband Jon is also a busy professional and the local mayor. We enjoy supporting each other in our respective careers. We know not to take ourselves or each other too seriously, and remember the importance of just having fun! My oldest daughter Lindi is the Executive Director of Economic Development for a local county in the United States, my daughter Rouxle is finishing her studies to qualify as a social worker, and my son David is in his first year of high school. He does not know yet what he wants to do one day but loves Mathematics, American football, South African rugby, and wrestling. I don't know about a job yet that will combine all his interests!
A few years ago I took about three weeks to formulate my purpose in life. I started off writing numerous pages, then condensing that into a few paragraphs, an eventually ending up with three key words. My purpose in life is something that I bring to anything I am doing, whether I am at home with my family, in the community with my husband and other people in town, in the classroom with my students, as executive coach at a company, as the president of American City University. My purpose in life is to love, learn and grow. Also to encourage, coach, mentor, teach, advise those around me toward the same purpose.
I look forward to share some of my daily professional and personal experiences with you as an virtual, global ACU community and look forward to read what you will share as well!
