About me

I'm a visual practitioner, blending the creative potential of graphic imagery with positive and strengths-based practices in planning, change and innovation. In my day job, I serve as the Director of Planning and Partnerships at the Brody School of Medicine in Greenville, NC. In addition, I consult independently, engaging groups and individuals whenever and wherever I can help give life to new ideas and practices.

Trained and still licensed as an architect, I have applied principles of planning and design to the physical, academic and organizational aspects of higher education for almost 20 years. Since 2005, I have explored and developed my skills in visual practice and interactive creativity to design and guide engagements that create possibilities.

A graduate of the N.C. State University School of Design, I served as University Architect at East Carolina University for ten years. In addition to oversight of a major expansion program, I guided the development of campus master plans for both the main and medical campuses. During that time, I worked with the University of North Carolina system and Eva Klein & Associates in the design and development of the statewide Capital Equity/Adequacy Study and 10-Year Capital Plan, which involved substantial elements of quantitative data, system-wide policy and legislative strategy. From that point on, the traditional bricks and mortar approach to ongoing change was no longer enough.

I have been trained in a variety of practices, and have anchored my practice in the inter-relationships among Appreciative Inquiry, Systems Thinking and the Osborne-Parnes Creative Problem-Solving Method. My teachers have included the Grove Consultants International, Roger Schwarz and Associates, the Society for College and University Planning, Amanda Trosten-Bloom and Peter Senge. I maintain an active peer network, and hold memberships in the Creative Education Foundation, the International Forum of Visual Practitioners and the AAMC Group on Institutional Planning.

Recent clients include the Center for Creative Leadership, the Creative Education Foundation, The National Association for College and University Food Service, the University of Scranton, Purdue University at Calumet and Girl Scouts USA.

Photo above thanks to Firehawk Hulin, www.resonance.to