Sarah Rosenbaum, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist at the Belmont Center for Comprehensive Treatment. She also maintains a private practice of therapy and organizational consulting services. She is a member of the New York Center, co-president of the Philadelphia Center for Organizational Dynamics, and an associate of AKRI. Dr. Rosenbaum's background is middle-class, Italian- and German-American. She is the daughter of Jewish and Catholic intermarried parents and identifies as Jewish. She lives in Philadelphia with her Japanese husband and their toddler son.
Carl Mack, Jr., Ph.D., is an organization development consultant. He also teaches part-time at Alliant International University in both the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management and the California School of Professional Psychology. He is a member of GREX and an associate of AKRI. Dr. Mack, a former public school superintendent, is a married, senior African American living in Davis, California, where he is deepening his meditation and spiritual insights, and learning the roles of elder and grandfather.
Michael Speer, Ph.D., is an organizational and group relations consultant, trainer, and coach. Since 2004 he has been a senior fellow at the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland. He is an associate with GRA, Inc., and also an associate of the Washington-Baltimore Center (WBC) and of AKRI. He is the immediate past president of WBC. He is retired from the U.S. Government Accountability Office where he served as director of training. Dr. Speer grew up in Mississippi and now lives with his partner in Washington, D.C.
Rebecca "Weslie" Ellison, M.A., a graduate of Howard University School of Communications, is a Web Specialist within the Internet Channel Group at USPS and a market research analyst by training. She is currently training for consultant certification through AKRI. Ms. Ellison, born and raised overseas, identifies primarily through her faith tradition as a Bahá'í and is the youngest of 4 children of middle-class Black American parents with West African as well as Choctaw and English/French/Swedish ancestral roots. She is single and currently resides in Washington, D.C.
Omawale T. Elson, Ph.D., a graduate of Howard University, is an organizational development specialist in the Center for Leadership and Organizational Change and a senior fellow with the James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, both at University of Maryland. He is president-elect of WBC and an associate of AKRI. He is co-founder of the Morgan State University Group Relations Leadership Conference, and an adjunct associate professor at the University of Maryland University College in the Department of Business and Management. Dr. Elson is a principal in Elson Consulting Group, LLP, an organizational development and communications firm with offices in the USA and in the Caribbean. He is a Barbadian and a deacon in the Apostolic Sons of God Spiritualist Baptist Church of Barbados, an Afro-Caribbean Christian Faith. He's married and has three children.
Betsy A. Hasegawa, Ed.D. (Harvard University), teaches in the Department of Management, College of Business and Economics at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, in the beautiful northwest corner of the contiguous United States. She is an organizational development and group relations consultant and executive coach, working with educational, non-profit, and corporate clients. Dr. Hasegawa is an associate of WBC and of AKRI. She identifies as a sansei (third generation Japanese American) with Ainu heritage (the indigenous people of Japan), and as a "Co-op Kid," having grown up in a diverse 80-family cooperative community outside Chicago.
Rev. Ruth Kuo, M. Div., is the Pastor and Head of Staff at the Union Presbyterian Church in Schenectady. She received her Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School, and a master's in pastoral care and theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. She is an associate of WBC and of AKRI. Rev. Kuo likes to incorporate holistic health and living in her ministry. She practiced as a massage therapist and a Yoga instructor for many years. She was born in Taiwan, grew up as a pastor's kid, and immigrated with her family to the USA. She identifies herself as a Taiwanese-American.
Joseph Schmidt, M. Div., is the communications director for the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He currently serves on the executive committee of WBC in the role of secretary and is an associate of both AKRI and IFSI. He has been involved in group relations work for eight years. He was born in Ohio, the youngest and only "generation X-er" of a large Catholic family of Irish and German ancestry. He considered a vocation to the Catholic priesthood, spending five years as a member of a religious missionary community studying theology before deciding to pursue other interests. He has a wide group of friends, five godchildren and, as of this writing, no significant other. He ran his second marathon in October 2006.
Ayana Watkins-Northern, Ph.D., is a psychologist at the Howard University Counseling Service (UCS) where she is the director of clinical services and chief psychologist. Currently, she is also acting dean and director for counseling and career development at UCS. She maintains a part-time private practice, is on the faculty of the Washington School of Psychiatry's Group Psychotherapy Training Program, and is an associate of WBC and AKRI. She is an African-American, the mother of a teenage daughter, a wife, and daughter of a mother who has Alzheimer's and lives with her and her family in Washington, D.C.
Kellie Rice, M.A., LPC, is a Psy.D. candidate at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology and will begin her pre-doctoral internship at Advocate Family Healthcare Network in Oaklawn, IL in July. She is also a psychotherapist with Working Sobriety, Chicago, specializing in addictions and trauma. She is a member of the Chicago Center for the Study of Groups and Organizations and currently training for consultant certification through AKRI. Ms. Rice is an only child raised in a middle-class, rural farming community in Northwest Missouri. She identifies as Caucasian with German, Polish, English and Cherokee ancestry. She is married and has two English Bulldogs.
Dr. Lamis Jarrar was to be a consultant for this conference, but has lost her brave battle with cancer. Her biographical statement is included here, as she wrote it, in remembrance and recognition of her many years of dedication to, and excellence in, group relations work.
Lamis K. Jarrar, Ph.D. CGP, is a psychologist in and former director of the Practicum and Externship Training Program at Howard University. She serves on the faculty of the National Group Psychotherapy Institute at the Washington School of Psychiatry. She is also a psychotherapist in private practice. Dr. Jarrar is an associate of WBC and of AKRI. She is an Arab-Palestinian-Israeli woman who was born to Muslim parents, came to the United States to pursue her graduate studies and ended up as an immigrant. She is the mother of a young child.