Nadine Burnside

Dr. Nadine Burnside is an organization and management practitioner as well as an educator for graduate level coursework. She has over 25 years of professional and educator experience in the fields of Business, Organizational Behavior, Leadership, Human Resources, and Organizational Development. She has held progressively responsible positions including managing organizational performance, talent management, position classification and compensation, and strategic management operations. Moreover, she has served as project manager for several high profiled organizational effectiveness initiatives and has provided consultation and professional development on strategic management, organizational change management, diversity and inclusion, leadership and team development, compensation, and employment law and practices.

Dr. Burnside holds a BA in Psychology from Clark University, Worcester, MA; M.S. in Business Administration from Strayer University, Washington, DC; and a Ph.D. in Organization and Management with a specialization in Human Resources from Capella University, Minneapolis, MN. She also holds the Certified Compensation Professional designation from World of Work.

Deborah Cebula

Deborah served as former assistant dean and director of professional programs in the Welch Center for Graduate & Professional Studies at Goucher. Ms. Cebula also served as former Assistant Dean, Advanced Academic Programs, Johns Hopkins University; Senior Executive, The Guilford Group; Vice President, Administration and Finance, PMT & Associates; and Lecturer, Towson University, Foursite Program. Ms. Cebula began her career as a research writer and editor with the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and worked with the U.S. Agency if International Development, the American Public Health Association, and the United Nations Children's' Fund around issues of international health and community development. Ms. Cebula holds a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University; has completed extensive post graduate work at the Bloomberg School of Hygiene and Public Health and the School of Business and Education at Johns Hopkins University. Her special interests are in the management of organizations, behavioral change models, and program development.

Catherine Cole

Catherine Cole is a marketing and global strategy specialist with over 20 years of experience working for multinationals and startups throughout Asia. Her industry experience covers logistics, airlines, consumer electronics, sports & entertainment and global nonprofits. Her breadth of work experience includes marketing, sales and strategy roles for both large and small companies. Starting her career in logistics, Catherine was based in China building the sales and marketing activities for the first US airline to be granted the authority to operate cargo aircraft into China. From 2000-2004, Catherine was a Global Strategist for the Samsung Global Strategy Group, a group that acted as internal consultants for Samsung's vast businesses headquartered in Seoul, Korea. Consulting projects covered topics as diverse as marketing strategy, CRM, business development and customer needs segmentation. The last nine years have been spent working closely with entrepreneurs and small businesses on their everyday business issues. Her specialty is working closely with founders and management teams to help solve critical issues that their businesses face. Key skills include business development, marketing, strategic planning, social media strategy and cross-cultural communications. Catherine was born and raised in Asia and speaks and writes Mandarin. She currently resides in Hong Kong.  Catherine earned a B.A. in East Asian Studies from the University of Pennsylvania; a M.A. in Chinese History from the University of Pennsylvania; and a M.B.A. from Harvard University.

Megan Farrell

Megan has earned a B.A. in Political Science from Loyola College in Maryland; a J.D. from the Widener University School of Law, and an M.B.A. from the university of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Tiffany Herron

Tiffany has earned an M.S. in Organizational Management and an M.B.A. from the University of Colorado Denver.

Darius Graham

Darius Graham is a leader in the field of social entrepreneurship and innovation and is passionate about supporting creative approaches to pressing social challenges locally and abroad. He currently serves as Director of the Social Innovation Lab at Johns Hopkins University, an accelerator program for social ventures that seek to create change and opportunity in Baltimore and beyond. A Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum, Darius has been recognized by Baltimore Business Journal as one of Baltimore's 40 Under 40, and is a member of the Greater Baltimore Committee's Leadership Class of 2016.

Darius is the founder and chairman of DC Social Innovation Project, a non-profit organization that provides funding and pro bono assistance to help launch and grow innovative, grassroots community initiatives in Washington, DC. He also serves on the Community Resource Board for the Junior League of Baltimore, the advisory boards of Impact Hub Baltimore and the Baltimore chapter of Young Non-Profit Professionals Network, and he volunteers with the Southeast CDC's Highlandtown Main Street program supporting small business recruitment and development.

Darius was previously a Social Entrepreneur-In-Residence in the Center for Social Value Creation at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business and a mayor-appointed commissioner on the District of Columbia Commission on National & Community Service. He is the author of the award-winning book, Being the Difference: True Stories of Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things to Change the World. Darius began his career as an associate in the corporate restructuring group at the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. He received a B.A. summa cum laude from Florida A&M University and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley - School of Law where he served as an editor of the California Law Review and as editor-in-chief of the Berkeley Journal of African-American Law & Policy.  

Rebecca Hill

Dr. Hill received her doctorate in Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics and her bachelors in Agricultural Business at Colorado State University. She teaches Community and Economic Development for the M.A.C.S. program. Rebecca currently serves as the Coordinator of Community and Economic Assistance with the Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics at Colorado State University. Rebecca has experience working in economic and community development both domestically and internationally. She serves on the City of Fort Collins Water Board, where she is the chair of the Legislative, Finance and Liaison Committee. In Panama Rebecca has worked with a local organization promoting sustainable ecotourism. She also has worked with women's rights groups on reservations and in Kenya. Rebecca has also taught Agricultural Marketing and Microeconomics at Colorado State University.

Patricia Lambert

Ms. Lambert is an independent consultant and works with Principal, RC&D Management, Bel Air, MD, consulting experts in finance and general management. Cofounder and Senior Vice President, BDMetrics, Inc., Baltimore, MD; Director of Business Operations, Director of Strategic Planning, Fair Issac & Co., San Rafael, CA; Chief Financial Officer, Credit Risk & Management Associates, Baltimore, MD; Ms. Ourednik obtained a M.S. in Management Information Systems, Florida Institute of Technology; and a B.S. in Accounting, University of Baltimore. Special interest in human capital management, technology and business planning, forecasting and strategic planning, pricing strategies, business process definition and implementation, and contract management and negotiation.

Melissa McLoud

Dr. McLoud is a public historian and interpretive consultant who has worked for thirty years in museum interpretive planning, exhibition, and program development in Washington D.C and on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Most recently she developed and directed the Center for Chesapeake Studies and specializes in the relationship between nature and culture on the Chesapeake Bay. Her areas of expertise include interpretive planning, public history, American landscape, and architectural history, and exhibit development. She has worked in numerous museum settings as well as at the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and the National Building Museum, and is extensively experienced in outreach, education, exhibits, and program creation. Previously she taught at Catholic University and George Washington University, and has published extensively in her field. She received her Ph.D. from George Washington University and currently lives in Easton, Maryland.

Jennifer Ogunsola

Jennifer Ogunsola is a writer and communications professional based in Atlanta, Georgia, who currently serves as the Director of Communications of the City of Atlanta Workforce Development Agency and as the executive director of the Atlanta chapter of ColorComm: Women of Color in Communications, the only professional women's organization focused on executive level women in communications. She has previously worked as the communications manager for the City of Atlanta's Department of Parks and Recreation and the media relations manager for Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. Ogunsola has over a decade of experience in television, radio, print journalism, and public relations. She has been featured on television and in print and online publications including PBS' Art Beat, Atlanta's Fox 5, Atlanta Tribune Magazine, Examiner.com, Source Magazine, revolution.is, The Fab Empire, and other publication and her writing has appeared in Black Enterprise, Upscale and TRACE magazines, on the websites of theRoot.com,Loop21.com and AOL's City's Best. Ogunsola holds a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism and Political Science from Temple University and a M.A. in journalism from the University of Baltimore.

Verna Rodwell

The Honorable Verna Jones-Rodwell, is an internationally known political leader, accomplished community economic development professional and small business owner. Senator Jones-Rodwell was elected to the House of Delegates of the Maryland General Assembly in 1998 to represent Baltimore City’s 44th Legislative District. In 2002 she was overwhelmingly elected to serve as its first female Senator. She was a member of Maryland fiscal legislative leadership team for 16 years. Since retiring from the Maryland Senate in 2015 Senator Jones-Rodwell has continued her public service through her various roles on the board of directors for national, state and local non-profit such as the National Alzheimer’s Association, Enoch Pratt free Library, Maryland Sister States Programs, Inc.- South Africa Committee, Baltimore Heritage, Inc. and West Baltimore Healthcare Access Collaborative, Inc.

Prior to being elected she was at the Development Training Institute (DTI); “the nation’s primer trainer” of non-profit organizations engaged in community economic development.as Director of Market Development, Director of Local/Regional Training programs and Coordinator of Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Communities Initiatives. Before joining DTI she served as a Special Assistant to the City Manager of Berkeley, California responsible for affordable housing and homelessness programing.

Senator Jones-Rodwell is a native Baltimorean with an earned: Bachelors of Arts from the University of Maryland at College Park, in Urban Studies & Community Organization; Masters of Public Administration from Baruch College, City University of New York and a certificate of Senior Executives in State and Local Government from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Tracy Thompson 

Tracy earned her B.B.A. in Business Information Technology from the College of William and Mary and her M.Ed. in Instructional Systems from Pennsylvania State University

D. Watkins

D. Watkins is an award-winning writer, educator, and speaker who the Baltimore Sun says “Has amazing material and a clear engaging voice…in the tradition of black writers who use their own story and their own narrative as a way to look at the bigger picture." Watkins is a columnist for Salon magazine and his work has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Aeon, AlterNet, The City Paper and other magazines. Watkins has been featured on Meet the Press and has been a reoccurring guest on CNN, NPR’s Monday Morning, Tell Me More, The Real News Network, Huff Post Live and The Marc Steiner Show who described Watkins as being "A brilliant phenomenon that needs to be heard."

Watkins currently holds a Master's in Education from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Baltimore. He is a professor at Goucher College and runs a creative writing workshop at the Baltimore Free School. Watkins’ lives in east Baltimore. His debut essay collection The Beastside, will be released by Skyhorse in the Fall of 2015, followed by his memoir, Cook Up, published by Grand Central in 2016.

Christopher Willits

Christopher Willits is a multimedia artist, an electronic music and guitar pioneer. Named "the Picasso of sound" (Tokafi), Christopher uses his self-designed software tools to "paint with his guitar" (Pitchfork), creating "mesmerizing, intricate electronic soundscapes" (Nowness) and lush audiovisual performances of weaving patterns, texture, and harmony. A guitarist, composer, producer, photographer, visual artist, and system designer, Willits creates relaxing experiences of overlapping sound and light. Working solo and in collaboration with the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Matmos and Taylor Deupree, Christopher has released over 20 albums within the last decade. Willits is based in San Francisco and has a master's degree in electronic music from Mills College. http://christopherwillits.com