Meet the Faculty!  Read more for biographies of the current Institute Faculty.

P.K. AGARWAL

P.K. Agarwal is the CEO of TiE Global, a non-profit dedicated to entrepreneurship.  Prior to this, P.K was appointed in 2005 by Governor Schwarzenegger as the Chief Technology Officer for the State of California. During his tenure he consolidated multiple independent IT organizations thus saving taxpayers over $60 million dollars and helped create an enterprise IT operation with a budget of over $200 million.  He has over 25 years of experience in government technology, spanning both public and private sector.  P.K. has held positions of VP at ACS Inc, CIO and EVP for NIC Inc., and the CIO for the California Franchise Tax Board. He started his professional career as a Management Consultant for EDS.

He helped pioneer the use of Internet in government and shaped the national and state policy in this area, dating back to Al Gore’s National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council in 1995.  He has the unique distinction of having a U.S. national annual award named as the “P.K. Agarwal Award for Leadership in Electronic Government”.  He served as the president of National Association of State CIO’s and the National Electronic Commerce Coordinating Council (ec3). He writes and keynotes frequently on the topics of eGovernment, Web 2.0, and IT driven transformation.  He also serves as a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a member of the Harvard Policy Group.

P.K. has a Bachelor’s in Engineering from IIT, New Delhi, and Masters Degrees from California State University, Sacramento and UC, Berkeley. 

COURSES:  353  Effective Electronic Communications and Media Relations

FRANK BENEST

Until August 2008, Dr. Frank Benest served as the City Manager of Palo Alto, California. He is a noted consultant and trainer on rightsizing public organizations, entrepreneurial government, civic engagement, leadership development and succession planning.

Prior to his appointment in Palo Alto, Frank served as City Manager in Brea and Colton, California. He has a doctorate in management from Brigham Young University; a Masters in Public Administration from California State University, Long Beach; and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University. Frank is a Credentialed ICMA Manager.

Frank is Past President of the California City Managers Department and past Vice President of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). Frank teaches at Stanford University and has been inducted into the National Academy of Public Administration.

Frank currently serves as the ICMA Senior Advisor for Next Generation Initiatives and Co-Chair of the Cal-ICMA Coaching Program.

COURSES:  120  The Art & Practice of Organizational Leadership; 380  Best Practices: Talent Development and Succession Planning; 318  Creative Budget Solutions and Innovative Service Redesign

JOHN E. BARTEL

John is president of Bartel Associates, LLC. He has more than 35 years employee benefits experience primarily in pension and retiree healthcare consulting, serving over 250 California public sector clients.

John specializes in:

• GASB 43/45 (OPEB) plan valuation, study and design;
• CalPERS public agency consulting;
• Helping clients understand actuarial, accounting, and regulatory issues;
• Public sector retirement plan review, valuation and design.

He is a member of the California Actuarial Advisory Panel, appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger in January 2010. He has spoken at an array of organizational meetings, was a member of GASB’s OPEB task force, and has authored and co-authored several articles.

John is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries, an Enrolled Actuary under ERISA, a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and a Fellow in the Conference of Consulting Actuaries.

SHERI BENNINGHOVEN

Sheri Benninghoven, APR, President/SAE Communications, is the former Communications Director for the League of California Cities, and one of the nation’s most experienced public relations professionals in helping state and local governments develop strategic public and crisis communications programs.

Sheri is a member of the adjunct faculty at the University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication in Los Angeles. She joined the private sector in 1991 to start her own consulting firm after nearly two decades in local government public communications and media relations, specializing in helping state and local governments identify messages and communicate effectively with target audiences. She is a former Vice President/Group Manager for Ketchum Public Relations. She founded their Public Sector Marketing Group and also created their California Technology Practice Group.

Previously Sheri served as Public Information Officer for the City of Anaheim, preparing and implementing communications plans for the city, including Anaheim Stadium, the Anaheim Convention Center, and the Anaheim Redevelopment Agency. She developed an award-winning crisis communications training program, which was adopted by the California Specialized Training Institute. She also authored portions of the State’s Multi-Function Hazard Response Plan and has counseled the California Office of Emergency Services.

COURSES:  357  When Bad Things Happen

RICHARD C. BOLANOS

Richard (Rick) Bolanos is the Managing Partner of the firm’s San Francisco office.  He has an exclusive practice representing California cities, counties and special districts in labor relations, negotiations, representation in disciplinary proceedings, arbitration of grievances, investigations, mediations, fact-finding hearings and special counsel in defense of employment discrimination claims in federal court, state court and administrative forums.  Rick provides specialized representation of public agencies in employee investigation of discipline, harassment and discrimination matters.  He is one of the firm’s specialists in Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) consultation and litigation.

Rick has conducted training programs and seminars on employer-employee relations before the California Public Employer Labor Relations Association (CalPELRA), the National Employment Law Institute (NELI), the Fire Districts Association of California (FDAC), the Napa-Solano Chapter and Mother Lode Chapter of the International Public Management Association for Human Resources (IPMA-HR) and the Solano County Police Chiefs Association.  In addition, Rick has also provided intensive training sessions to individual clients regarding such current issues as Sexual Harassment, Compliance with the Americans Disabilities Act (ADA), the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Public Employee Discipline. 

Rick is a graduate of San Francisco State University (B.A.), San Jose State University (M.S.) and the University of Santa Clara School of Law (J.D.).

COURSES:  153  Labor Relations in Local Government

DAVID S. BOESCH

David Boesch is the County Executive Officer of Placer County.  Previously he served as County Manager of San Mateo Countyand City Manager in Menlo Park.  David has worked for seven different local governments in three states in a career that spans 30 years.

David has a Masters of Public Administration degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and an undergraduate degree in urban planning from the University of Utah.  David is an ICMA Credentialed Manager and teaches at Stanford University and Notre Dame de Namur.

COURSES:  318 Creative Budget Solutions and Innovative Service Redesign; 114 Public Engagement: Involving the Community in Decision Making

PETER J. BROWN

Peter Brown is a partner with Liebert Cassidy Whitmore. Since 1989 he has represented public agencies in litigation, collective bargaining negotiations and many different types of administrative hearings.  Peter has a unique talent in promptly developing an expertise in most of the laws which impact public agencies such as the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Family Medical Leave Acts, and the state labor relations laws. 

Peter has distinguished himself as a sought-after speaker, author and trainer on topics that impact public agencies. He speaks at numerous conferences throughout California and nationally on public sector labor and employment law topics. Peter is one of the most prolific and popular presenters in the firm’s training activities.

Although Peter spends much of his time out of the office in court, hearings, workshops and negotiations, he finds that the most enjoyable part of the practice of public sector labor and employment law is advising clients how to resolve day-to-day problems. “Helping people resolve a difficult problem is very gratifying. It is why I went to law school.”

COURSES:  153  Labor Relations in Local Government

RICHARD CALLAHAN

Dr. Richard Callahan is an Associate Professor in the University of San Francisco’s School of Management, teaching graduate courses in strategy, public administration and leadership. In addition to teaching, his recent service and research includes:
 Serving on a team of international observers for the Nagano-Karabakh Republic Presidential Election
 Haynes Foundation grant for research on leadership and fiscal sustainability in local government
 Fulbright Specialist Program grant, for teaching in Istanbul, Turkey
 Volunteer advisor and executive coach to executive directors of nonprofit programs in Sacramento

Dr. Callahan has been published in journals including The National Civic Review, Public Administration Review, Public Management Review, and American Review of Public Administration. He served for 5 years as an appointed local-government official in Los Angeles County, California and 5 years in New Jersey.  Richard Callahan earned his BA degree in from Georgetown University, 1982. He earned the MPA degree, in 1987, and the Doctor of Public Administration (DPA), in 2002, at the University of Southern California.
From 1998 to 2011, Dr. Callahan directed leadership and graduate degree programs in Los Angeles and Sacramento for the University of Southern California. He has designed and taught in leadership programs that have ranged from one day to 14 day to year-long programs.

Previously, he has more than 12 years of local government and county government experience, including five years as a township administrator. He has designed and implemented a range of new local government programs.

COURSES:  363  Thinking Strategically in Trying Times: New Ways to Think and Work Through Enduring Problems

MARK CHARLTON

Mark Charlton most recently served as the County Administrative Officer of Modoc County.  Mr. Charlton is retired from the Army Corps of Engineers where he last served as the Director of Programs for the South Pacific Division office in San Francisco.  He was the senior civilian executive in the Sacramento District from 1999 to 2006 and in the Walla Walla District from 1994 to 1999.  In these positions Mr. Charlton was the Deputy District Engineer and Chief of Project Management.  As a project manager for the Corps Mr. Charlton was project manager of a large variety of public works projects including roads, bridges, municipal site development, vertical construction and water resource projects and HTRW clean up projects. 

During his tenure Mr. Charlton helped transition the agency to a project management-based organization where all project work was managed by project teams with standard processes and measureable results.  While leading the Sacramento District Mr. Charlton implemented the first standardized project management processes for the agency (later adopted by the agency) and developed a formal project management training curriculum for project managers, technical team members, and executives.  Mr. Charlton serves on both regional and national boards of directors and awards include the Meritorious Civilian Service Award from LTG Van Antwerp in 2008 and the Bronze Order of the de Fleury Medal, US Army, Engineer Regiment.

COURSES:  373  Project Management; 359 Beyond the Brochure: Recruiting Senior Executives

WILLIAM CHIAT

Bill Chiat (pronounced shy-at) is Dean and manager of the CSAC Institute. He incorporates over 30 years of practical executive leadership experience in state and local governments into employee development, mixed with a fluency in governance issues and the challenges of managing today’s workforce.

Bill’s practioneer expertise spans local and state governments. He served as County Executive Officer of Napa County and Director of Organizational Effectiveness in Santa Barbara County. Bill has held executive positions in city government as well as special districts in California. At the state level, Bill served as Executive Director of the Arizona Governor’s Office for Excellence in Government and led the state’s executive education program among his responsibilities. For eight years until 2012 Bill served as Executive Director of the California Association of Local Agency Formation Commissions.

Bill has championed and innovative in the professional development of executives in state and local government. He established and managed accredited learning programs in state and local governments. He has taught, facilitated and written about competencies and practices in governance, agency leadership and organizational development.

Bill has a B.S. from the University of Minnesota and a M.S. in natural resources administration from the University of Michigan. He is a graduate of the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program and the Leadership in the 21st Century program, both from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

COURSES:  124 Leadership and Change: Practices to Move Organizations;150 Local Governance in California; 140  Interpersonal Effectiveness; 351 Managing Effective Meetings; 377 Facilitation Practices for Managers; 378 Storytelling and Other Practices in the Art of Persuasion; 500 Fellows Seminar

DIANE CUMMINS

Diane Cummins currently serves as the Special Advisor to the Governor on State and Local Realignment. She officially retired in late 2008 after a distinguished 31-year career in California government, but has been brought back to advise the Governor in an area of her particular expertise. 

Ms. Cummins was appointed Chief Fiscal Policy Advisor to the President pro tem of the State Senate in January, 1999.  In that capacity, Ms. Cummins served as the primary staff for the Senate on fiscal matters related to the State Budget, major initiatives and legislation.  She was the primary staff person representing the pro tem in budget negotiations with the Governor’s Office and the Assembly.  Ms. Cummins also advised the President pro tem on issues related to revenue and taxation policy and issues in the Human Services program area.

Prior to her appointment in the Senate, Ms. Cummins served as the Chief Deputy Director, Budgets in the Department of Finance where she acted as a key advisor to the Governor and was the Governor’s primary contact with the Legislature in budget matters.

Before serving in that capacity, Ms. Cummins served as the Deputy Director for legislation, the Program Budget manager for Health and Human Services, and a variety of other positions in the Department of Finance.  During her 21-year tenure in the Department of Finance, Ms. Cummins was a key staff person on several major policy initiatives, including 1991 Realignment, the 1997 state assumption of trial court funding, the 1997 state welfare reform effort which resulted in the state CalWORKs program and Foster Care Reform.

Ms. Cummins is widely respected for her knowledge of the State Budget as well as her expertise in state-local funding issues and court financing.  She is a frequent guest lecturer on various and policy issues.

Ms. Cummins was a 2008 recipient of the CSAC Distinguished Service Award and the 2006 Western Center on Law and Poverty Advocacy Award.    

COURSES:  151  Financing California Counties; 307  Realignment 101

SUPERVISOR DIANE DILLON

Diane was born and raised in Napa. She is the fifth-generation of her family to live in Napa County, being descended from Connelly Conn, who came to Napa in 1852, to join his uncle John Conn, who had arrived in the mid-1840s and helped Dr. Edward Bale build his mill. Conn Valley and Conn Dam are named for these ancestors of Diane’s. She grew up hearing about her grandmother’s trips to St. Helena by horse & buggy over the Pope Street bridge, and trips over Mt. St. Helena to visit relatives in Lake County and at the quicksilver mines.

Diane earned a B.A. degree with honors from UC Santa Barbara, a masters degree in library and information science from UCLA, and a J.D. from UC Davis. She has practiced law in Napa County for 20 years, and is a certified specialist in estate planning, probate, and trust administration.

Diane lives in St. Helena with her husband, Bill Moseley, a Napa County real estate broker. In her leisure time, Diane enjoys tennis, golf, the great outdoors, genealogical study, and reading.

COURSES:  309  Shaping Federal Legislation, Regulations and Rule Making

ERIC DOUGLAS

Eric Douglas is a principal consultant, president, and founder of Leading Resources Inc. (“LRI”), a consulting firm whose purpose is to develop leaders and leading organizations. Headquartered in Sacramento, LRI’s clients include public agencies, corporations and non-profit organizations in the United States and abroad. LRI focuses on five dimensions of change for its clients: strategic planning, board governance, leadership development, performance management and business process improvement. 

Educated at Harvard University, Douglas began his career in the publishing industry. He worked as both a reporter and editor for The San Francisco Chronicle and for Knight Ridder Newspapers. He later became vice president of strategy for McClatchy Newspapers. Douglas co-founded a technology company and was a senior partner at a management consulting firm based in San Francisco prior to starting LRI in 1998.

Eric’s first book was “Straight Talk: Turning Communication Upside Down for Strategic Results.” Focusing on specific tools of communication, Straight Talk® is used by more than 100,000 people worldwide. Eric has also written dozens of management articles on topics ranging from effective board governance to the principles of strategic positioning.

Eric’s latest book is titled “Leading at Light Speed” was just published in 2010. It describes what leaders must do to build successful organizations in the 21st Century.

Douglas, who has been recognized by the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC) for his body of work, serves on numerous boards of directors and devotes considerable time to charitable and community projects. He lives with his wife and family in Sacramento.

COURSES:  372  To Do or Not To Do: Leadership in Decision Making

TIM GAGE

Tim Gage served as the Director of the California Department of Finance for four years until January of 2003.  In this position, he directed a staff of 350 in preparation of the state budget and representation of the Administration on 70 state boards and commissions. Since leaving Finance, Mr. Gage has worked as a consultant for a variety of clients and founded the Blue Sky Consulting Group, a public policy and economics consulting firm.

Mr. Gage served two terms as a member of the Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator, the nonprofit, public-benefit corporation that manages the state’s electric power grid. Mr. Gage is an adjunct professor in the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California Sacramento Center.  Before being appointed Director of Finance, Mr. Gage spent twenty years working on fiscal issues for the California Legislature in various capacities, including Chief Fiscal Advisor to the Senate President pro Tempore of the State Senate and Chief Consultant to the Assembly Ways and Means Committee.  He received his Master’s degree from the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and his Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Harvard College.

COURSES:  330  Current Issues: County Revenues and the State Fiscal Crisis

BILLY C. HAMILTON

Billy Hamilton is a consultant in government business strategy, performance measurement, management and related issues.  He works with a wide range of public sector clients. Billy is an adjunct professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas at Austin.

Prior to January 2007 he was Chief Deputy Comptroller of Public Accounts of Texas. He was appointed to that position in January 1999 by Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn. Billy previously served as Deputy Comptroller, responsible for the day-to-day management of the Comptroller’s office. The Comptroller is the state’s chief fiscal officer and is responsible for state tax administration, statewide financial management, and state treasury operations.

Hamilton served on special assignment as Co-Executive Director of the California Performance Review for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The CPR’s 2,500 page assessment of California government, A Government for the People for a Change, was released in July 2004.

Prior to joining the Comptroller, Billy was director of state and local services for the Policy Economics Group of KPMG Peat Marwick in Washington, D.C. He also served as executive director of the Select Committee on Tax Equity, a panel created by the Texas Legislature to study the state’s tax structure. Prior to his work with the Select Committee, Hamilton worked for the Texas Association of Taxpayers, and was Associate Deputy Comptroller for Fiscal Management and Chief Revenue Estimator with the Comptroller of Public Accounts.

Billy is past president of the national Federation of Tax Administrators and the National Tax Association. He served as a member of the board of directors of Quality Texas. He was the first recipient (1998) of the Bullock Bullock Award for Public Stewardship and is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Billy is a graduate of the University of Texas and holds an MPA from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. He was recognized as the first recipient of the LBJ School’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1987.

COURSES:  370  Performance Measurement

HOLLY A. HEYSER

Holly Heyser spent 19 years in the newspaper business before returning to her alma mater, California State University, Sacramento, in 2006 to teach journalism and manage the campus newspaper. She currently serves as Professional Journalist in Residence and advisor to The State Hornet.

During her newspaper career, she covered state and local government for newspapers including the Sacramento Bee (Neighbors), the San Jose Mercury News and the (Norfolk, Va.) Virginian-Pilot. She also worked as the state editor for both the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press and the Orange County (Calif.) Register – both during the administrations of those states’ movie-star governors. During her time as a state politics reporter and editor, she helped found Capitolbeat, a national association for state government reporters, and served as its president for three years.

Since leaving the business, she has taken up freelance photography and has had her work published in the Art of Eating, Gastronomica, Meatpaper, Edible Sacramento, Edible Rhody and California Waterfowl. An avid new hunter, she also maintains a blog about hunting, NorCal Cazadora, and has written about hunting for the Sacramento Bee, California Waterfowl and Jesse’s Hunting & Outdoors.

JOHN KING

John King is co-founder and senior partner of CultureSync, a consulting firm that focuses on leadership, strategy, cultural change and executive coaching. Along with his partner, David C. Logan Ph.D, John is co-author of The Coaching Revolution, a book presenting the author’s best practices in the realm of executive coaching.  Their newest book, Tribal Leadership, was published in 2008.

John is in demand as a keynote speaker, and is nationally recognized as a senior teacher, coach, and program leader. Clients of his coaching practice have been featured on all major television networks and in The Wall Street Journal. CultureSync’s clients include Intel, Cedars-Sinai Health System, Southern California Edison, CB Richard Ellis, Colliers International, OliverMcMillan, The California State Appointed Executives, Amgen, and American Express, and The Space Frontier Foundation.

John is part of the leadership development team at Sierra Health Foundation and is on faculty at Collier’s University, CB Richard Ellis University, and The California Leadership Institute.  John is also a frequent guest lecturer in the Marshall School of Business and the School of Public Policy, Planning, and Development at USC. 

COURSES:  122  Values-Based Leadership: Strategies for Success in Public Service

JOE KRAHN

Joe Krahn is a Senior Associate at the Washington, D.C. government relations firm of Waterman & Associates.

Mr. Krahn has over 13 years of federal lobbying experience, with expertise in local government advocacy in both the legislative and regulatory arenas.  Since 1996, he has served as one of Waterman & Associates’ chief advocates for the California State Association of Counties.

Mr. Krahn handles a wide variety of issues of importance to county government, including transportation, law enforcement/criminal justice matters, and disaster relief issues.  He also handles an array of other legislative and regulatory matters on behalf of counties.

Mr. Krahn holds a Juris Master Degree from George Mason University School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Loyola University of Chicago. Prior to joining Waterman & Associates, Mr. Krahn served as a child welfare case worker at a private, non-profit agency in Chicago, Illinois.

COURSES:  309  Shaping Federal Legislation, Regulations and Rule Making

DAVID LANDIS

Senator Dave Landis is a former Nebraska state senator, an award-winning teacher and a skilled negotiator in the public arena.  As a Senator, he chaired the Revenue Committee for the Nebraska Unicameral.  Many of the over 250 bills he has passed in twenty-four years in the Unicameral have been consensus measures forged by negotiation that brought contesting parties to agreement.  Senator Landis has brokered legislative agreements between labor and management, utilities and ratepayers, big banks and small banks, insurance companies and trial attorneys and other seemingly intractable foes.

Senator Landis has passed legislation to create a statewide network of mediation centers, establish a system for negotiated administrative rulemaking in state government, extend use of arbitration to resolve disputes and create the state labor-management collective bargaining system.

His skill has been developed at training seminars at Harvard, MIT and the University of Illinois.  Currently he teaches lawyers and graduate public administrators to negotiate at the University of Nebraska College of Law and the Department of Public Administration.  Senator Landis has three times been the Best Teacher award winner at Doane College.  His workshop clients include: Internal Revenue Service, Pacific Public Policy Program, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, State Farm Insurance Co., Western Fire Chiefs Association, Rocky Mountain Public Policy Program, California League of Cities and the Southwest Leadership Program.

David graduated from the University of Nebraska with a B.A., Juris Doctor, a Masters of Public Administration, and a Masters in Regional and Community Planning.

COURSES:  112  Getting Things Done: Working Effectively with Others

LAREE KIELY

Dr. Laree Kiely has over 25 years experience consulting, facilitating, and teaching strategy, planning and organizational behavior in the US, Canada, Australia, the Czech Republic, and the People’s Republic of China. She is president of the Kiely Group; organizational effectiveness consultants. She also served for 15 years as professor on the faculty of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, where she taught in the graduate programs, Executive MBA, executive education, and facilitator and trainer programs.

Prior to joining the faculty at USC, Laree directed Technology Services at First Interstate Bank where she was in charge of the bank’s strategic planning process. She received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Colorado and her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Kiely is the recipient of several teaching awards including the USC Marshall School of Business “Golden Apple” Award for Teaching Excellence.

In addition to several papers and articles, Dr. Kiely is the author of “Corporate Universities as Shapers of Culture” in Issues in Corporate Education II, Addison-Wesley 2007; “Measurement in Executive Development: Is It Gonna Show, Do We Wanna Know?” in Issues in Corporate Universities, Amacom Press 2002;  Management Communication: Tools for Leadership, Quisic Press 1998; and co-author of  Everything’s Negotiable, Libertas Press, 2007.

You can see her award-winning program Management Communication: Tools for Leadership regularly on PBS.

COURSES:  356  Negotiations and Collaboration in Complex Environments; 360  Managing Conflict (even hostility) and Disagreement in Comfort; 375  Coping with Ambiguity; Leadership for Challenging Times; 384 Advanced Practices in Negotiations

MARY KIRLIN

Dr. Mary Kirlin is an associate professor in the department of Public Policy and Administration at California State University Sacramento.  She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses and has served in a variety of leadership roles on campus.

Her research interests are in the area of civic and political engagement with a particular focus on the development of civic skills.   Dr. Kirlin’s interest in civic skills and civic engagement have involved her in both K-12 and higher education work in such diverse areas as classroom pedagogy, service and civic learning, faculty development, policy making and institutional strategic planning.

Dr. Kirlin spent 15 years working for California elected officials in state and local government before entering the academy.  She worked on policy issues ranging from transportation to housing, finance and education serving in a variety of roles including Chief of Staff to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Dr. Kirlin spent five years on the Indiana University faculty before returning to California.  She now lives in Sacramento with her husband and two children.

COURSES:  133  Coalition Building: Creating Consensus; 500 Fellows Seminar

DAVE LOGAN

Dave Logan is co-founder and senior partner of CultureSync LLC, a management consulting firm specializing in cultural change and strategy, resulting from a ten-year study on organizational effectiveness that was published in 2008 as Tribal Leadership.  CultureSync’s clients include Amgen, Intel, American Express, Southern California Edison, and Health Net.

Dave is also on the faculty at the Marshall School of Business at USC.  From 2001-2004, he served as Associate Dean/Executive Director of Executive Education and Corporate Programs.  During that time, he started the Master of Medical Management (MMM), a business degree for mid-career medical doctors.  He also initiated new executive education programs with dozens of organizations, from Northrop Grumman to numerous small cap financial institutions to real estate giant CB Richard Ellis. 

He has taught in the Marshall MBA since 1996, including courses in Management Consulting, Organization Design, Negotiation, and Leadership.  He has written two books in addition to Tribal Leadership and is currently at work on a 2008 release recently selected for the “Warren Bennis” line of books at Jossey-Bass.  His work has also been published numerous academic and professional journals, including a 2006 “agenda” in Sloan Management Review. Dave has a Ph.D. in Organizational Communication from the Annenberg School at USC.

COURSES:  111  The Art & Practice of Elected Leadership

JOHN K. NICOL

John Nicol has been in local government, city and county, for over three decades. He’s experienced managing budgets, human resources and labor relations.  As Assistant CEO of Ventura County, he heads up Human Resources, Labor and Risk Management.

John has been a chief negotiator for 25-plus years and worked with 20 different labor unions. He’s provided training for the California Debt and Investment and Advisory Commission (CDIAC), the Municipal Managements Assistants of Southern California ( MMASC), the Southern California Personnel Management Association ( SCPMA) and the National League of Cities (NLC).

He has taught graduate school courses in the Cal State system and at the University of Southern California. In 2007 he received the American Society for Public Administration Award for Academic Excellence.

COURSES:  153  Labor Relations in Local Government

DAVID ROSENBERG

Judge David Rosenberg has been a Superior Court Judge for five years and currently serves as Presiding Judge of the Yolo Superior Court. 

He previously served 12 years on the Davis City Council and two terms as Mayor Davis, as well as seven years on the Yolo County Board of Supervisors including two terms as Chairman of the Board.  He has worked as a Senior Advisor to two Governors, and has chaired numerous boards and commissions at the state, regional and local level.

Judge Rosenberg is well-known for his creation of “Rosenberg’s Rules of Order” … Simple Rules of Parliamentary Procedure for the 21st Century.

COURSES:  351  Managing Effective Meetings

DONNA VAILLANCOURT

Donna Vaillancourt is the Director of the Department of Human Resources with San Mateo County.  Donna is passionate about pursuing the Department’s mission to position San Mateo County as an employer of choice and maximize individual and organizational potential.  To that end, she has spearheaded new workforce planning efforts and leadership development programs to attract and retain talent in a dynamic organization consisting of over 5,700 employees.

Donna’s career and personal experience has exemplified her commitment to providing outstanding public service at the local level. She previously held leadership positions in a variety of departments including the Courts, Community Services and most recently as Deputy Director of Administration and Airports in the Department of Public Works. 

COURSES:  380  Best Practices: Talent Development and Succession Planning

RICHARD S. WHITMORE

Richard (Dick) Whitmore began representing management in public sector employment matters in 1970 as Assistant City Attorney for the City of Sunnyvale. He was the founding partner of Whitmore, Kay & Stevens,) and Whitmore, Johnson & Bolanos. Following the merger with Liebert Cassidy, Dick became a name partner in Liebert Cassidy Whitmore.

Dick has been engaged in the exclusive practice of representing cities, counties and special districts in labor relations, collective bargaining, employee discipline, personnel, contract administration and grievance arbitration, mediation, and defense of employment discrimination claims in state and federal court and before administrative agencies.

Dick has conducted numerous training programs and lectures for institutions and associations, such as Stanford University School of Law, University of Santa Clara School of Law, University of California, International Personnel Management Association (IPMA), League of California Cities, CSAC, National Public Employer Labor Relations Association (NPELRA) and the California Public Employer Labor Relations Association (CalPELRA).

Dick has testified before the United States House Representatives Committees and California Senate Committees on legislation dealing with employee rights, comparable worth and related employment issues.

Prior to his career in public sector employment law, Dick served as Legislative Assistant to Representative Paul N. McCloskey, Jr. in Washington, D.C. He then practiced general civil law as an Associate Attorney with Wilson, Mosher & Martin (now Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati) in Palo Alto, California.

COURSES:  153  Labor Relations in Local Government