Speaker Bios
Karen Eber Davis
Karen Eber Davis is on a mission to help nonprofit leaders generate sustainable income. Her work is known for its innovation. To help clients fulfill their goals in creative, effective, and whenever possible, brilliant ways, she helps them to explore and exploit all of their income opportunities and pursue those with the greatest potential –including and beyond the usual strategies and solutions. For the past 17 years, Karen has helped nonprofit leaders to make dramatic improvements that “move the needle” in excellence, effectiveness, and their bottom lines. She has published over 200 articles, 4 books and provides a monthly newsletter for nonprofit leaders. Just speak to the many nonprofit leaders who have worked closely with Karen to get a sense of her four p’s--passion, process, persistence, and professionalism.
Gary Heil
Gary Heil is an author, director, lawyer and coach. He has been a lifelong student of the human side of organizations and a pioneer in the study of employee and customer engagement. He continues to be a passionate advocate for finding more effective ways to lead inspired teams.
Heil has served on a number of public, private and nonprofit boards and presently serves as Chairman of the Compensation Committee of Gymboree’s Board of Directors and Chairman of the Board of CellTech Metals. He is the co-founder of the innovative webcast Leadership Lessons from the Fast Lane and has served as a member of the Board of Examiners of the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award.
In 1992, Heil co-founded the Center for Innovative Leadership, an organization dedicated to helping leaders create more innovative and sustainable organizations. He recently completed a study of more than 500 leaders and their attempts to engage people to take responsibility for helping to create the future. Gary has co-authored numerous booksincluding The Leader’s New Clothes, One Size Fits One, Leadership and the Customer Revolution and Maslow on Management and Managing the Human Side of Enterprise.
Together with some Hall of Fame players and coaches, he founded the National Pitching Association (NPA). The NPA is an organization dedicated to the education of baseball pitchers and coaches so that the pitchers can pitch more effectively, stay healthier and develop a positive mental attitude and a greater love for the game. Heil also co-authored The Art and Science of Pitching with Tom House and Steve Johnson.
Heil is a graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Behavior and a Juris Doctor from the University of California Hastings College of Law. He is a member of the California Bar Association.
Jeremy Hilton
As MindComet’s Vice President of Solutions, Jeremy Hilton oversees the agency’s digital strategy and media capabilities and ensures the firm’s position on the progressive edge of the interactive marketing industry. During his tenure, he has applied his expertise in emerging technologies, platforms, communities and trends to solve business challenges for a broad range of clients, including SPEED Channel, Stanley Black & Decker, and Guess Watches. In collaboration with other leading Central Florida social media advocates, Jeremy recently launched the Orlando chapter of Social Media Club, a non-profit new media advocacy and educational group.
Dr. Claire Connolly Knox
Dr. Claire Connolly Knox is an assistant professor in the Public Administration Department at UCF. She is the Principle Investigator for the Corporation for National and Community Service’s Capacity Building Grant. This two-year program is building and implementing performance management systems in nine nonprofit organizations to help achieve greater results for nonprofits in diverse communities. Originally from Louisiana, Dr. Knox has held leadership positions in multiple environmental, non-profit organizations that promoted environmental sustainability and raised awareness about environmental justice and hazardous waste issues. Her research interests include environmental policy and management, non-profit management, environmental vulnerability and disaster response
Jeff Kober
For over twenty-five years Jeff has delivered development and training solutions for the private and public sector. He has facilitated hundreds of programs and delivered keynote addresses to scores of clients as diverse as General Electric, the U.S. Postal System, Federal Express and the City of New York. Topics have ranged from leadership to performance accountability, from customer service/loyalty to team building.
Earlier Jeff’s consultant activities were associated with The Disney Institute, a best-practices institution modeled on America’s first corporate university. While there, Jeff was responsible for designing The Disney Approach to Quality Service and Service, Disney Style programs. The models, concepts, and examples of that program were later introduced to corporate America in Be Our Guest, a popular benchmarking title published by The Disney Institute, with a forward by Michael Eisner.
While at the Disney Institute, Jeff played a key role in developing other programs at The Disney Institute to include Disney’s Approach to Customer Loyalty, and Disney’s Approach to Creativity and Innovation. He continues today as a columnist for MousePlanet.Com where he continues to share stories of excellence in the Walt Disney Company as best-practices ideas for corporations worldwide.
Jeff is now CEO of World Class Benchmarking, which provides a programming series that benchmarks many of America’s greatest corporations. Recently, World Class Benchmarking supported Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (Sheraton, Westin, & St. Regis) in launching a massive customer/brand service initiative for over 125,000 associates globally.
Recently Jeff has consulted in the last couple of years for the Finance division of the City of New York in providing leadership and transformation solutions for the public sector. He is the Chief Learning Architect for The Public Strategies Group (PSG) creating training and development solutions for such organizations as the State of Iowa and Federal Student Aid—U. S. Department of Education.
Jeff’s new best-selling book, Lead With Your Customer: Transform Culture and Brand into World-Class Excellence (ASTD Press) showcases what world-class organizations do to attain and sustain extraordinary results and is available via ASTD.org, Amazon.com, and bookstores all over the world. Jeff's book, "The Wonderful World of Customer Service at Disney" highlights best practices in customer service at Disney. You can purchase it at performancejourneys.com
Carey Pickard
Carey Pickard has served the nonprofit community for more than 20 years, working with a wide range
of organizations including museums, symphonies, theaters, colleges, neighborhood revitalization projects and human service agencies.
Before joining The Compass Group, Mr. Pickard served as director and chief executive officer of the Tubman African American Museum in Macon, Georgia for more than 12 years. Under his leadership, the museum grew from a small grassroots organization into one of the largest cultural institutions in Georgia. The budget increased by more than 950 percent and the staff increased 15-fold. While there, he raised over $14 million for construction of a new 49,000-square-foot building.
Mr. Pickard volunteers as a board member to numerous organizations including the Booker T. Washington Center, the Cannonball House and Museum, the Center for Racial Understanding, Douglass Theatre, Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries, Georgia Equality, Historic Macon Foundation, the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University, Macon Arts Alliance, Macon- Bibb County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Macon Council on World Affairs, Macon Symphony Orchestra, NewTown Macon and the Regional Youth Development Center.
He has also served on the advisory boards of the American Federation for the Arts Directors Forum, Cherry Blossom Festival, Henry Green Center for the Decorative Arts at the Georgia Museum of Art and the New Georgia Encyclopedia. He was a delegate to the White House Conference on Travel and Tourism, a past panelist for the Georgia Council for the Arts and past chair of the Arts Roundtable of Macon.
A native Georgia, Mr. Pickard graduated from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina and the Getty Leadership Institute in Berkeley, California. He was named one of 40 rising stars in business by Georgia Trend Magazine and one of 10 “visionaries” by Macon Magazine. In 1996, he received the Macon Arts Cultural Award.
Dr. Jo Smith
Dr. Smith is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Master of Research Administration at the University of Central Florida. She has over 20 years of experience in grant and research administration. She has been a proposal reviewer or reader for both state and federal agencies. In research administration her primary role was to: foster relationships with faculty researchers, administrators, and other community organizations; lead and stimulate the development and writing of competitive grant proposals from conceptualization to submission; support the implementation of projects; and encourage existing collaborations in new directions. In 2004 she was selected as an NSF Fellow to participate in an intensive summer evaluation training program at The Evaluation Center, University of Western Michigan. The Center’s training was designed to enhance evaluation capacity in STEM education communities. She earned her Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis in evaluation in 2006. She has experience planning and directing evaluation projects in a variety of settings (education, health, community, energy efficiency, etc.) She teaches graduate courses in research design in educational settings, strategic planning and management, and research administration. Dr. Smith has provided private consulting services as an evaluator, grant developer and writer, and presents at national and international conferences. She has served on the advisory boards of a variety of community and professional organizations.