Gordon Training Bloggers

Linda Adams

Linda Adams is the President and CEO of Gordon Training International (GTI).  She has worked at GTI since 1967. Ms. Adams is the author of Be Your Best and Effectiveness Training for Women. She has developed a number of GTI’s programs including: Be Your Best, Effectiveness Training for Personal and Professional Development, Effectiveness Training for Women, the Conflict Resolution Workshop for leaders and managers, Be Your Best for university students, and Youth Effectiveness Training for junior high and high school students. Ms. Adams holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology from California State University at Los Angeles. She was the wife and partner of Dr. Thomas Gordon for 35 years. Her personal mission is to make the Gordon Model available in as many countries, cultures and languages as possible.

Michelle Adams

Michelle Adams is Vice President of Gordon Training International (GTI) where she has worked since 1990. Her chief role is being program manager of the L.E.T., program in the USA and abroad. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Studies for Elementary Education. She coordinates the monthly blogs for leadership training a la the Gordon Model called “The L.E.T. Connection”.  She’s also worked with Linda on revising all of the GTI programs and textbooks. She loves bad puns, Disneyland, cats, anything purple and thinks Active Listening is the best thing on the planet.

Jo Allan

Jo Allan has been a certified L.E.T. Facilitator for 20 years. As a training and development professional, she specializes in helping leaders at all levels of her organization grow, learn and prepare for future roles. Jo practices her L.E.T. skills often and says that they have helped her successfully navigate both day-to-day and board room conversations. Jo enjoys traveling, wine tasting and may occasionally watch too much Netflix.

Victoria Benodi

Victoria Benodi has over thirty years experience working in a variety of industries, from retail and restaurants to high tech and defense contractors. She first learned the Gordon Model at the age of 15, and since then has successfully used it with CEOs, employees, and toddlers. The views expressed in the Blogging with Benodi column are solely those of Victoria Benodi, and are not coached, endorsed, or an any way represent Gordon Training International, Leader Effectiveness Training (L.E.T.), or their representatives.

Lance Johnson

Lance Johnson has worn many hats at Gordon Training since 2011. He is now the Program Manager for P.E.T., Y.E.T., Be Your Best and T.E.T. at GTI. He and his wife have two awesome young boys and one adventurous cat, Munchie. Lance works closely with instructors across the USA helping them prepare and market their classes, as well as provide support for his team at GTI.

Denise Montgomery *

Denise graduated from L.E.T. with Bill Stinnett in 2004 and has been joyfully affiliated with Gordon Training ever since. She is a professional writer/editor/trainer/consultant/marketer, she has decades of experience under her belt, writing, translating, and teaching complex medical and scientific topics. At the same, she always established a reputation for holding the team together by anchoring the social committee and running lunchtime Dungeons & Dragons. She’s (ghost)written and edited articles and books on everything from the endocannabinoid system to mountain climbing to pandemic flu readiness. She earned dual honors’ degrees in psychology & communication arts before returning for a master’s in writing & teaching.

* Denise previously blogged for GTI under the nom de plume, “Marie Bryson”.

Steve Crandall

Steve Crandall is President of Crandall Partners, an organizational development consulting practice.  He is also L.E.T. Master Facilitator since 1981. He has over 30 years of Human Resource and Management Development experience, and has used the Gordon model in his workshops and classes throughout his career. The perspectives expressed in Mr. Crandall’s Blogs are of his own making, and do not represent those of Gordon Training International or its representatives.

Larissa Dann

Larissa hails from that Wide Brown Land in the Southern Hemisphere – Australia. Larissa first attended a Parent Effectiveness Training (P.E.T.) course over 20 years ago, and has been teaching P.E.T. continuously since 1996. She found the concepts and skills life changing, and wanted to share the benefits by teaching the course to others. Importantly, Larissa endeavours to ‘practice what she preaches’ with her own family. She utilised the skills every day over her 14 years working on a parent help line. Larissa has been a passionate advocate for P.E.T in many arenas, including public policy; writing, researching and presenting conference papers; and writing occasionally for on-line journals. She has her own website (www.parentskills.com.au), which has encouraged her to dabble in blogging.

Mel Kieschnick

Mel served as principal of two schools in California before serving a decade as Coordinator of Education for Lutheran Schools in Hong Kong, a system which now enrolls some 25,000 students. He also served as Executive Director of Christian Education for the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod and Head of Schools for its Michigan District. He was also the Director of P.E.T. Programs (Parent Effectiveness Training) at Gordon Training International for ten years. He also served as Executive Director of the Lutheran Schools Association of New York and Director of Projects for the Center for Urban Education Ministries.

Scott Seroka

Scott Seroka is a one of 29 Certified Brand Strategists in the U.S. and a Principal of Seroka, a family-owned brand development and strategic communications firm in Brookfield, WI serving the mortgage, manufacturing and professional services industries. In addition to building, enhancing and rehabilitating brands, Scott also works with entrepreneurs and CEOs to structure and maintain cultures of continuous improvement and operational excellence.

Scott graduated from Cardinal Stritch University in ’93 with a BA in Marketing, has been certified in brand development and strategy through the Brand Establishment, and is a graduate of Leader Effectiveness Training through Gordon Training International. In Scott’s former life, he performed regularly at The Second City Improvisational Theater in Chicago.

William Stinnett, Ph.D.

Bill has educated and coached more than 10,000 managers in leadership skills. He has facilitated hundreds of management teams. He has received consistently superior ratings in his training seminars, including Leader Effectiveness Training. As a Master Facilitator for Gordon Training International (since 1983) Bill has conducted over 500 Leader Effectiveness Training Workshops, Facilitator Workshops, and supervised trainer candidates in a wide variety of organizations across the country and around the world. Bill also worked for Honeywell where his group developed and implemented a team-based management system that produced a 330% increase in productivity and a 50% reduction of product cost at a prototype facility. Bill began his career teaching at Arizona State University. Bill has also written many articles regarding organization development for regional and national publications. He also is co-author of the book, Corporate Madness: How to Change the System When the System Refuses to Change. Over the past 20 years, Bill has written many articles regarding organization development for regional and national publications.

Bud Upshaw

H. Tucker (“Bud”) Upshaw, Ph.D., is Principal Consultant of Upshaw Management Consulting, a management consulting and leadership development resource with offices in Rhinebeck, NY. He is a retired L.E.T. Master Facilitator for GTI and regularly conducted L.E.T. Participant and Facilitator Workshops for more than thirty years. Bud holds degrees from Vanderbilt and Yale Universities, and received his doctoral degree from the University of Chicago. He has been guest lecturer at the Charles H. Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon and at the Institute of Organization Development at Loyola University of Chicago, and has served as Associate Professor of Psychology and Religion and Graduate Faculty Member of the Graduate Program in Counseling Psychology at George Williams College.

Heidi Walker

Heidi is originally from Napa, California but spent nearly 20 years living abroad in London, England and Beijing, China where she first found Parent Effectiveness Training (P.E.T.). Prior to finding P.E.T. she and her husband were stuck in what she calls the “vicious cycle of using punishment and reward.” As soon as she took the course she knew that she wanted to become a P.E.T. Instructor and she has been teaching the course since 2011. Upon returning to the US, two years ago, she started The Parenting Difference, offering the Parent Effectiveness Training Course and workshops to families in the Raleigh, Durham area of North Carolina. She blogs about how she and her family put the skills to use and is a regular contributor to Huffington Post Parent. She also writes a weekly blog for her local paper called Parenting for All Seasons. She believes that the Parent Effectiveness Training course is more than just a class, it becomes a lifestyle that impacts all of your significant relationships.

Georgina Watson

A San Diego native, vintage collector and avid cook. Her passion for the Gordon Model happened naturally. It’s been an all-encompassing, life-changing journey for her and difficult to imagine her relationships and conflicts before it. (Cringe!) She graduated from the Parent Effectiveness Training Instructor Training Workshop in 2012, which was not only super rewarding, but deepened her understanding of the skills from intellectual to experiential.  She’s honored to be a guest blogger here, and excited to share her personal narratives, a la the Gordon Model.

Sheryl Wilde

Sheryl Wilde has been the Finance Manager at Gordon Training International since 2002. She has more than 30 years of experience in finance, accounting and management. As a freelance writer for the past 20 years, Sheryl has specialized in the area of corporate communications. The opinions expressed in Sheryl’s Blogs do not necessarily reflect the views of Gordon Training International.