Ting Barnard graduated from Boston University in 2002 with a degree in Sociology. Upon graduation, she started her career in the Financial and Investment world as a Marketing Coordinator for firms such as Boldwater Capital Management, Deutsche Asset Management and Lehman Brothers in NYC. Ting currently owns a woman’s fashion line named after her mother Tong and works independently as a Marketing Consultant and Brand Ambassador promoting local artists and boutiques at her firm called Ting (Local Marketing Consulting Firm). She is closely involved with several local organizations locally: StyleWeek, SEED Innovation Meets Education, YearUp, Amos House, PVD Lady Project and Children’s Friend. She was also recently part of Leadership Rhode Island’s Lambda II class (2015).

Claudia joined the Coastway (now HarborOne Bank) team in 2015 in the role of Community Development Manager. She is an economic development professional with 8 years of experience assisting small business in Rhode Island. Her work experience also includes insurance and microfinance. Claudia is a Gallup-certified Strengths Coach and volunteers at Leadership Rhode Island, assisting individuals in identifying their top five natural talents and turning them into strengths (through Gallup’s instruments, and positive psychology research). Claudia is also on the board of directors of Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island and Young Voices, and she’s an advisory board member of the United Way of Rhode Island. In 2010, Claudia was named the Minority Small Business Champion of the Year by the Small Business Administration, and in 2013, RI Latino Public Radio recognized her with an Outstanding Achievement Award for her contributions to the Latino business community. She also received the Ronald McDonald House Community Service Award in 2014. Prior to moving to Rhode Island in 2002, she was a clothing designer in her native country of Colombia.

While I have a proven track record in real estate, to me, it’s my uniqueness as an individual that sets me apart.

I took an unusual path to real estate, but once I entered the profession, I knew it was the right place. And a recent Clifton StrengthsFinder® test I took proves it. When I reviewed my results, it was no surprise that many of my talents enable me to best serve clients, including:

WOO: I know it may sound cliché but I truly love making personal connections with new people. And the diverse group of clients I meet – many of whom I now call friends – is why I enjoy real estate so much.

Adaptability: I’m able to go with the flow and, no matter what arises during a transaction, I react calmly and quickly to keep my client-focused and the deal on track.

Self-Assurance: I trust my instincts, the facts and my skills as a facilitator to guide clients with confidence and avoid getting drawn into “drama.”

Maximizer: I strive for excellence in everything I do and use my knowledge and skills to help clients solve problems and achieve their goals. Only when we reach that destination do I celebrate.

Relator: I forge genuine relationships based on mutual sharing of goals, fears, and dreams. As a realtor, I know that when a client trusts me, we can achieve the best results.

Exhilarated by a zest for my job and the opportunities each and every transaction promises, I bring a fresh approach. To find out more about how I’ll put my unique abilities to work for you, let’s connect.

Senior executive and strategic thinker who specializes in harnessing the creative energies of start-ups and high-growth organizations to bring products and programs to market. Twenty-five-plus years of leadership and marketing expertise with high-tech startups, groundbreaking sports teams, educational programs for nontraditional learners, consumer goods and services, and workforce development programs. Recognized for an ability to take big ideas with broad impact and create a targeted plan to manage and integrate all aspects of marketing and sales functions in pursuit of business objectives—including strategic planning, opportunity identification and market analysis, partner acquisition and management. Effectively builds and motivates teams of individuals and alliances amongst organizations (including a mix of public- and private-sector groups) by providing clear objectives and strategies. Ability to thrive in high-risk environments that require creative thinking and an inventive approach. Specialties: Strategic planning and implementation; positioning; market research and analytics; integrated marketing (online, offline, social); new business and new product development; client relationship management; sponsorships.

J. Luke Driver, MPA/MED is the Director of Curriculum and Career and Technical Education (CTE) at the Academy for Career Exploration (ACE), and a public school educator since 2003. Luke specializes in EdTech and school automation technology, cognitive apprenticeship, curriculum integration, career awareness, project management for teaching, and secondary/post-secondary connections.

Luke previously worked in the building trades as a carpenter and stonemason, served a tour of duty as a US Navy diver, and served for 9 years in municipal government as a policy advisor.

Sara Stephenson-Donley is the Operations Manager at Hudson Street Deli, RI's first Strengths based deli. She is a certified Strengths Coach, and also received her certification in Holistic Health Coaching from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Sara specializes in on on one coaching with individuals, combining Strengths and Holistic Health Coaching to support clients in applying their unique Strengths to empower them in the areas of life that matter to them the most. She also specializes in working with small businesses and organizations to discover and apply their Strengths.

She is the founder of FutureFestRI, and a co-organizer of SNAP Fest (a music festival to benefit local non-profits and artists) and volunteers to coach individuals who are creating non-profit projects in their communities.

Jorge will inspire you. He’s a coach to many of Atrion's engineers and helps them find their own strengths, nurture them, and empower them to reach their maximum potential. He’s exactly the kind of guy you’d want to work for. But other than encouraging others to use their attributes to achieve greatness; Jorge is always seeking the opportunity to have an impact in a positive way. As Atrion's Senior Director of Professional Services & Workforce Agility, Jorge is responsible for managing the vision and strategy of these growing practices, the engineering teams that support Atrion’s projects and service offerings, and bringing top 1% engineers to Atrion's client’s businesses.

Jorge’s passion to lead the best engineering team in the business is exciting, but his passion is nothing new to Atrion. One his proudest accomplishments is from when he was a Health Policy Director, and he helped get the law passed in Rhode Island prohibiting smoking in public places. He’s also on the faculty of Alex and Ani University, teaching professional development, leadership skills, and of course, helping people find their personal strengths.

As CEO and President of Atrion, a leading IT services firm, Tim Hebert is committed to elucidating the importance of fusing business and technology and propelling Atrion to become a top 1 percent organization. At the helm of Atrion, Hebert is responsible for identifying ways to expand the company’s array of technology services, forging strategic partnerships and creating lasting impact by being a responsible leader, enabling others to reach their leadership potential and conceptualizing workforce development models and frameworks.

In addition to steering the direction of Atrion, Hebert has been featured in countless publications from IDG to CRN to Processor Magazine. Most recently Tim has been accepted into the IDG Contributor Network, of which he is a regular blogger. Tim is also a prolific blogger for the Atrion website. In 2012, Tim received the Business Excellence Award from PBN. Most recently, in 2014, he received an honorary degree from RI College and the Distinguished Citizens Award from The Narragansett Council Boy Scouts of America.

Tim also serves on the advisory councils for many corporations including Cisco Systems, BlueCoat, and Nimsoft. Tim is on the Board of Directors of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation and Thielsch Engineering; a member of the Rhode Island Commodores; and a member of the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council. A champion of leadership development, he devotes his time and energy to supporting the Rhode Island STEM center and initiatives across the state. Tim is a mentor for young students in the Rhode Island’s Year-Up program. He serves on 1nService’s Strategic Committee, a consortium of 30 specialized information technology companies across North America.

Hebert has served his country as a member of the United States Air Force.

Marcus Jannitto is passionate about making people think differently about leadership. As is a Gallup-certified Strengths Coach for Leadership Rhode Island he works with businesses, government agencies and non-profit agencies as part of LRI’s “Make RI Stronger” initiative, which, according to Gallup is literally changing the culture of Rhode Island. A 38-year veteran of the USAF and Air National Guard, he recently served as Chief of Staff and Deputy Adjutant General for the Rhode Island National Guard. Before retiring he served on the Air National Guard’s Strategic Planning System steering committee and on the Chief of the National Guard Bureau’s Joint Diversity Executive Council. He was the Director of the Air National Guard Commanders Development Course, a 9-day leadership course for new Group and Wing commanders taught 3 times per year in Washington, DC. Brig Gen (ret) Jannitto has accumulated 5200 flying hours and more than 50 combat missions in the C-130 aircraft and is a veteran of numerous deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Qatar and Bosnia. After 35 years of coaching volleyball and soccer at the high school and NCAA level, he retired in 2018 from coaching as the head boys and girls volleyball coach at La Salle Academy in Providence. He spent 10 years as an athletic administrator, coach and adjunct faculty member at both Roger Williams University and Salve Regina University. He speaks on leadership nationwide and works with local high school and college athletic teams on peer leadership, team culture and captain development.

Karen King has been actively involved in the management of DiPrete Engineering since 1991 in the areas of human resources, facility management, office management, and as a lean change leader. Outside of work, Karen is involved with the Girl Scouts of Southern New England and runs programs that provide leadership and community service opportunities for girls. She is Service Unit Manager for North Kingstown and Jamestown which keeps her actively involved in the community. She connects girls to the organizations in town so they can provide service and can learn from the experiences. She is actively involved as an LRI Alum of the Iota II class (2013) using her Includer and Responsibility Strengths to keep the class connected. When LRI was considering a Strengths coaching program, Karen jumped at the opportunity to get involved. From an HR Perspective, she can see where Strengths can create a more engaged workforce and improve well-being. If you take these positive outcomes and apply them throughout the state we could truly “Make RI Stronger”.

Val has over 25 years as an organizational leadership professional with a record of success in both Human Resources and Information Technology. She is known for her ability to anticipate change and develop strategies to maintain a competitive advantage in the business. Val has strong skills in the areas of talent selection and development, aligning organizational systems/processes to enhance quality, and using a structured approach to managing projects to achieve success. She is at her best as a strategic business partner offering executive coaching services to help drive business goals to success.

Val is a Certified Professional Coach from the International Coach Federation and a Certified Project Manager.

Mary Ellen is a higher education professional with experience in undergraduate level and community college teaching. With an educational background in international development and over ten years of experience working in the non-profit field, Mary Ellen’s career has focused on community engagement and promoting diversity and social justice. Mary Ellen is a refugee advocate, has worked in the refugee resettlement field and presented at the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants National Network Conference. She has merged her professional experience as an educator and collaborator with her commitment to refugee issues by designing curriculum for global migration college courses that integrate community engagement within her teaching.

Mary Ellen’s passion for helping students develop their full potential inspired her to become an LRI Strengths Coach. As an educator, she thrives on assisting students with gaining professional skills critical to career success. LRI’s CliftonStrengths training has provided her with the tools to maximize her teaching methods, enhancing the personal and professional growth of her students.

Currently, Mary Ellen is an Adjunct Professor at Roger Williams University School of Continuing Studies where she teaches in the Community Development program. Mary Ellen was selected by Roger Williams University as a 2018 Hassenfeld Faculty Fellow for Community Engagement and serves on the board of Women’s Refugee Care, assisting with efforts to support refugee families residing in Rhode Island.

Sulina Mohanty, a graduate of the University of Rhode Island and Arizona State University, has spent her career working in education in a variety of capacities supporting students, families, and schools in low-income communities. She currently works for Boston Public Schools running a leadership development and problem-solving program for schools. Additionally, Sulina is on the North Kingstown Juvenile Hearing Board, the Chairwoman of the North Kingstown Democratic Town Committee, and on the University of Rhode Island Alumni Association Board. In her free time, she loves working with local youth, teaching dance, traveling and spending time with friends and family.

Janice Olsen is a hands-on marketing, business intelligence and project management professional with extensive experience helping companies successfully build revenues, manage brands and launch new products, programs and applications. During her tenure at AAA Northeast, she has developed and managed teams in market research, analytics, modeling, reporting, project management, product development, product management, customer experience, data management and strategic planning. In her current role, Janice oversees project management efforts for strategic, enterprise-wide initiatives.

Prior to joining AAA Northeast, Janice was the founder and principle of JLO Research Associates, a full-service market research and product development consultancy serving a wide variety of clients - from Fortune 100 companies to start-ups – to define and explore markets, develop successful product and service innovations, evaluate marketing communications, explore brand imagery, and drive customer and employee satisfaction.

Earlier in her career, Janice served as the Director of Market Research for Honeywell’s Consumer Products Group and as the Manager of Worldwide Market Research at GTECH Corporation.

In 2015, Janice was selected to be a member of Leadership RI’s best class ever – the Lambda IIs. She and her classmates helped build and strengthen connections among local communities across our state through their Recasting Rhode Island efforts. In 2016, Janice joined the LRI cadre of Gallup Clifton StrengthsFinder coaches and is an active supporter of the Make Rhode Island Stronger initiative. She is also a member of the New England Insights Association and the Association of National Advertisers.

Janice and her husband Chris live in Warwick, where she serves as a volunteer for her local parish and community. Their adult son, Eric lives in Boston. In their free time, Janice and her family enjoy boating, golfing and traveling.

Dr. Taino J. Palermo has worked as an education and nonprofit leader for over a decade focusing on community and economic development, urban education, and neighborhood revitalization. He founded the Breath of Fresh Air (BoFA) Gallery for Syracuse teenage artists and co-founded the Latino Professional Network of Syracuse, a network of over 2,000 Latino professionals in Upstate New York which he has helped evolve into the Upstate Minority Economic Alliance (UMEA), Upstate NY’s first minority chamber of commerce. Dr. Palermo has a history, personally and professionally, of advocating for underrepresented communities and urban youth.

He earned his doctorate in educational leadership and was the 2013 recipient of the New York State 40 Under 40 Rising Latino Stars award as well as the 2014 recipient of the National Action Network’s Bea Gonzalez Award for his leadership and advocacy on behalf of the Latino communities in Syracuse, NY. Dr. Palermo is currently the Program Director for both the Community Development and Healthy Communities degree programs in the School of Continuing Studies at Roger Williams University in Providence, Rhode Island.

He is an appointed member of the Governor’s Overdose Task Force, the chair of the Commission for Health Advocacy and Equity for the State of Rhode Island and currently sits on several local and national boards for the leadership, housing, education and health organizations including the board of governors for The Miriam Hospital in Providence.

Training language instructors from multiple cultures while studying applied psycholinguistics at Compania Linguistica in Mexico City sparked Mike's ongoing field research in what has become his lifelong interest -- human behavior and communication.

Over the past 20 years Mike served as a Tri-lingual interrogator in the United States Army, established his first corporation by the age of 25, motivated people to excel at his fitness Boot Camps in Boston and Philadelphia, and served as the New England Regional Manager for an international healthcare company based in the United Arab Emirates. A former on-call analyst for CNN, Mike has been interviewed hundreds of times for TV, radio, newspapers, and magazines. He has participated in nine documentaries in the past 11 years; "Songs of War" won an International Emmy.

Mike just completed his eighth year as the Executive Director of Leadership Rhode Island. Under his leadership, LRI has received many accolades to include the Excellence in Public Service Award by Common Cause RI, the National Innovation Award by the Association of Leadership Programs (twice), two Community Outreach Awards by the RI Press Association in partnership with The Providence Journal and Rhode Island College, and this past year was recognized by Gallup as an inspiration for the "15 million and growing" global strengths movement.

Twitter: @MikeRitz

Michelle Saunders leads Learning Solutions at International Gaming Technology (IGT) and also consults as a Strengths Coach for Leadership Rhode Island. Before IGT, she brought e-learning and classroom facilitation to Ocean State Job Lot and had consulting opportunities at Sensata Technologies, Fidelity, Bryant University and Roger Williams University focused on learning and development and employee engagement. She spent ten years as the Director of Workforce Development for AAA Northeast. In 2017 she was honored by Providence Business News as a Business Woman: Woman to Watch.

She is an avid volunteer and guest speaker with the Year Up Program and has run two marathons to raise money for the program and was honored as their 2019 Outstanding Volunteer. She is the Board Chair for Youth Pride RI, and also currently serves on the board of Family Service of RI. She has previously served on the boards of the Newman YMCA, RI Society of Human Resources Management and Foster Forward. She received her B.S in Marketing from Johnson and Wales University and an M.A. in Adult Education from the University of Rhode Island.

For over 30 years, Cindy has immersed herself in exploring and practicing two things -- HR leadership in growing wellness businesses and Strengths-based people development. She believes that understanding your own talent and building on that talent is key to not only building a better workplace, but a better world.

Cindy has served on leadership teams, developing HR strategy and systems for high growth organizations. She has recruited over a thousand talented people and has compassionately helped hundreds move on to their next opportunity. But her favorite place to be is Coaching & facilitating conversations and workshops with employees, managers, teams and executives to improve performance. Cindy is a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach and leads with Strategic Thinking themes. Her Top 5 Strengths are Achiever, Input, Strategic, Activator & Woo!

Cindy launched her own consulting business, Grow with Strengths, in early 2018. She is excited about working with small to medium sized businesses, helping them support their people development. When people grow, companies also grow. One of the top three things that employees want from their employer (Gallup 2019) is the opportunity for unlimited growth and Cindy is helping companies provide that important benefit. Some of the organizations Cindy has been engaged with over the past few years are Pet Food Experts, Virgin Pulse, Lose It!, Nail Communications, Preventure, Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England, The Thoreau Club, SIM Boston, SheSpeaks, and Women in Leadership Nexus. Cindy is very proud to be a part of the Make RI Stronger movement as a Leadership RI Strengths Coach, making a positive difference in workplace engagement in RI and partnering with Gallup.

Cindy’s coaching and facilitator style is energetic and thoughtful. She believes that we learn through practice and that learning is best when it’s enjoyable.

She graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a BA in Interpersonal Communications and French. Cindy and her husband live in Barrington, RI and have two millennial daughters. Her main goal in life is to continue to have the ability to do cartwheels when she is a grandmother.

Highly motivated and experienced management professional with expert proficiency in coordinating targeted business strategy and marketing efforts for a roster of industry-leading Fortune 500 corporate clients and non-profit organizations. Comprehensive understanding of the skills needed to manage ongoing business planning processes while developing strategies to meet future challenges. A demonstrated history of developing successful marketing strategies, authoring promotional copy for multiple marketing channels, and advertising methods that drive revenue and client satisfaction. Regarded for the ability to deliver outstanding results with the highest degree of expertise and professionalism. Fluent in English and Spanish.

Robert Vincent coordinates Leadership Development for the Center for Student Leadership Development at the University of Rhode Island and teaches a variety of academic courses in leadership studies. In addition to his coursework on Introduction to Leadership, other course topics include Strengths-based Personal Leadership Development, Strengths-based Mentor and Teaching, Leadership for Social Justice and Social Change and Leadership Practicums and Internships. Robert has over 20+ years of experience as a training and development facilitator and specializes in designing and conducting training programs for small to large groups within organizations on both the national and international stage.

In addition to an MA in Counseling, Robert has multiple professional development certificates enhancing his perspective which include a focus on Strengths-Based Leadership, Positive Energy Leadership, and Professional Coaching in Leadership Development, Authenticity and Self- Perception. Robert promotes leadership that is grounded in transformational development and that is values-based with a goal towards supportable resolutions for the common good. Robert serves as a member of the Programming Committee for College Leadership Rhode Island.

Bethany works with organizations to optimize the configuration and platform management of Learning Management/Talent Management systems to achieve strategic business objectives and increase end-user engagement. Her experience includes leading stakeholder engagement/communication, project planning/management, business analysis, business process improvement, system governance, system support model development, change management, reporting and analytics, and system integration. She is skilled at connecting business process analysis, requirements definition, and business case development to produce holistic and detailed project planning (scoping, schedule & budget), as well as risk analysis. Bethany leverages her training as a Gallup certified strengths coach as well as her studies of Appreciative Inquiry to ensure that the strategic business objectives of projects are met through a people-centered approach. It is her belief that Learning and Talent Management systems should fundamentally provide points of engagement between employees and the organization.