Project Management Team

Teresa Berry is a conflict management consultant and principal with the Organizational Dynamics Consulting Group. Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, her work focuses on group and interpersonal dynamics of social conflict, and public policy issues. She serves as a contract mediator for several Federal and State agencies and has consulted with the New Mexico Center for Dispute Resolution, City of Santa Fe, Albuquerque Public Schools, Los Alamos Schools, East Mountain Charter School, Shared Vision, Los Alamos National Laboratories, and the New Mexico Council of Churches. Teresa holds a master's degree in US Diplomatic History from the University of Hawaii and is a nationally certified mediator and paralegal with over 20 years of experience with research and writing, program development, and project planning.

Leslie Fagre is a Project Manager for the Public Dialogue Consortium based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has helped to design and facilitate forums, conferences and trainings on five PDC projects. She has also worked on game design, research, and facilitation in Prosperity Games for such clients as The President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure, Kodak, and Sandia National Laboratories. Ms. Fagre has taught Mediation, Intercultural Communication and other courses at the University of New Mexico where she received a Masters in Communication. Her mediation experience includes organizational, business, and interpersonal disputes. She has conducted training on a variety of communication topics for private and public organizations. Her interest in intercultural communication stems from her project management work for refugee social services organizations, as well as from her experiences teaching and studying in Asia and Europe.

Kathy Isaacson is currently on President Bush’s Advisory Board for the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities, the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Institute for Higher Education Policy, a partner in DLI Communication Consultants and the owner of a consulting business, Strategic Engagement LLC.  She is also Adjunct Professor of Communication at the University of New Mexico.  As a mediator, facilitator, and trainer, she founded the Mediation Clinic at theUniversity of New Mexico.  Kathy helped establish gaming methodology in organizational development, where she designed, directed, and facilitated high-level strategy and leadership events for clients such as Eastman Kodak, The President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure, Sandia National Laboratories, Lockheed Martin, and the Kellogg Foundation.  Kathy is co-author of Communication, Conflict, and the Management of Difference; Facework:  Bridging Theory and Practice; Engaging Communication in Conflict: Systemic Practice; and Mediation: Empowerment in Conflict Resolution with Stephen Littlejohn.  With twelve years of academic work in conflict and communication,  and twenty years experience in mediation, strategic planning, leadership development and public issue management, Kathy concentrates on leadership excellence and innovative methods of planning and decision-making.

 

Stephen Littlejohn is a mediator, facilitator, and trainer based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is a partner in Domenici Littlejohn, Inc. and specializes in designing and facilitating dialogue processes for groups, organizations, and communities. Stephen is co-author of Moral Conflict: When Social Worlds Collide (Sage, 1997) and Engaging Communication in Conflict: Systemic Practice (Sage, 2001). He was formerly a professor of communication at Humboldt State University in California and is currently Adjunct Professor of Communication and Journalism at the University of New Mexico. Stephen has been a consultant for such clients as the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities, the Institute for Equity in Education, the Christian Mission Society, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the New Mexico Department of Health, Advanced Micro Devices, Los Alamos National Laboratory, the City of Buenos Aires, the US Postal Service, the New Mexico Office of Courts, and Sandia National Laboratories.

Kimberly Pearce is a teacher, trainer, and facilitator based in the San Francisco Bay area. A member of the faculty in the Department of Speech Communication at De Anza College and co-Principal of Pearce Associates, Inc., Kim has worked with PDC projects in a number of Bay Area cities, including Cupertino and San Carlos. Her work has involved middle and high school students, college and graduate students, city councils and law enforcement personnel, and multi-ethnic groups of seniors. She has consulted with communities and organizations, facilitated small and large group meetings in private and public settings, and trained professionals in England, Denmark, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and throughout the United States. She is the co-author of "The Public Dialogue Consortium's School-wide Dialogue Process: A Communication Approach to Develop Citizenship Skills and Enhance School Climate," Communication Theory, 11 (2001): 105-123; "Extending the Theory of the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) Through a Community Dialogue Process," Communication Theory, 10 (2000), 405-423; "Combining Passions and Abilities: Toward Dialogic Virtuosity." Southern Communication Journal, 65 (2000), 161-175; and "Transcendent Storytelling: Abilities for Systemic Practitioners and Their Clients," Human Systems: The Journal of Systemic Consultation and Management, 9 (1998), 167-184.

Barnett Pearce is a teacher, trainer, and facilitator based in the San Francisco Bay area. A member of the faculty in the Human and Organization Development Program at the Fielding Graduate Institute and co-Principal of Pearce Associates, Inc., he has worked in numerous PDC projects and has consulted with communities and organizations, facilitated public and private meetings, and trained professionals in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa. He served as Chair of the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and at Loyola University Chicago, and was a Fulbright Fellow in Argentina in 1997 and Senior Visiting Scholar at Linacre College, Oxford University, in 1989. Among his publications are "Toward a National Conversation about Public Issues," in William F. Eadie and Paul E. Nelson (Eds.). The Changing Conversation in America: Lectures from the Smithsonian. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, in press; "On Putting Social Justice in the Discipline of Communication and Putting Enriched Concepts of Communication in Social Justice Research and Practice," Journal of Applied Communication Research, 26 (1998): 272-278; Interpersonal Communication: Making Social Worlds. New York: HarperCollins, 1994; and Communication and the Human Condition, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. He is the co-editor of Reagan and Public Discourse in America. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press; and is working on a new book called Living in Communication.

Shawn Spano, Ph.D., is a Senior Consultant with the Public Dialogue Consortium, a non-profit group of practitioners devoted to improving the quality of public communication in local communities. His client list includes the City of Cupertino, Town of Los Gatos, City of San Jose, Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, Silicon Valley Commonwealth Club, and the Community Coalition for End of Life Care. In addition to his work with the PDC, Shawn is a Professor in the Communication Studies Department at San Jose State University where he teaches courses and conducts research in public dialogue, interpersonal communication and communication education. As the Associate Director for the Center for Faculty Development and Support at SJSU, Shawn provides teaching consultations and training workshops for faculty, and facilitates focus groups and planning meetings with departments and programs across the campus. Shawn was selected the “SJSU Outstanding Professor” In 1999-2000, and has published numerous articles and chapters, including the book, Public Dialogue and Participatory Democracy: The Cupertino Community Project (Hampton Press, 2001).

Email:      cspano@pacbell.net