In order to perform their duties effectively, our employees must be ready, willing and able. It is our job as leaders to make certain they

1. are clear on what needs to be done and have available the resources they need to do their work,
2. are motivated to do their best, and
3. have the knowledge, skills and ability to perform the job successfully

During this workshop Dr. Sauser will share ideas to help organizational leaders ensure that their employees are ready, willing and able to succeed.

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William I. Sauser, Jr., PhD - Full Bio

William I. Sauser, Jr., PhD, is professor emeritus of management in the Harbert College of Business at Auburn University, where he taught for 38 years. After his retirement from Auburn University in June of 2015 he continued consulting through his own firm, Irvin Davis Group. Dr. Sauser earned his BS in management and MS and PhD in industrial/organizational psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MA in business ethics from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. He is licensed to practice psychology in Alabama and holds two specialty diplomas from the American Board of Professional Psychology (Industrial/Organizational Psychology and Organizational and Business Consulting Psychology). Dr. Sauser’s interests include organizational development and change, strategic planning, human relations in the workplace, leadership and supervision, business ethics, and continuing professional education. He is a frequent consultant to public, private, and voluntary-sector organizations and has been awarded the 2003 Frederick W. Taylor Key by the Society for Advancement of Management, the 2012 Harbert College of Business Excellence in Outreach Award, and the 2013 External Consulting Award and 2014 Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award by Auburn University. He received Auburn Author Awards in 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016 for his co-edited books Experiences in Teaching Business Ethics, Managing Human Resources for the Millennial Generation, Legal and Regulatory Issues in Human Resources Management, and Transforming Government Organizations: Fresh Ideas and Examples from the Field, all published by Information Age Publishing. He is a past president of the Alabama Psychological Association, the Society for Advancement of Management (International), the Auburn University Senate and the Auburn University chapter of the American Association of University Professors. He is also a past member and chair of the Alabama Board of Examiners in Psychology. Dr. Sauser has for many years served as the Auburn University President’s designate on the Board of Directors of the Auburn-Opelika Tourism Bureau. He has been pastor of the Union Springs Presbyterian Church since 1997. His scholarly work comprises 57 refereed journal articles, 45 book chapters, and 20 published test reviews.

Conflict is a natural aspect of our interactions as humans. We all encounter conflict, and our ability to negotiate through disharmony can enhance the productivity and cohesiveness of our relationships. Conflict can provide opportunities to assess the status quo and mutually create avenues to improve our lives at work and at home. This seminar introduces basic conflict management concepts to assist the participant with building communication skills that can strengthen his or her personal and workplace relationships.

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C. Kevin Coonrod - Full Bio

C. Kevin Coonrod is Ombudsperson for students, faculty and staff at Auburn University. He is a frequent speaker on conflict resolution topics at conferences and workplace retreats, where he enjoys conveying his confidence in the ability of people to resolve their own conflicts through creativity and self-empowerment. He is a former member of the Washington State Bar Association and the Washington Mediation Association. Presently, he is a member of the Alabama State Court Mediator Roster and a Certified Organizational Ombudsman Practitioner© through the International Ombudsman Association.

Opportunities for Lean improvement are everywhere, including in your personal life. While most people relate Lean improvement to the manufacturing industry, its professional and personal applications extend to a variety of settings. Lean improvement is anchored in activities to make any process that we engage in more effective and more efficient. When done well, Lean improvement virtually always increases effectiveness and efficiency.

This webinar considers two primary approaches for Lean improvement as a means of increasing your personal potential. First, we’ll identify the types of inefficiencies, also called wastes, that detract from results, and we’ll discuss how removing waste makes us individually more effective and efficient at what we do. Then we’ll apply the concept of Lean Daily Management as a goal setting tool useful for managing personal and professional relationships.

Lean improvement is infinitely applicable. If you can see the process, you can use Lean improvement tools to make the process more effective and efficient. So why not apply Lean improvement to your Life?

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Phil Chansler - Full Bio

Phillip A. Chansler, Ph.D., has over 40 years specializing in engineering, operations and education curriculum development and instruction working with the United States Air Force (USAF) and Department of Defense.

Dr. Chansler currently serves as assistant professor of operations management at Air University’s USAF Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. Chansler also serves as the lead instructor for the USAF Lean/SixSigma Blackbelt Certification and Senior Leader courses taught throughout the Air Force. As the key advisor to the Air University executive leadership team, Chansler develops and executes organizational strategy and process improvement programs. Most recently, he developed and leads Lean Operating Culture and Practice, an OPCE continuing education certificate program for individuals in the service and manufacturing industries.

Chansler is the recipient of numerous Air Force meritorious service citations and was presented with a Humanitarian Medal in 2005 for Hurricane Katrina support. He has served as a consultant to national corporations including Harley Davidson Motor Company and General Electric and has published research journal articles relating to teams, teamwork and other human resource management issues. Dr. Chansler earned his doctorate in business administration from Auburn University in 2005 and is the current Planning Commission Chairman for the City of Auburn.

If you are concerned about your investments right now, you’re not alone. Experienced investors know the market is cyclical, and extreme volatility can create unease and uncertainty. This free webinar offers an opportunity to learn more about today’s markets in historical context and perspective and how our emotions affect decision-making. Three strategies will be discussed to help develop a personalized plan to adjust and live with market volatility.

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Allen Taylor - Full Bio

"Helping clients succeed, walking with clients in their decision-making, and watching families grow closer because of proper planning – that is what drives me as an advisor."

A philanthropic leader in the Birmingham community, Allen Taylor founded Wealth Strategies, LLC in 2002. While he brings over 30 years of experience to the table with education from Birmingham-Southern College, it is his devotion to his clients and the value of each relationship that is the catalyst to Wealth Strategies’ success. As a member of the International Association of Qualified Financial Planners (IAQFP) and a Registered Financial Consultant (RFC), his extensive knowledge in the field helps a little bit too.

This webinar offers techniques and strategies for coping when your mind feels “full.” Do you ever feel overwhelmed? Do you feel that sometimes it is difficult to be fully present in the moment? Carlie Kaeppler discusses the importance of mindfulness and how we can practice it daily.

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Carlie Kaeppler - Full Bio

Carlie Kaeppler joined Auburn University's Office of Professional and Continuing Education in 2019 where she works as a Program Developer for Auburn Youth Programs. Carlie has worked in various roles within the field of youth programming for over six years. Carlie earned both her B.S. and M.S. in Human Development and Family Studies from Auburn University.

The Culture Bump^™ Toolkit for Culture and Communication is a multimedia approach to developing interpersonal, intercultural communication skills and is designed to move individuals beyond diversity and into community and connection. By presenting culture bumps (or cultural differences) in a new and positive way, this approach differs from most multicultural approaches in that it acknowledges and validates cultural differences while creating meaningful relationships.

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Carol Archer - Full Bio

Carol Archer is the originator and creator of the Culture Bump theory and methodology and has a Doctorate in Education with a research focus on culture and urban studies. Her work is directed toward building connections of commonalities between people of different cultures, backgrounds and belief systems. Dr. Archer created The Culture Bump Toolkit for Culture and Communication, a landmark program that grew out of her more than 40 years of research, teaching and training in interpersonal, intercultural communication.

Dr. Archer brings experience from teaching in Algeria, as well as consulting with a wide range of corporate, educational and governmental clients. A partial list of her clients includes AT&T, Princeton University, Pecten Oil, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Halliburton Oil and the World Trade Association. In addition to having taught ESL and cross culture communication at the Language & Culture Center/University of Houston for 30 years, ESL strategies and second language acquisition at the University of St. Thomas, she also developed cultural orientation for refugees for the State of Texas.

For the past decade, she has consulted with Auburn University in both the Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning and the Center for Educational Outreach and Engagement.

Dr. Archer's publications include Living with Strangers in the USA published by Prentice Hall; “Culture Bump and Beyond” in Culture Bound: An Anthology published by Cambridge University Press and co-author of Culture Bump: 8 Steps to Common Ground.

Well-versed in Spanish and with a knowledge of the Arabic and French languages, Dr. Archer also served as cross-cultural consultant for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) series “Images of America.”

Are you finding it hard to focus while remotely working? Are you having communication challenges not previously experienced while working in the office? Are you feeling isolated from your colleagues? Well it is time to take a break and learn ways to use Microsoft Teams and Team Building challenges to get back on track while working remotely.

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Karen Rankin - Full Bio

Karen Rankin provides information technology support to all departments within University Outreach in the areas of database management, computer hardware and software solutions and website administration. Before joining University Outreach in 1994, she worked in the departments of Chemistry and Botany & Microbiology. Karen has degrees in Business Administration and Management Information Systems.

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Brent Gibson - Full Bio

Brent Gibson joined Auburn University’s Office of Professional and Continuing Education (OPCE) in 2016 where he works as a Program Developer for the AU Challenge Course and AU Leadership Series. Brent has worked in various roles within the field of Outdoor Education for over six years. He assists with the setup and management of online courses and has been instrumental as OPCE continues to expand its catalog of online course offerings. Brent received his undergraduate degree in Office Administrative Technology from Valdosta State University ('14) and his M.S. in Recreation and Leisure Services from Texas State University ('16).

How is the pandemic affecting 2020 personal income tax returns? What steps should you take in 2020 before the end of the year in order to help prevent income tax surprises? What income tax changes have occurred in 2020 that will affect many taxpayers? Join a tax professional as he discusses many of the changes that will affect 2020 personal income taxes.

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Joel C. Jones - Full Bio

Joel Jones is a shareholder at Kassouf & Co. in the Business Services group and works in the Auburn, Alabama office. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Alabama Society of Certified Public Accountants and the Institute of Internal Auditors. He is also a member of the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts and a member of the Valuation and Forensic Services Section of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Joel is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA), and he holds the Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV), Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF) and Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) designations from the AICPA. Joel provides tax and consulting services to businesses and individuals operating in wholesale distribution, retail sales, real estate development, professional services and investments. He specializes in family owned businesses, partnership and corporate taxation, multi-state taxation, not for profits and works in the firm's business valuation area. He frequently teaches continuing education classes for staff and clients of Kassouf & Co., P.C. Joel received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1997.

Presented by: Rick Rainer, Former Principal, Enterprise High School, Enterprise, Alabama; Jay Jones, Sheriff, Lee County, Alabama; Rita Smith, Director, Lee County Emergency Management Agency; Mike Clardy, Assistant Vice President for Communications and Marketing, Auburn University; Laura Eason, Chaplain, East Alabama Medical Center

What systems and protocols does your organization have in place for communication during a crisis situation? Our expert panel has experience preparing for a wide range of potential crises including severe weather, crime, health pandemic, and public relations incidents. Gain first-hand insight and be ready to prepare your own crisis communications plan.

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Rick Rainer

Rick Rainer retired after 40 years in the education field, serving as an administrator for the past 27 years. Rainer was the principal at Enterprise High School in Enterprise, Alabama, on March 1st, 2007, when an EF4 tornado struck the city. More than five hundred homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed but the most tragic of all was the destruction of Enterprise High School. Eight students lost their lives on that tragic day.

Rainer brings insight, from a principal’s perspective, in dealing with a crisis, both at the time of the event and during the recovery period. He also offers a practitioner’s view of the importance of being prepared to deal with a crisis.

Rainer is a native of Elba, Alabama, the father of four children, and the proud grandfather of three granddaughters. He attended both Troy University and Auburn University and holds degrees in History, Administration, and Educational Leadership.

In his retirement Rainer spends time helping other school principals and safety officials prepare for the unexpected. He developed and leads the online Crisis Management program for the Office of Professional and Continuing Education at Auburn University. In the program, Rick offers step by step plans to develop a Crisis Management plan for a facility, institution or organization. His powerful message is designed to provoke thought and prompt action for leader’s to plan and prepare for unexpected disasters in schools and communities.

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Sheriff Jay Jones

Sheriff Jones began his law-enforcement career with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office in 1975 while a student at Auburn University.

His first work assignment was in the jail as a corrections officer/communications operator and was later appointed to a road position as a sworn deputy sheriff. He experienced all aspects of the operations of the Sheriff’s Office by moving up in the ranks through the years and was eventually appointed as the Sheriff’s Office Chief Investigator in command of the Investigations Division.

Sheriff Jones was first elected Lee County Sheriff in 1998 and is currently serving his fifth term. His educational background includes a BS degree from Auburn University in 1976 and a MS degree from Troy State University in 1980.

Sheriff Jones’ professional education and training includes the FBI National Academy (146th session), FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminar (58th session), National Sheriff’s Institute (Class 00-1), Southern Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminar (1999), and the United States Secret Service Dignitary Protection Seminar (2003). His professional affiliations include service as a governor’s appointee to the Advisory Committee on Women in Criminal Justice, the Alabama Crime Victim’s Compensation Commission, the Alabama Local Government Records Commission and the Alabama Peace Officers Annuity and Benefit Fund board.

He currently serves as a board member for the Lee County Youth Development Center, the Bennie Adkins Foundation, the Opelika Chamber of Commerce and the Lee County Emergency Communications District. Sheriff Jones’ professional memberships include the FBI National Academy Associates, the Police Futurists International, the National Sheriff’s Association, the Alabama Sheriff’s Association, the Law Enforcement Executive Development Association, the Alabama Jail Association, the Alabama Peace Officers’ Association and the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #21. Sheriff Jones’ civic involvement includes membership in the Auburn Rotary Club and the Bleecker Ruritan Club.

Along with his public safety duties Sheriff Jones has also served as an adjunct instructor of Criminal Justice at Auburn University and Southern Union Community College in Opelika, AL.

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Mike Clardy

Mike Clardy is Auburn’s Assistant Vice President for Communications & Marketing, a position he has held since 2017. Overall, he has served the university for 22 years, following eight years as television news journalist. He is a university spokesman, having trained with the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA and others in crisis communications. Mike is a two-time graduate of the University of Georgia.

Clardy will discuss preparation and response at Auburn University. While 99% of communications and marketing in higher education is positive PR, it’s that other 1% that keeps professionals up at night. Preparation and training are key when one lapse in judgement on social media, a natural disaster or a lawsuit can turn an ordinary day into a full-blown crisis response.

 

 

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Laura Eason

Laura Eason has served as Chaplain at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika, Alabama, since 2014.

A native of Columbus, Georgia, Eason first came to Auburn in 1984 when she served as Co-Director of Christian Education at Auburn United Methodist Church. Eason served in churches across the Southeast, including Florida and Texas, for nearly 30 years before returning to the Auburn-Opelika area. Throughout her ministry, she has led over 85 mission trips; performed weddings, funerals, and hospital visitations; and led numerous local, district, conference and national workshops and seminars.

Eason will give an update on the Lee County Long Term Recovery Group following the tornadoes on March 3, 2019, and present the latest statistics of COVID- 19 in our community and what we can do to stop the spread.

 

 

Dr. James Barth presents a discussion based on slides of how COVID-19 changes Individual, Business, and Government behaviors both here and in countries around the world.

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Dr. James Barth - Full Bio

James R. Barth is the Lowder Eminent Scholar in Finance at Auburn University, a Senior Fellow at the Milken Institute, and a Fellow at the Wharton Financial Institution Center. His research focuses on financial institutions and capital markets, both domestic and global, with special emphasis on regulatory issues. He served as leader of an international team advising the People's Bank of China on banking reform. Barth also participated in the U.S. Speaker and Specialist Program of the U.S. Department of State in China in 2007, India in 2008, Russia in 2009, and Egypt in 2010. Also in 2008, Barth spoke on "Competition in the Financial Sector: Challenges for Regulation" at the G-20 Workshop on Competition in the Financial Sector, Bali, Indonesia.

Barth was an appointee of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush as chief economist of the Office of Thrift Supervision and previously the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. He has also held the positions of professor of economics at George Washington University, associate director of the economics program at the National Science Foundation, and Shaw Foundation Professor of Banking and Finance at Nanyang Technological University. He has been a visiting scholar at the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the World Bank.

Barth has testified before several U.S. Congressional Committees. He has authored more than 300 articles in professional journals and has co-authored and co-edited several books, including The Great Savings and Loan Debacle, American Enterprise Institute Press, The Reform of Federal Deposit Insurance, Harper Business, Rethinking Bank Regulation: Till Angels Govern, Cambridge University Press, Financial Restructuring and Reform in Post-WTO China, Kluwer Law International, The Rise and Fall of the U.S. Mortgage and Credit Markets: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Meltdown, John Wiley & Sons (Prose Honorable Mention Award), and China's Emerging Financial Markets: Challenges and Opportunities, Springer.

His most recent books are Guardians of Finance: Making Regulators Work for Us, MIT Press (Prose Honorable Mention Award) in 2012, Fixing the Housing Market: Financial Innovations for the Future, Wharton School Publishing-Pearson in 2012, Research Handbook on International Banking and Governance, MIT Press in 2012, The First Great Financial Crisis of the 21st Century: A Retrospective, World Scientific in 2016, and Regulation and Governance of Financial Institutions, Edward Elgar Publishing in 2016. He has been quoted in publications ranging from the New York Times and Wall Street Journal to Barron's and Newsweek, and has appeared on various broadcast programs and National Public Radio. Barth is the overseas associated editor of the Chinese Banker and included in Who's Who in Economics: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Economists, 1700 to 1995.

For years, organizations have been moving toward different technology platforms to reduce recruitment costs, which has led to more phone and technology-based interviews. In March of this year, the need for distance interviews escalated, not only for cost savings and time efficiency, but for everyone’s safety. Now almost all interview processes begin, and may be completely facilitated, through technology. In this webinar, we will learn about where and how communication happens while using technology. How to prepare for a technology-based interview. Tips for being prepared for interviews. And how to leverage commonly asked interview questions for interviewing success.

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Jan Moppert - Full Bio

Jan Moppert joined the Harbert College of Business as director of the Office of Professional and Career Development in February 2017. Previously, Jan served as the director of Career Services for Widener University, in Pennsylvania, where she developed a reputation as a trusted and valued student-advisor, receiving two student-driven awards, serving as faculty advisor for an all-male social fraternity, and serving as faculty partner on four student trips. Before Widener, she lived in New Orleans serving in three roles at Loyola University New Orleans: associate director of Career Development Center, jointly as coordinator and recruiter for the MBA program and the coordinator of the College of Business’s internship program, and service-learning director/experiential learning.

Before entering academia, Jan had more than 12 years’ experience in marketing with some of the nation's largest health-care companies, including Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Tenet, and HealthSouth, and additional experience in advertising and sales.

Moppert received her BS from LSU and earned her MBA from Loyola University New Orleans, where she attended classes an adult learner/non-traditional student in the program. She and her son graduated the same day from Loyola University sitting just two rows apart as he was awarded his BBA and she was awarded her MBA.