BRIAN OLSEN

Artist, "Art in Motion"

MARGARET WHEATLEY, Ed.D.

President, The Berkana Institute

Margaret Wheatley writes, teaches, and speaks about how we might organize and accomplish our work in chaotic times.  She invites us to attend to the quality of our relationships to weather the increasing turbulence.  She knows that whatever the problem, community is the answer.  She is co-founder and President emerita of The Berkana Institute, a charitable global foundation that works in partnership with a rich diversity of people around the world who strengthen their communities by working with the wisdom and wealth already present in their people, traditions and environment. (www.berkana.org)

 She has written four books: Leadership and the New Science (in twenty languages and third edition), Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future (in two editions), A Simpler Way (with Myron Rogers) and, most recently, Finding Our Way: Leadership for an Uncertain Time.  Her numerous articles appear in both professional and popular journals and may be downloaded free from her website. www.margaretwheatley.com <http://www.berkana.org>   

Wheatley received her doctorate in Organizational Behavior and Change from Harvard University, and a Masters in Media Ecology from New York University. She has been a global citizen since her youth, serving in the Peace Corps in Korea in the 1960s. She was a practicing consultant for 30 years to a very wide variety of organizations on all continents.

MAUDE BARLOW

Chairperson, Council of Canadians

KEITH ALLRED

Founder, The Common Interest

Keith Allred was as a full-time professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government for seven years where he was also a faculty member of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.  Before joining the faculty at Harvard, he was a professor in social and organizational psychology at Columbia University.  A fifth-generation Idahoan, Keith and his family returned to his home state in 2003 where he pursues his applied interests in consulting and mediation.  Keith continues to teach leadership and management topics, particularly in negotiation and conflict resolution, in executive programs at Harvard and Oxford.

In addition to publishing in the leading academic journals, Keith has significant experience in applying his scholarly knowledge to real world challenges.  As a professional mediator, he has helped manage and resolve many disputes, including public lands, hydroelectric dam, mining, tribal, and land use disputes.  As a consultant and trainer he has worked for Fortune 500 companies and federal and state agencies.  He is the founder and president of The Common Interest, a non-partisan, non-profit organization that works in the Idaho legislature to put common sense solutions ahead of special interest and partisan politics. 

Keith earned a B.A. from Stanford and a Ph.D. in organizational behavior and social psychology from UCLA.  He loves skiing, backpacking, fly-fishing, and snow machining.  Having grown-up working summers on the family cattle ranch, Keith has competed successfully on cutting horses, going to the national championships twice.  He is married to Christine Edwards Allred.  They are the proud parents of Anna (4) and Dan (3).

Keith worked in a salmon canning plant in Valdez, Alaska one summer during college.  He and his wife Christine spent two heavenly weeks in 1998 floating the Alagnak River in the Katmai region and backpacking in Denali.