Team Members

The Presidio Dialogues is a project of Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center (a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization) and operates with two part-time staff members plus volunteers who support other special activities and events. If you would like to participate in any way, please contact Clare Hedin, Interim co-Executive Director.

The Presidio Dialogues' Leadership Council meets quarterly to review operations and provide strategic direction for the program. The Council is comprised of Saybrook staff plus volunteers from our TPD community who are committed to actively engage in creating opportunities for "conversations for conscious business".

Here are the members of our team:

More about some Team members:

John Adams (Leadership Council) has been at the forefront of the Organization Development profession for more than 35 years. His early articulation of issues facing organizations has provided a guiding light for the evolution of organization and change management consulting. He was the chair of the sustainable development task force at The World Business Academy and co-founder of Eartheart Enterprises, an international publishing, consulting and speaking business. John is currently Chair of the Organizational Systems Ph.D. Program at Saybrook Graduate School, which includes the first Ph.D. level program on sustainability. He began his professional career as a Lecturer in Management Studies at The University of Leeds in 1969. John has written prolifically in the areas of health and stress management, personal effectiveness at work, and leading change. John’s earlier books, Transforming Work and Transforming Leadership, are widely held as defining a new role for the Organization Development profession in a rapidly changing world. He is also co-author of Life Changes and author of Thinking Today as if Tomorrow Mattered: The Rise of a Sustainable Consciousness.

Yvonne Burgess (Leadership Council) is also a consultant and serves clients as Thought Partner, Facilitator and Project Mentor. With over 20 years experience in information systems, project management and organization development, she is best used to foster cooperation across boundaries, develop capability within technical organizations or take on any challenge that demands communicating issues of both organizational and technical complexity in an environment of dynamic change. Ms. Burgess holds an M.S. in Systems Management from USC, double major in Organization Development and Information Systems, plus other degrees in business administration, mathematics and computer science. A native San Franciscan, she now makes her home (with garden and many guest rooms) in Berkeley, California and stands for A World in Dialogue: where humanity’s first response to conflict, challenge and the unknown is to listen.

Thoraya Halhoul (Leadership Council) has over 10 years of management experience working in the non-profit and private sectors. She has substantial experience in business development, project management, conflict resolution, and individual, group, and leadership development. She recently earned her Masters in Human Resources and Organization Development at the University of San Francisco and teaches interpersonal dynamics at the University's law school. Halhoul has completed the Stanford Graduate School of Business Group Facilitation Program and is currently working on a five-year collaborative project on women's leadership. She is particularly interested in Communities of Practice, global and civic stewardship, and organizational learning.

Amber Hanlin-Rowney (Leadership Council) has over 10 years of marketing experience specializing in direct and relationship marketing. She had experience building loyal communities and in research for understanding customer/member relationships. She recently earned her Masters in Human and Organizational Transformation at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Ms. Hanlin-Rowney has recently been studying the dialogue culture of The Presidio Dialogues. She is particularly interested in the effects of dialogue on learning and the impact of learning on social and cultural change.

Debbe Kennedy (Leadership Council) is a master problem-solver, author, innovator, founder and president of the Leadership Solutions Companies, an award-winning women-owned and operated enterprise since 1990, specializing in leadership and organizational communications solutions. She is also the visionary founder, Leadership Solutions Companies’ newest entity–Global Dialogue Center, a virtual gathering place, using state-of-the-art technology to bring people together from around the world for conversation and debate, encouraging the exchange of ideas and mutual trust, respect and understanding. Debbe is the author of numerous books and publications, including breakthrough!®: Everything You Need to Start a Solution Revolution®,which has been translated into several languages, Action Dialogues: Meaningful Conversations to Accelerate Change, and the Diversity Breakthrough!® Action Books.

John ("Jack") Reho (Leadership Council) is currently responsible for Saybrook Graduate School's finance and operations activities and has been with Saybrook since January 2002. Licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in Ohio and having worked for large international construction and energy organization, Jack has an extensive background in working through people in complex organzations to address complex business challenges on a day to day basis. Having started his career upon graduation from the USAF Academy with a BS in Engineering and Mangement, he attended UCLA where he earned his MBA and proceeded to apply his systems background in working with Air Force Weapon System procurement activities, later moving into financial positions where he engaged in construction financing and energy and commodity trading activities including addressing multinational tax and operations issues.

John Renesch (Leadership Council) is a veteran business man of thirty years, having served as Managing Director of a real estate investment company and President of two NASD broker-dealer companies. He also owned an event promotion company, was a partner in a weekly newspaper publishing company and owned an advertising agency as part of a varied entrepreneurial career. Renesch is now a writer, futurist, and business advisor/coach/mentor. He's the editor or co-editor of a dozen progressive business books, including Learning Organizations, New Traditions in Business, and Leadership in A New Era; his latest book is Getting to the Better Future: A Matter of Conscious Choosing and he publishes a free monthly e-newsletter - Better Future NEWS (available from his website, www.Renesch.com).