Business:
Donna K. Brown, Ph.D., listed in the
international directory of "Who's Who in Executives and Professionals"
and "Who's Who in the Midwest", is founder and president of Oak Wood
Associates Ltd. Oak Wood Associates
Ltd. is located in Maumee, Ohio. Dr. Brown is an author, lecturer,
consultant, change agent, and business
owner with over 25 years of executive and management experience.
Dr. Brown is one of the few consultants in continuous improvement whose
professional background is in
organization development, holding a doctoral degree in the field.
With over thirty years of experience in
planning and implementing change in a wide variety of organizations
combined with the knowledge of quality management practices (especially
the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards
Deming), Dr. Brown has a unique perspective on what it takes to build
a quality organization based on employee
involvement and participatory change management practices.
Dr. Brown works with organizations to
assist them in planning, strategizing, coordinating, and over-seeing
application of quality management and
planned change principles. She assesses the readiness level
of the organization for quality and change implementation through
departmental/organizational surveys
and/or audits. The cornerstone of her work is educating managers on the
skills, methods, and tools needed to
guide the efforts of their organizations/employees. She also assists
companies in building effective
teams of employees whose members become well-versed in the planning,
statistical, meeting, and organizational
skills needed to accomplish their aims.
Dr. Brown works across the industries. Her
clients include healthcare organizations, manufacturing, technical
professionals, service, and governmental agencies in the local area, as
well as on a national level. She has
worked with NASA at the Lewis Research Center in the Space Station
Freedom Directorate with the Project
Control Office. Also at NASA, she has guided the efforts of the Hazardous
Chemical Office in their initial quality efforts.
She is
contributing author to a book published by Delmar Publishing Company
entitled, The Executive Nurse: Leading
in Today's Health Care Transitions which defines the leadership role
of the executive nurse. She has served as a
resource to the Ohio Hospital Association in Columbus, Ohio.
Through Dr. Brown's involvement with the Ohio Quality and Productivity
Forum, she has had the opportunity to
serve as staff at the Deming User Conference in Cincinnati with Dr. W.
Edwards Deming, Peter Scholtes, Tom
Nolan, and other leaders in the quality movement. She is one of the
founders of the Deming Users Study Group
(Lake Erie West) for the Northwestern Ohio area and served
as its mentor.
A second prong of Dr. Brown's background and experiences lies in the
field of education, reading, literacy
and distance learning. She currently holds a graduate faculty position at
Walden University as an online
instructor in the Masters Reading and Literacy program and guides
educators across the world in gaining
skills to implement in their classrooms to ensure student success in
reading and literacy. In addition, she is a
faculty mentor for new instructors in the online environment.
Her background in distance learning has carried over to her consulting
practice in which she has consulted
with universities on designing interactive online courses and she offers
online training to businesses and
organizations across the industry. She has also designed company
universities so that lifelong learning
can occur on the job site. Her skills as a diagnostician in literacy has
led her to assist companies in
designing and improving literacy of their work staff.
This blend of education is a natural as Dr. Brown has had experience as
a classroom teacher, implementing one
of the first learning disability resource rooms in the country in the
sixties which served as a model for
the state of Pennsylvania, served as a learning disability/SBH supervisor
for seven years in a four county
region, and was a county education supervisor. She followed this by
becoming an elementary school
principal and assistant superintendent of instruction for three years.
While holding these positions she
provided numerous teacher in-services across the country on a range of
topics dealing with student learning and
achievement.
While holding the positions above she also served in the following
capacities at universities. 1997-99-
Was hired by the President, Dr. Sidney Ribeau of Bowling Green State
University as a consultant to assist
the Office of the President, Provost, and Office of Financial Affairs in
creating a more collaborative, team
based, open working environment. Worked with the executive team and
their staff.
1988 - Consultant to President Dr. James McComas, University of Toledo,
Toledo, OH. and faculty from the
college of education to develop and implement the program, "
Pride" which involved teachers and
college students mentoring inner city school students. Was responsible for
developing the system gaining buy-in,
and providing the training to faculty and college student participants.
1978- As a school principal, served on a regional curriculum advisory
board for Bowling Green State University’s
College of Education to assist with input in redesigning the teacher
curriculum. Have also served on the
advisory board of Stautzenberg College, Toledo, OH.
Adjunct Teaching:
1989-90 Adjunct Faculty in the College of Business, Lourdes College,
OH; 1979 Adjunct Faculty in Special
Education, Bowling Green State University, OH; 1977 Adjunct Faculty in
Special Education, Kent State
University and Special Assignment as Director of the Akron Summer Program
for Learning Disabled whose teachers
were graduate teachers working on their Special Education certification
and student teaching during the
summer. Also supervised student teachers during the regular school year.
Has provided continuing education seminars to local community colleges
including Owens Community College,
Oregon, OH; Northwest Community State College, Archbold,OH and Terra
Technical College, OH.
In 1993 was sponsored by Southwest Virginia Community College, in
Richlands, VA to present a model to
their faculty and the leaders of the county (mayors, school
superintendents, CEO’s) on "How to
Build a Smarter Work Force." Collaborated with Dr. James H. Gibson
and his faculty in developing the
event as well as providing follow-up on the project. (See Common
Challenges for current school system projects)
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