Current Board of Trustees

Kitty spent her career as an educator, implementing many new programs and providing instructional leadership in three school systems. Kitty is committed to “paying it forward.” Currently, she is focused on programs impacting young people and fostering creativity. Her special passion is the development of the CEF YouthWise™ Program. She is also heavily involved with the Girl Scouts of Gulf Coast Florida and US Committee for UNIFEM (Gulf Coast Chapter) Learners to Leaders Program. Along with two partners, Kitty founded the annual Florida Creativity Weekend in 2002. Kitty has served as a CEF trustee for the past five years.

Founded HP Strategy Associates, LLC, Alexandria, VA. He is a contributing editor, Strategy and Leadership, a leading business strategy journal; President, National Speakers Association, DC Chapter. Previously, Dan served as Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army. In his last duty position he was the Total Quality Officer, Army Personal Command, and helped the Army become more customer-focused resulting in improved morale and readiness. Dan has a BBA, North Texas University; an MA in International Relations, University of Southern California; and a diploma in Operations Research, U.S. Army Logistics Management College. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Naval War College. 

Marion Garber’s 35 year career encompasses full-time work on a college faculty, managing organizational development in industry, and operating an art center.  As an expert in the field of assessment, she has maintained a consultancy in leadership, career development, and change management for more than 12 years.  She earned her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies of Creativity from Union Institute in Cincinnati; and the unifying theme throughout her work has been the creative development of ideas, people, and organizations.  Serving on the boards of five non-profit organizations, she has held all offices, including several presidencies.

Thom Gonyeau is an owner and principal at Mountain View Group, an award-winning corporate communications agency with a focus on film/video production and strategic consultation based in Atlanta and upstate NY. Clients include leaders at GE, the Coca-Cola Company, Raytheon, EarthLink, Russell, as well as mid-sized corporations, educational institutions, non-profit organizations and the public sector. A graduate of the College of Saint Rose with BA and MA degrees in Public Communications, off-the-job Thom enjoys music and theatre performance, creative writing and poetry, tennis and photography. 
 

Chief learning Officer, Chief Innovation Instigator and Chief Innovation officer IDEAS with over 34 years of experience and has trained in over 60 countries. Sunil was born in a beautiful town Jammu, India. He had his early education in Mumbai and then lived and worked in the USA. He completed his graduate degree and doctoral research at NYU and worked for Colgate Palmolive. He has been working with Dr Edward de Bono for the last 24 years and is a Lifetime master trainer. He has trained over 350,000 people and has authored 5 books. Sunil is the recipient of several global awards and loves creativity.
 

Sam Malhotra is CEO of Subsystems, a company he founded in 1987.  Subsystems sells innovative services to the federal government and has received many awards including the Inc 500, Deloitte & Touche 500, and Washington Technology FAST 50. Sam is on the Advisory Board of George Mason University, leading their Diversity Subcommittee.  He is a board member of the Arlington County Workforce Development Board. Sam is a graduate of the University of Maryland serving on the University's Board of Visitors, College of Computational Mathematics and Physical Science. Sam has his Master’s in Leadership from Georgetown University and is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School.

Dimis Michaelides is Managing Director of Performa Consulting, business consultant, speaker, magician, author and faculty member of the Cyprus International Institute of Management. In an international business career of 30 years, Dimis has held management positions in the World Bank, Zeneca, the Council of Europe Development Bank and Laiki Cyprialife.  He published The Art of Innovation: Integrating Creativity in Organizations - a management-art book – in 2007.  Dimis loves creativity and innovation, art and history, film and theater, music and magic, wife and son, mother and brother, Penn and Teller and, of course, Osborn and Parnes.

Suzie Nussel is a marketing consultant with more than 20 years experience in marketing strategy, brand management, marketing communications and product innovation. Prior to starting her own business, she worked for AOL, where she developed and launched new digital products for consumers, a $100-million business. She has also worked in the K-12 educational software industry for 10 years. “Getting things done” is her motto, and she brings enthusiasm and drive to her projects. She has been working with CEF YouthWise™ for the past four years, both at CPSI as CEF YouthWise™ Coordinator (2008-10) and in South Africa (’07).

Dr. Steve Shama holds a Bachelor of Arts (AB) degree from Columbia College, a Medical Degree (MD) from Temple University School of Medicine and a Masters Degree in Public Health (MPH) from the Harvard School of Public Health.

For over 30 years, Steve has been in private practice in dermatology and has been on the medical staff of the New England Deaconess Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston. In 2010, Steve retired from medicine to devote more time to his other passion. Through his passionate keynote speeches and dynamic workshops, Steve’s inspirational stories and concrete examples help medical professionals, general audiences, and our youth learn how to communicate and connect in these challenging times – making it possible for them to rediscover their passion and joys of life.

Sid Parnes is professor emeritus and founding director of the Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State College (1967). Sid met the CEF Founder, Alex Osborn, at the very first CPSI and took the conference content and morphed it into a ‘How to’ conference; piloting this idea in his Creative Retailing Conference in 1956 at the University of Pittsburgh. Impressed with his initiative, Alex recruited Sid to work with him and evolve the model shortly thereafter.  

From 1967 to 1984 Sid served as President of the Creative Education Foundation. He was the premier researcher on the development of creative behavior, so much so that he decided to launch The Journal of Creative Behavior (in ‘67); the longest running and foremost academic journal dedicated to creativity in the world. He is responsible for assembling the most comprehensive library on creativity with over 2,400 volumes.

Throughout his career Sid has emphasized two key principles on deliberate creativity. First, creativity is the result of a balance between divergent and convergent thinking and second; everyone can be taught to apply creative behavior in their personal and professional lives.