Sharlene “Sheri” Kennedy
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Sheri is a visual artist, facilitator and graphic recorder. Drawing upon her experience in a broad range of Boston-area companies and her professional training in art, graphic design, education and graphic facilitation, Sheri captures ideas using words and pictures, visual organization and metaphor. She works with leaders, trainers, consultants and teams who want to step up their game and maximize engagement in critical meetings, trainings, brainstorming and strategy sessions.
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Sheri holds a B.F.A. in Graphic Design from the University of Connecticut and a Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a lifetime of painting and teaching. She is currently a candidate for the Graduate Certificate in Arts and Health at Lesley University.
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info@fusionarythinking.com
LI: Sheri Kennedy / Fusionary Thinking
Pinterest: SheriTheArtist
FB: Sheri Kennedy
http://www.fusionarythinking.com
Amy Swisher
Amy Swisher is an experienced facilitator, writer and communications professional, who has presented numerous creativity and communication workshops at conferences in the United States, United Kingdom, and South Africa; and has worked as a communications consultant with clients in health care, business, education, and the arts. She now lives in western Massachusetts where she is Vice President of Community Relations for a large mental health and human services agency; continues to play with a theatre improv group she founded in 2012; and participates in a weekly improv writing group. Amy earned her B.S. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and her Master’s in Education from Antioch/New England Graduate School.
Ismet Mamnoon
The Wizard of the Fireplace (Iz the Wiz!)
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Ismet is a change catalyst. She started her career as a financial consultant and evolved to become a serial entrepreneur. She was first drawn to the field of creativity and innovation when she became a parent. She speaks intimately about her journey on the TEDx stage.
Her acumen for translating creativity from theory into practice is evident in her diverse range of projects and clients. Ismet has worked with large organizations, entrepreneurs, governments, academics, not-for-profits, educators, parents, and children all over the world. Her clients range in age from 5 to “undisclosed” and include the Office of New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and the National Institute of Education Sciences for the People’s Republic of China.
Ismet frequently shares her expertise at conferences across the globe. She delivers workshops and immersive experiences at creativity conferences in the USA, Canada, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. She is a graduate of the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State where she received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence, the President’s Medal for Outstanding Graduate Student at Buffalo State, and the Firestien Family Creative Achievement award for her work in the field of creative thinking and facilitation. Currently Ismet serves as a trustee on the board of the Creative Education Foundation and as a Strategic Advisor to the Whitestone Foundation. She is a certified facilitator of FourSight, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Polarity Thinking, Appreciative Inquiry and Accelerated Learning
Mindy Joy Rose
Photographer
Mindy Joy Rose is a Photographer and Image Artist on Long Island.
Her multi-dimensional work is a wonderfully diverse kaleidoscope of Life 360, ranging from gritty reality to imaginative works of Fine Art. She also teaches several creative "Artography" workshops, including, "The Art of Seeing", "Fine Art Image Editing and Creative Fun" and is developing a new program, "Creative Photography Practice for Health and Healing". She is the founder and organizer of a "Creative Photography" community on Long Island, plus several online including the Photography Network of Metro NY.
Mindy has had a camera in her hand since childhood, documenting family living, her two precious sons, nature, and the wonders of the world she discovers through her lens. She has spent the last decade honing her technical and creative skills in an inspiring journey through the digital universe.
Mindy holds a BA Degree in Journalism, and a Certificate in Entrepreneurial Studies. Her first career began in NYC, in Publishing and
Promotion, as an Editor, Copywriter and Ad Designer. Her encore career now includes teaching and plans for an MFA in Creativity Studies on top of the to-do list.
She is a member of Professional Photographers of Greater NY and Visual Professionals of Long Island and an avid volunteer for decades, most recently with Omega NYC, Help-Portrait, local Community Centers.
An intensely curious soul, voracious non-fiction reader, and lifelong learner, Mindy has a multitude of interests including Creativity, Cultural Arts, Neuroscience, Community Service, Sociology, Personal Development, Museums, Travel, Painting, Arts in Education, Nature, Having Fun, Making Art, and Exploring Life...
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347-480-2488
mindyjoyrosephotography@gmail.com
Photography & Artworks Gallery/Facebook: http://ow.ly/vmyng
Portfolio: www.mindyjoyrosephotography.com
Beth Slazak
Beth holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Buffalo in History with a minor in Dance, a Social Studies Certification in Education from Buffalo State, a Masters of Science in Creative Studies from Buffalo State and is completing her Certified Humor Professional status with the Association for Applied Therapeutic Humor soon.
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Beth gets to play with most of the volunteers at CPSI where she is Head-Post-It deliverer and Manager of Operations, which keeps her involved with the Creative Education Foundation. She likes that a lot. They let her wear wings.
Beth teaches Creative Problem Solving at Genesse Community College and to freshmen at Buffalo State, so there are whole generations who owe their love of sharpies to her. She loves that she gets to open their minds.
Beth is often found making things up at The Arena with Buffalo ComedySportz players where she can be the queen of dust bunnies and no one questions her about it.
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716-949-6700
Lynette McCormack
Part scientist part artist, Lynette designs tools and facilitates interactive experiences (aka presentations, workshops and training) that engage the mind, immerse the heart and connect the spirit of each participant. Her work spans coaching personal creativity one-on-one to facilitating super huge rooms of corporate folks, all with the amazing end result of her clients creating what they love. Lynette is co-Founder of Ah Ha! and IdeaConnect, graphic facilitators of organizational learning, innovation, knowledge transfer and all around fun and productive get togethers. She mentors and coaches others in the arts of Facilitation and Facilitative Leadership and is also a charter facilitator for the Institute of Conscious Expression, Certified Creation Coach, CPSI presenter and brand spanking new Creatively Fit Coach. She enjoys a great story, laughing loudly, painting BIG, creating mandalas, installing labyrinths and traveling the world to meet other evolutionary creative souls.
Anthony Hyatt
Anthony Hyatt is a violinist and multimedia performance artist from the Washington DC area whose interest is in the use of the arts and improvisation techniques in the creative process. He is a teaching-artist working with many health and human service organizations. His longest affiliation is with the nonprofit Arts For The Aging organization under whose auspices he leads creative engagement programs at adult care facilities and for whom he co-directs the Quicksilver senior citizen improvisational dance company. He is a master trainer of the USA based National Center for Creative Aging, an artist-in-residence for the Medstar Georgetown University Hospital’s pediatric and cancer care programs and a teacher for the international Dance for Parkinson’s program. Anthony is honored to be a colleague of the Creative Education Foundation and a leader/facilitator for other affiliated international organizations like CREA in Europe and Mindcamp in Canada. He does additional creativity consulting and facilitation work through his own organization which is called Moving Beauty.
Rich DiGirolamo
Rich invented inline Skates. He also invented the backpack cooler. He just never acted on the idea and someone else made gazillions of dollars. After those two catastrophes he chose never to let an idea slip away again.
In 2004 he created/founded Recess At Work Day; a fun employee morale and engagement initiative; which has received global attention, including CBS Sunday Morning. In 2009 Rich founded the nonprofit organization DoubleDDiner.org, Inc.; Operators of The World’s Only Virtual Diner Fighting Hunger. DoubleDDiner.org has been recognized by many experts for its creative, fun and innovative approach to fight hunger in the United States.
Rich works with organizations to create happier work environments, design new programs and products, and create better relationships with customers and peers. He is the author of 4 books; his latest Chief Cook and Bottle Washer. Rich speaks internationally. His clients range from Fortune 10 to the smallest of nonprofits. You can reach him at rich@richdigirolamo.com / 203.470.3388 / www.richdigirolamo.com
Wayne Fisher
President and Founder, Rockdale Innovation
Wayne Fisher, PhD, founded Rockdale Innovation after retiring from P&G in 2012. While at P&G, Wayne created a series of popular innovation workshops for all phases of new product development. He has trained thousands of managers, providing a common language and framework for innovation, fostering collaboration across P&G’s diverse business units and regions. Prior to retiring, he served as a full-time creativity consultant and innovation facilitator at The GYM, an IDEO-inspired design studio in West Chester and a key enabler of P&G’s innovation capability.
Wayne is also active in the Product Development and Management Association, where he serves on the Outstanding Corporate Innovator selection committee. He is Past President of the Tri-State Chapter.
Wayne received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, and has been granted 18 US patents.
Contact: wayne@rockdale-innovation.com; (513) 708-2492
Eileen Doyle
President of Deeper Dives
Eileen provides highly interactive project facilitation, innovation “Playshops” and thought provoking keynotes. she has lead diverse projects such as ideation sessions, team building, market research, TV casting, naming studies and creative problem solving training. She applies techniques that access right-brain and left-brain processing and creates an atmosphere where participants use all learning styles: visual, auditory and kinesthetic. These tools include creative problem solving, projective techniques, archetypes, metaphors, thinking preferences and laughter. She partners with clients to clarify goals and guide their progress to actionable results.
Eileen is a leader in the field of creativity, presenting engaging workshops at conferences in the U.S., Canada, England, Costa Rica, Italy, Portugal, Dubai, Namibia and South Africa. She is a Colleague with the Creative Education Foundation and is co-host of the Next Idea Creativity Retreat.
She is certified in many thinking preference tools including: the NBI™ (Neethling Brain Instrument), MBTI® (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) and Foursight™. Other certifications include coaching, Pearson-Marr Archetype Indicator™, Innovation Games®, Life Coach and Get Clients Now! ™ - the simple 28 day marketing program. Her favorite credentials are Certified Laughter Leader and International Cat-sitter. She is also the Time Magazine 2006 “Person of the Year” as are you!
eileendoyle@gmail.com / 781-652-0452
Nick Lynch
Nick, from Fairfield, CT, will be in the thralls of the Fall semester of his Senior Year of High School during Next Idea. He has attended the Creative Problem Solving Institute six times. Throughout that tenure, he has done, among other fantastic things, lots of improv performances. Last March he co-facilitated two workshops on improv at the annual Florida Creativity Weekend. This August he also co-facilitated an improv night flight at Mindcamp.
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In his free time, Nick loves sailing on Long Island Sound and he fences on his high school fencing team. He’s basically a pirate.
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He is currently applying to architecture colleges all around the Northeast (remember, Fall semester of senior year). Wish him luck!
Delaney La Rosa
Delaney La Rosa is an educator, researcher and learning theory enthusiast. She holds a master’s degree in nursing and education, and is a nationally recognized speaker in the areas of simulation, debriefing and applied research. She currently works for Mayo Clinic in their Simulation Center and is an adjunct professor in healthcare sciences for a university in the Midwest. In her spare time she practices aerial acrobatics and enjoys hand-crafting textiles. She currently lives in Jacksonville Florida with the two best parts of her life- her husband Larry and her Wheaton Terrier, Indie.
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203-910-4769
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Kathy Johnson
Although Kathy has her bachelor‘s degree in business, and her Master’s degree in Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology, her best teachers were her students. While working with several students on their reading struggles, she found an excellent program that brought their decoding abilities to grade level in a matter of months. Yet, some could not read the text in grade level books, so she began her exploration into the trainings and therapies that brought students success. Many increased their IQ and no longer required extra services. Her Brain Advancement Coach Training program has graduated over 60 coaches, with an average age of 49 and an average long term memory improvement of over 12 percentile points.
In 2000, Kathy started The Hunter School of Ballston Spa for struggling students, in which she and her assistant taught third through eighth graders required academics while remediating their struggles through therapy during the school hours. In 2002, she started an educational consulting business to screen and remediate students individually. Since then she has also given lectures and workshops to individuals and schools, been a guest on internet talk radio shows, and wrote the Pyramid of Potential DVD/Workbook Series for families, Growing Brains Everyday Curriculum for Teachers, and other books and DVDs. In 2010, her book, The Roadmap From Learning Disabilities to Success was published. She continues to give professional development workshops and trains brain trainers around the world. Today, she and her husband live in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Andre de Zanger
Director of the Creativity Institute which is dedicated to stimulating and actualizing creativity. Andre is an Industrial Engineer, Inventor, International Consultant, Author, Entrepreneur and Seminar Leader. He has facilitated “Creative-Innovation” projects at AT&T, Bell Labs, United Technologies, Halliburton, Otis Elevator, Carrier Air Conditioning, Western Electric, BOC Gases, Ogilvy and Mather, Department of Defense (DOD) and the Federal Reserve Bank. Andre has taught at a number of colleges and universities. He is the author of “Creative Genius”, “Paradigm-Shifts”, “Zingers”, “Instant Selling” and has co-authored the creativity chapter in “The Advertising Managers Handbook” (1997) and “The Tao of Living on Purpose” (1998) and the “TRIZ - The Theory and Practice of Inventing” (2001). Andre is the inventor of the “Flasher” (an anti-theft auto device), and the co-creator of the “Creativity Machine”, a creativity computer software program. He and Judith de Zanger are the founders and past directors of the NEXT IDEA Creativity Conference.
The Creativity Institute - 1664 3rd Ave. N.Y. N.Y. 10128 (212) 289-8856 e-mail: creativityinstitute@juno.com
Arji Cakouros
Arjhiroula "Arji" Cakouros (Oceananda) is a sound healer, musician, Reiki master and Dreamwork teacher with a private practice based in Niskayuna, NY. Her personal commitment to supporting others in achieving radiant health is rooted in her ancestral Hellenic Asclepian and Pythagorean healing traditions. She has been blissfully assisting/collaborating with Sw. Laraaji NadaBrahmananda over the last seven years offering Healing Sound events, Celestial Music performances, and Laughter Immersion experiences throughout many venues worldwide. She can be reached at platonia@aol.com, or, "ENERGY & SOUND" (518)374-2258
Steve Shama
Steve Shama is a retired physician and is also a professional speaker. For the past 20 years, he has been giving keynotes and facilitating workshops internationally and nationwide on rediscovering the joys of life. While his primary audiences have been in the medical profession, his talks have universal application, and are filled with humor, spirited feelings and creative moments. They are guaranteed to leave participants in a wonder-filled place.
Laraaji
Sw. Laraaji Nadananda, initiated into sunyas in 1985 with a special ceremony By Shri Brahmananda Saraswati in the USA. He is a devotee of Nada Yoga, union with the Everpresent source through the liberating power of Nadam, cosmic sound current. He is extensively experienced in matters of Hilarity and light heartedness. Has been a stand up night club comedian and writer, film actor, Jazz Musician, composer and now performs and records exquisite soundtracks of original new music for wellness, inspiration, relaxation, meditative atmosphere and celebration featuring the unique sound of Electric open tuned zither/harps, African thumb pianos (Kalimba), free style vocal, keyboards and Portable percussion. He has developed his own style of Laughter workshops which emphasizes the therapeutic use of your laughter for interior stimulation and self love. His love for dance and creative movement aligned with yogic vision is shared along with a mastery of impromptu musical expression. You can experience him on the Web by seeing his latest video on http://vimeo.com/75415290 and searching "Laraaji" at www.Google.com and www.YouTube.com (to hear his music) or contact at him at 212-281-0053 laraaji@yahoo.com
Christine Kidder
Christine Kidder is the founder and CEO (chief enlightenment officer) of Your Creative Purpose, whose mission is to help people discover their life purpose and fully express it in the world.
IASHA (International Association of Scientific Hand Analysis) certified hand analyst, Certified Creatively Fit Coach, Expressive Arts Certification from NY Expressive Arts, BFA in photography from Pratt Institute.
Christine uses hand analysis and expressive art to help you create what you want in your life, based on the “Master Path” of your unique design, as revealed in your hands.
Christine@YourCreativePurpose.com
518-421-2091
2017 & 2016 Presenters
(constantly being updated; orange highlighted confirmed 2017)
Misha Eli
Misha Eli has worked in varying fields of Arts, Communications, and Theology for over 30 years. He has served as a coordinator on projects ranging from Harvey Milk Festival, Imagine Festival, Gratifly, TEDx, B.E. Easy Music and Arts Festival, Florida Creativity Conference, and Kinnection Campout. Misha has held positions with Volunteer Community Connections, TELEMIAMI, and a number of other Local and International organizations.
In 2009, Misha graduated from East-West College of Natural Medicine, and as a Physician, formed Spiral Enterprises, an Artist Resourcing group, specializing in Self-Expression, Kinetic Artistry, and Community Engagement. Since then he has been actively involved in a wide variety of collaborations of Education and Entertainment, particularly through the Association of Florida Teaching Artists (AFTA). Misha has a passion for Creativity and bringing STEM Education through Arts. In his semblance of "spare time," Misha is also a Director of Zen Awakening Festival, EARTHDANCE, Lovelight Yoga & Arts Festival, Moonshine Music and Arts Festival, and the Tipper N' Friendz Events
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Sharon & Joop de Korte
Sharon is an independent innovation consultant, coach, facilitator and trainer with a MS from Buffalo State College in Creative Studies and Change Leadership. She has published articles on the link between creativity and curiosity.
In contrast, Joop is completely self-taught. He comes from a small town in Holland and has traveled the world extensively in various professional capacities.