Leadership Series Facilitators

Leadership Series

Fall Leadership Series:
Choosing Wisely: Moving from habitual reaction to freedom of choice

Facilitators:

Katharine Baker, PhD, understands her vocation to be fostering human development—spiritual, psychological and intellectual.  As a teacher and mentor, she works to assist people in building on their current knowledge and skills to create new understandings and possibilities for action.  Katharine teaches in the disciplines of continuing and professional studies, religion and human development, theology, pastoral care, and spirituality.  Currently, she teaches at Bellarmine University in Louisville, and previously she served as the Assistant Director of the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching in Nashville, as well as taught in Vanderbilt’s Religious Studies Department and at the Vanderbilt Divinity School.  Katharine earned her Ph.D. in “Religion, Psychology & Culture” at Vanderbilt University in 2008, as she is fascinated by the ways people make meaning and motivation for themselves.  Mentoring always has been a valued aspect of Katharine's work.  In addition to mentoring university students and her faculty development experience, she has trained and served as a hospital chaplain at the University of North Carolina Hospital and as a pastoral counselor at Vanderbilt Cancer Center.  She specializes in presence-based coaching, narrative methods of development, spiritual direction, mentoring single people, and using the Enneagram for self-awareness. 

Prior to her academic career, Katharine worked as a professional in nonprofit and corporate settings, providing expertise in writing, corporate communications and both public and employee relations. She has worked for Glaxo SmithKline; the Tennessee office of Hill & Knowlton, Inc.; and the George Washington University Medical Center.

Katharine holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Duke University, a master’s degree in communication from the University of Florida, a master’s degree in English from the University of Virginia, and a master’s degree in theological studies from Duke Divinity School.  She resides in Louisville, Kentucky.

 

Tracy Puett, MA comes to the work of consulting, teaching and coaching after learning from and being inspired by such notable leaders and teachers as Ken Wilber, Sue Woehrlin, Bill Joiner, Diane Musho Hamilton, D.T. Suzuki, Peter Senge, Dōgen Zenji, and Dennis Genpo Merzel - just to name a few. He has been consulting, facilitating and coaching with organizations across multiple sectors for the last 15 years.

Born in 1966 to a jazz musician and an AT&T operator, Tracy spent the first part of his life in Nashville, TN where he became an emergency Paramedic at the age of 21 with the Nashville Fire Department. He went on to attain his BA from Prescott College in Environmental Studies and Human Development and an MA in Whole Systems Design from Antioch University Seattle where his final thesis explored the skills and traits of highly collaborative leaders. 

In addition to his medical experience, he has worked as an operations manager, leadership and organizational development consultant, and sustainability consultant. He has worked with start-ups, non-profits, and for-profit businesses as well as government and Fortune 500 organizations. Having worked in and with a wide variety of organizations, Tracy has a holistic, integrative perspective which influences his approach to individual, team and organizational development. He has worked with hundreds of leaders on their personal and professional development needs and sees leader development as a critical component for creating a just and sustainable world. 

He holds a certificate as an NLP Professional Coach and has coached quite a number of leaders and executives on leadership challenges relevant to them. He also holds a graduate certificate from the Institute for Sustainable Practices at David Lipscomb University. In recent years Tracy has presented at:

• •  The Organizational Development Network Conference;
• •  The American Society for Training and Development;
• •  Vanderbilt University School of Medicine;
• •  Vanderbilt University Cal Turner Program for Moral Leadership in the Professions;
• •  Lipscomb University;

The American Medical Group Association.