At CatalystLead Consulting Group, LLC our mission is to provide the diversity and leadership services for success in the 21st century.
Our training curriculum has been researched and developed over the past six years. It continues to be refined and updated in light of current events and ever-changing business, educational and organizational needs.
A variety of programs have used this curriculum, resulting in powerful transformations on both individual and organizational levels.
Much of our diversity and leadership work is based on the Women's Intercultural Leadership model, which was created by our Partner, Bonnie Bazata, in collaboration with the Center for Women's InterCultural Leadership at Saint Mary's College. This model places women and diversity at the center of our work, offering much needed and often overlooked perspectives and insights to businesses and organizations.
Who We Are
Bonnie Bazata is the first executive director of the St. Joseph County Bridges Out of Poverty Initiative which began in November 2008. Prior to this, she was the Associate Director for the Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership at Saint Mary’s College where she helped start the Center in 2002 and developed signature programs to support culturally competent women’s leadership. Through one of those programs, WiLCO (Women in Leadership in Community Organizations), she coordinated the efforts to bring the Bridges Out of Poverty model to South Bend. Another program, the Catalyst Trip (now called the CatalystEncounter), is listed as one of 30 exemplary programs in the Association of American Colleges and Universities 2008 publication, More Reasons for Hope: Diversity Matters in Higher Education.
Bonnie’s master's degree is in bilingual/ multicultural education from the University of Arizona, her undergraduate degree is in political science and communications from Antioch College, and she has a certificate in elementary education from Prescott College. She has extensive experience in a wide range of community based organizations working with culturally and economically diverse communities, including eight years in Tucson, Arizona where she led innovative programs that served youth for success in school, employment and personal development. Bonnie has lived and studied overseas, including a year as a Watson Fellow in India and Europe studying Gandhian nonviolence.
Bonnie has been inspired by nonviolent social change leaders like Mohandas Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Ella Baker, Paulo Freire, and Myles Horton.Their principals of creating systems that integrate and value the contributions of each person, particularly those marginalized by unjust systems of social privilege, have guided her work. She believes that within those voices and experiences lies the solutions for solving many of today's most entrenched problems.
For her work she has been awarded the Citizen of the Year award in 2009 from the Northwest Indiana Region of the National Association of Social Workers, the St. Joseph County Jobs with Justice award in 2007, an Indiana Torchbearer award in 2006 from the Indiana Commission for Women, and in 2006 a community service award from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Foundation of St. Joseph County.
Dr. Erin Crawford Cressy
Erin has been focusing on diversity and women's issues for the past twelve years. She graduated with her Ph.D. from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with a degree in Social Psychology and Women's Studies. Her undergraduate degree is in Psychology from the University Dayton. Erin is an experienced facilitator, having been an adjunct instructor at a variety of learning institutions since 2001. She has taught classes such as Psychology of Women and Cognitive Psychology, and more recently Anthropology of Women, which focuses on race and gender in the United States and abroad. Erin has also lead a variety of workshops and presented at numerous academic and professional conferences. Recent scholarly articles co-authored by Erin include, "The Catalyst Trip: A Journey of Transformation" and, "The Catalyst Trip: Assessing an Anti-racism Intervention Program." An article about women's leadership is currently in press with the Journal of Women's Intercultural Leadership.
Erin's dissertation research focused on the ways in which young children become “gendered”, analyzing the power and impact of such cultural processes. This research also analyzed racial dynamics in the preschool classroom, yet this theme became more prominent in her teaching and research when she became an adjunct instructor and research consultant at Saint Mary’s College. Erin was a research consultant with the Center for Women's InterCultural Leadership from 2004-2008. During this time she engaged in program development, program assessment, and co-facilitated a variety of conference and workshop presentations. As an adjunct faculty she continues to teach and mentor students.
Prior to her work in academia, Erin was the Director of Independent Living Services and the Independent Living Program Coordinator at the Children's Campus, in Mishawaka, Indiana. She was responsible for ongoing development of the Independent Living and Transitional Living Programs. She also developed and taught individual and group classes; supervised several employees; fulfilled federal grant requirements; networked with community agencies; advocated for youth; served on agency committees and co-authoed a federal grant ($1,000,000) awarded to The Children’s Campus to begin the transitional living program for runaway and homeless youth. Her work with youth in this capacity laid the foundation for her future endeavors in social justice.
Rosemarie Harris
Rosemarie is a seasoned diversity facilitator and instructor. Her experience as an instructor and facilitator includes seventeen years of diversity work with educational institutions, social service organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the corporate sector. A former law enforcement official, during her career Rosemarie served as a police officer, moving up in rank to administrator at various departments and institutions including Indiana University, the University of Notre Dame, and Saint Mary’s College. As a law enforcement training instructor and coordinator for the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy, Rosemarie was one of the primary diversity instructors for law enforcement personnel.
As a regular presenter of workshops for the Center for Women's InterCultural Leadership, Saint Mary's College, she helped develop a unique curriculum which focused on women as leaders of social change. Additionally, she has facilitated diversity workshops for the Spiritual Leaders Program, also at Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana. Rosemarie also gives time and attention to conducting faith based empowerment workshops: http://cambioichange.com.
Rosemarie has received trainer certification from the National Multicultural Institute, Washington, DC. She is a national trainer for the A World of Difference Institute (a division of the Anti-Defamation League). Rosemarie holds a Masters Degree in Marketing and Communication from Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio and a Bachelors Degree from Indiana University at South Bend. She is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, Quantico, Virginia, and presently resides in St. Louis, Missouri.
Tessa Sutton
Tessa holds a BS and an MS degree in Elementary Education from Indiana University South Bend. Currently, she is an MA student in Intercultural Relations at the University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, in conjunction with the Intercultural Communication Institute, Portland, OR. She is an Intercultural Relations Intern at CatalystLead with a special interest in diversity and inclusion. Her particular focus is on how cultural inclusion can address the inequalities and cultural conflicts that occur in organizational systems. Prior to joining CatalystLead, she served as Assistant Principal for Elkhart Community Schools.
Since 1996, Tessa has
been an educator and actively involved in projects that facilitate professional
activities centered on disproportionality and perceptions of exclusion
experienced by students of color and parents.
Tessa
was instrumental in a pilot project for math, science, and technology at the
Academy at Elkhart Community Schools, located in Elkhart, IN. The Academy
project was established in 1998, targeting culturally diverse students in
grades four to six, who had less access to a curriculum for higher order
thinking skills. As a project leader, she was responsible for writing the
program plan of action and the job descriptions for teachers, organizing human
and material resources, securing funding, building cross-departmental
relationships, while working as a teacher coordinator.
Presently,
the Academy is fully funded, and has expanded to reach students in more grades,
serving approximately 150 students a year. Tessa was a presenter at the
National Conference on Educating Urban Children, in Indianapolis, IN, where the
Academy was recognized for its educational innovations.
Dr. Jennie Campos
Dr. Jennie Campos earned a doctorate degree in international development education from the Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. She also has an M.Ed. in educational foundations from the University of Hawaii, and a B.A. in elementary education from Arizona State University. While at UMass, Amherst, Jennie was honored to support and learn from Paulo Freire, author of the worldwide inspiring work on empowerment, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Jennie has worked as a participatory trainer in over 30 developing countries including in Latin America, Asia, Caribbean, Africa, and Eastern Europe. She devoted 10 years working for development organizations including the United States Agency for International Development, the US Peace Corps, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, United Nations, CARE, Save the Children, and Catholic Relief Services. The bulk of her work involved empowerment training for women and girls' education. While working with youth leaders in The Balkans, she used participatory learning and action tools and techniques to increase school-community partnerships in post-communist settings in Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, and Bulgaria. In this work Jennie also uses a qualitative, anthropological research approach to align donor/funding agencies with customer needs.
While working as a consultant for the Center for Women's InterCultural Leadership at St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana, Jennie utilized the tools of participatory learning and action to engage women in activities that fostered self-reflection and growth. In addition, her current work in private industry as a certified Six Sigma expert has sharpened her skills in strategic planning, business growth and development, and data-driven decision-making and planning.
Jennie has family roots in the American Southwest where she currently resides, retuning after her many years working in the international development field. To balance her work-life, Jennie recently volunteered her vacation time to work with Romani children in Tirana, Albania, using expressive art to motivate and inspire their interest in learning. She hikes, writes and dabbles with chalk pastels.
Shobhana Chakrabarti
Shabhana Chakrabarti was born in Chennai, India and migrated to Australia 20 years ago. She currenlty resides in Yokohama, Japan.
Shobhana completed postgraduate studies in Business Management from India and then attended Curtin University of Western Australia to complete her qualifications in Social Work. Before coming to Australia, she worked with multinational companies in India. For the last twenty-two years she has been involved with a wide range of community organizations and intercultural services around the globe.
She served as the Director of Ishar Multicultural Women's Health Centre based in Mirrabooka, Western Australia for 12 years. Ishar caters to the needs of nearly 16,000 women from over 80 different ethnic groups every year, providing services that are grounded in the 'Social Model' of health.
As the Director of the Women's Health Centre she developed more than 40 innovative community development/health projects and received many awards for the organization such as the Community Services Industry Award and the Multicultural Services Award for providing outstanding services, creating innovative projects, implementing them successfully and achieving outcomes that are sustainable over the long run.
Shobhana was the recipient of the West Australian Women's Fellowship for 2003, The Fellowship, awarded annually in honour of Edith Cowan, is presented to one outstanding woman in WA to work or study overseas or interstate to gain knowledge and skills designed to ultimately imporve the well being of women in WA.
Shobhana travelled to Europe, USA, and Africa to interview women leaders and then she presented the findings this Fellowship research in the form of a book entitled Sangam.
As well as her work and the amazing research project, Shobhana has served on several state, national and international advisory boards and committees. During 2004-2006, Shobhana served as an international advisory board member for the Center for Women's InterCultural Leadership in Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. In 2006, she led a team of 16 WA women to the United States to participate in an international conference entitled: Women as Intercultural Leaders: Collaboration at the Crossroads.
In 2008-2009, with the support of the Australian India Council, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Government of Austrailia, Shobhana developed a project called Sangam-IndOz. In partnership with NGO's in India and Australia, she facilitated five workshops on the Social Model of Health and Empowerment of Women in various parts of India.