The Team
Dick Clark -
Richard “Dick” Clark is a human resource veteran with over 30 years of experience in a number of diverse industries. Throughout his career, Dick has had responsibility for all aspects of human resources, including: contract negotiations, policy development, employee relations, compensation, benefits, recruitment and selection, employee performance, training, organizational development, new plant start-ups, downsizing, union prevention, health and safety, high performance, and lean manufacturing.
Dick is a human resource generalist specializing in labor relations and adult education, with considerable experience working in tier one auto developing high performance workplaces. He has served as chief spokesman for over 40 contract labor negotiations, and personally implemented initiatives representing over $2,500,000 in cost reductions for a former employer over a seven year period. He has also developed and implemented all required human resource material for plant ISO 9002, QS 9000, and Q1 certifications.
As a skilled trainer, Dick has developed and implemented numerous training programs in the areas of management development, safety, labor relations, union prevention, high performance, and lean manufacturing. In addition, he has written and produced a number of handbooks, newsletters, policy and procedure manuals, self instruction training manuals, and a 20 minute documentary film concerning an organization’s history.
As a skilled negotiator, arbitrator and mediator, Dick negotiated, developed and implemented the foundations for high performance and self directed work teams, as well as lean manufacturing. He downsized a union manufacturing facility from over 1000 employees to 500 with no grievances or disruptions to work, and negotiated contracts and developed excellent working relationships with UAW, CAW, UPIU, USWA, PACE, URW, IBEW, IATSE and Teamster unions while working in the manufacturing industry.
Dick is an inventor, owning two United States patents, and is the president of Slotwood, a developer and manufacturer of creative building sets for children. He is also the founder and executive director of Aleg-up, Inc., a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization with the mission to connect high school students with business and industry.
Dick is a graduate of Indiana State University majoring in communications and secondary education. He has also served as an instructor for Purdue University.
Janice Stevens
Janice Stevens spent 30 years in the energy, defense/security and computer industries working in the areas of domestic and international marketing, organizational planning, program management, research, communications, and regulatory and legislative affairs. She spent the past five years in academia, initially teaching courses in mathematics, and then Chairing a Business Administration Department where she taught courses in Marketing, Management, International Business, Corporate Strategy, Communications and Advertising.
Janice has successfully launched new programs and businesses, formed public and private partnerships, applied grassroots development skills at the federal, state and local levels, and created and managed large teams for solving complex problems for private and public organizations. She developed policy papers and performed planning activities while on corporate staff at multiple organizations, successfully launched an Energy Consulting firm and an IT Management Consultant Recruiting company, contributed to federal legislation while working on Capitol Hill, and assisted a colleague in launching a non-profit foundation.
Janice has an MBA degree from the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania, two BS degrees from the University of Virginia in Nuclear Engineering and Applied Mathematics, and an MS degree from the University of Tennessee in Mechanical Engineering. She became familiar with Government Policies and Practices by participating in the federal government’s Senior Executive Service (SES) training program, and proficient in Human Resources Policies and Regulations by becoming National Technical Services Association certified while managing the Washington operations for Manpower Professional.
David Hite
David Hite is an accomplished Organizational Learning and Development Technologist who has helped organizations, such as Eastman Chemical Company, Tennessee Valley Authority, and University of Tennessee, enhance their operations through the use of human resource development strategies and web technology. His accomplishments in innovative business strategies and tactics have helped a broad range of organizations define and attain their goals. He has helped design, develop, implement and evaluate employee training programs for diverse types of employees, mentored small businesses when transitioning to online operations, and coordinated executive educational curriculums for TVA. David has also brought significant value to many organizations through his extensive education and experience in training and facilitation, eLearning technology, instructional design and development, culture and needs assessment, performance improvement interventions, talent management, and human resource benchmarking research.
David has taught courses over the past five years at several area colleges. These courses include Human Resource Management, International HR, eCommerce, Consumer Behavior, and online courses in Marketing, HR, and Management Information Systems. David was the recipient of the Business Journal's 40-Under-40 Leadership Award in 2007, as well as a keynote speaker for their 2008 awards. In recent years he has been researching, writing, and speaking on how to leverage new web technologies to improve small businesses. Due to his extensive travels and participation in study abroad programs in over 12 countries, including Greece, China, and most countries in Western Europe, David is able to incorporate diverse viewpoints into most of the projects he works on.
David has an associate degree in Computer Science, a BS degree in Workforce Education and Training (minor in Psychology), and a MS degree from the University of Tennessee in Human Resources, with concentrations in Organizational Development and Instructional eLearning technologies. His graduate work in Human Resources focused on how organizations become virtual through the use of web technologies to improve employee and business processes. He received a full-scholarship to help implement the first full online B.S. degree program in Human Resources in the country. David led a project team at Eastman Chemical Company to create an international learning portal to help improve and centralize training and development initiatives for over 10,000 employees. David also managed one of the best internally-developed Safety Culture Assessments by BST (world leader in safety).
Christy Cowan
Dr. Christy Cowan has been a researcher in the field of psychology for the past 15 years, and a college professor for the past 13 years. She currently serves as an Associate Professor of Psychology and the Department Chair for Social Sciences at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee. Christy has conducted research primarily in the areas of social and cognitive psychology, made presentations world-wide on a variety of topics in her field, and taught a wide-range of courses focused mainly on research, research methodology, and statistics.
The courses Christy has taught include Developmental Psychology and Cognitive Psychology, Survey of Learning and Memory, Survey of Developmental Psychology, Research Methods in Psychology, Survey of Learning and Memory, Physiological Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, Social Psychology, Special Topics in Psychology, and an Experimental Psychology Laboratory. She has also conducted training for the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research. Christy has also served as a textbook reviewer for Prentice Hall, Cengage Learning, and John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Christy completed her degrees at Walters State Community College (A.S. in General Studies), East Tennessee State University (B.S. in psychology with a minor in Business Management, and a M.A. in general psychology), and the University of South Carolina (Ph.D. in experimental psychology with an emphasis in cognition, and a minor in developmental psychology). She is a member of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and the Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA). Christy resides in Morristown, Tennessee.
