BRIAN KURTH
A man with a boyish grin, contagious enthusiasm and a quirky sense of humor, Brian Kurth is the founder of Brian Kurth + Company and VocationVacations, the leaders in career mentorship, transition and reinvention (MTR).
As a sought-after speaker, Brian is known for his wit, wisdom and common sense. He can open minds to new career and lifestyle possibilities and how to turn those possibilities into realities. He has spoken to a diverse range of companies and groups including AARP, Ameriprise, Disney, Intel, Microsoft, and colleges, universities and alumni associations.
Get Brian talking (no problem there!), and he will explain how to explore and discover a new career by working through a proven eight-step process centered on mentorship and the importance of hands-on experience in one’s personal and professional transition and reinvention. Bringing the lessons and experience learned from a decade-long successful career in the corporate word, his entrepreneurial endeavors since 2004 and his own self reinvention, it’s no wonder Brian is considered the guru of career mentorship, transition and reinvention and is the media’s “go-to” guy for guidance and advice on how to find and work with a mentor and use the lessons learned to make informed career and lifestyle decisions.
As the author of the how-to book, Test-Drive Your Dream Job – A Step-By-Step Guide To Finding and Creating The Work You Love (Hachette, 2008), Brian is a recognized expert in the field of MTR and has made guest appearances on CNBC, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, NBC’s TODAY Show and National Public Radio (NPR), and his career advice has been featured in articles in Black Enterprise Magazine; Fast Company; Fortune Magazine; Men’s Journal; The New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine and The Wall Street Journal, just to name a few. In 2006, he co-executive produced This Job’s A Trip for the Travel Channel. Brian holds degrees in political science, history and international relations from the University of Wisconsin and a masters degree in political science from Loyola University.
Get to know Brian via his blog and on Twitter.
To book Brian for a speaking engagement, please contact:
George Greenfield
Creative Well
973.783.7575
george@creativewell.com
For press inquiries, please contact:
Dianne Haines
503-939-0121
dianne@vocationvacations.com
CAREER MTR
MENTORSHIP TRANSITION REINVENTION
THE TEAM OF CAREER CONSULTANTS
Susan Chritton
Susan Chritton, M.Ed., CMF, and a National Certified Career Counselor, works with professionals in career angst or career transition. As a career strategist Susan utilizes Reach Person Branding strategies and her skills as a master career counselor and coach to bring direction, creativity and renewed enthusiasm to professionals. Susan takes a client through the process of looking within to discover not just what they can do but who they are.
Susan has managed two career centers for Sun Microsystems and is an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco where she teaches career counseling in the Graduate Counseling Psychology Department. Susan holds a masters of education degree in career education from St. Mary's College, a post-masters certificate in career development from John F. Kennedy University, and is a certified professional coach of the Hudson Institute.
Susan has been involved in community affairs for the past 20 years and currently serves on the advisory board for Wardrobe for Opportunity and is on the board for the Make it Real Foundation. She provides leadership development for the several non-profits in Northern California. Susan resides in Lafayette, California.
Sharon Good, CC
Based in New York City, Sharon Good, CC, brings a rich variety of personal and professional experience to her twelve-year career as a coach helping individuals from all walks of life create fulfilling lives and unique career paths.
After a 25-year performing career, Sharon co-founded Excalibur Publishing, where she published, wrote and edited books for 16 years. Her book, Managing With A Heart: 222 Ways to Make Your Employees Feel Appreciated, was published by Sourcebooks and has been translated into several languages. She has gone on to self-publish several books and audios through Good Life Press, including The Tortoise Workbook: Strategies for Getting Ahead at Your Own Pace and the forthcoming Creative Marketing Tools for Coaches.
Sharon trains coaches for the Life Purpose Institute and teaches in the coaching program at New York University. She has taught and presented for the 92nd Street Y, Columbia University Alumni, Bronxville Adult School, the Career Change Network, the Learning Annex, the International Coach Federation/NYC Chapter, and many others. She is a graduate of Hofstra University, holds a certificate in Adult Career Planning and Development from New York University, and received her coaching certification from the Life Purpose Institute.
Jan Jacobson
Jan Jacobs is a career and professional development coach with more than twenty years of experience helping clients make significant, lasting changes that benefit their careers and businesses, their relationships and their lives. Her focus is to help her clients clarify their vision, develop their strengths and create compelling careers.
Jan attended Brandeis University and the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology where she received her doctorate in clinical psychology. She developed a private psychotherapy practice and served on the adjunct faculty of the Masters in Counseling program at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, where she taught, supervised and mentored counseling students.
Jan had a great life and never imagined she would want to do anything else. Then, she had the opportunity to volunteer in a rural area in Vietnam. Her experience led her to reexamine her priorities and goals and imagine an even more fulfilling life. She made some changes that gave her the flexibility to pursue that life. One of those changes involved a new career path, and in 2002 she became certified as a coach.
Jan brings to coaching her experience and skills in psychology and education. She also works with organizations as a facilitator and trainer. She works with clients across the U.S. and in Canada. Her home base is Ashland, Oregon, where she is on the adjunct faculty of the School of Business at Southern Oregon University.
Fay Krapf
Fay Krapf’s career in coaching, training and business has spanned more than 30 years, with the last 15 years focused on career management, career transitions and professional development coaching. She has worked with a wide range of professionals, managers and executives in high tech, biotech, manufacturing, health care, public sector, education, government and service industries – from Fortune 500 companies to startups.
Fay began her corporate career when she completed her masters in organizational behavior and became the Director of Organization Development for a Northeast utility and then a corporate internal consultant with a Fortune 500 manufacturing company. Moving to North Carolina, Fay recognized her desire to make a difference more directly in peoples’ work lives. She served as a senior consultant for an outplacement firm and as a full-time adjunct faculty member for five years at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina.
In addition to her masters degree in organization behavior, she is a graduate of CoachU and a Certified Career Fellow Practitioner through the Institute of Career Certification International. Fay is a member of the Association of Career Professionals International (ACPI) and former local chapter board member; The NTL Institute; Association of Training and Development, RTP chapter (ASTD); Triangle Organization Development Network (TODN) and former board member; Research Triangle Chapter of Association for Psychological Type and current board member – MBTI qualified; Triangle Area Chapter of ICF and former local board member; and the North Carolina Career Development Association (NCCDA). Fay lives and works in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Leslie Prager
Leslie B. Prager, M.A., C.M.P. (Certified Career Management Practitioner) has been a career counselor and executive coach since 1991, providing a broad range of career counseling, coaching and outplacement services. She has more than fifteen years of prior experience in the corporate world, which includes more than ten years in human resource management and development in the retail, banking and insurance industries. Her corporate career culminated in her becoming the human resources director and vice president at a New York City insurance company.
During her corporate tenure, she learned to understand and appreciate the challenges, difficulties and hardships faced by employees during times of job loss, job change and career change. Her corporate and counseling background, commencing with her receipt of a masters degree in art therapy and her more than a decade, as the coordinator of The Career Center at New School University, places her in the unique position of understanding the demands and needs of individuals and how to develop the necessary programs to achieve their goals.
Leslie received her masters degree in art therapy from the University of Louisville, a Bachelor of Arts degree in, psychology from Binghamton University (Harpur College) and additional training in career assessment and career counseling techniques. She has been published in the Wall Street Journal’s National Business Employment Weekly, on the subject of job loss and job search and online on the subject of strategies for successful career change. Leslie is a frequent speaker and writer on career management issues, has been seen on television shows and quoted in magazines, newspapers and online. She is involved in numerous professional associations, is a past president of the New York Association of Career Management Professionals (IACMP-NY) and was a charter member of the International Association of Outplacement Professionals (now ACP-International). Leslie makes here home in New York City.
Dawn Quesnel
Dawn Quesnel, CPCC, PCC, is an ICF certified career coach known for helping her clients bridge the gap in their job search, career change or new business start-up. Coach DQ, as she is sometimes called, specializes in interview preparation, job search strategies and career transitions.
Prior to becoming a professional career coach, she was an executive recruiter at two of Boston's premier agencies before a hostile take-over closed one door and opened another, and she started her own recruitment firm. It was then she realized she was doing more than just placing sales, marketing and creative advertising professionals. She was coaching them on how to achieve their career objectives, which in turn had a major impact in their personal lives as well. This realization led her to launch her coaching practice in 2002.
Dawn trained at the Career Coaches Institute (CCI), is a graduate of IPEC’s Accredited Energy Leadership Coach Program and is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach through The Coaches Training Institute. She is a member of the International Coach Federation and continuously trains and develops her skills as a PCC professional certified coach. She is also on the Board of Directors of the ICF New England Chapter a host and producer of the CLB Radio Network airing Friday’s at 9:05am EST on www.wnri.com, and is the part-time executive director of coaching and programming for The Wild Women Entrepreneurs. She has appeared on the ABC and FOX affiliates in Boston and WBZ. Dawn makes her home in suburban Boston.
Will Wiebe
Will Wiebe MA/HROD, CPC, works with individuals, groups, organizations and businesses seeking to create positive transformational change professionally and personally. After 25 years as an executive leader in the non-profit sector, Will made his career transition to professional career/life coaching in 2004. He is a successful speaker, facilitator and team effectiveness trainer and is the Lead Career/Life Coach with VocationVacations.
Will is a trained leader with the International School for Human Development – PRH (Personality and Human Relationships), an international educational school for self discovery of human behavior and adult development.
Will is a member of the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and graduated with a masters degree in human relations and organizational development from the University of San Francisco, and received his professional coaching certificate from the Centre for Coach Training, Portland, Oregon. Will lives and works in Portland.
Stefanie Zizzo
Stefanie Zizzo is a career coach, speaker and workshop facilitator with more than 15 years experience working with individuals and groups who are seeking to discover, rejuvenate and/or transition their careers. She is also the author of The Journey From Comfort to Possibility: A Workbook of Self Discovery and Personal Transformation, which takes readers through an action oriented process of self discovery, creating a vision for their career, uncovering what keeps them stuck in their comfort zone and designing a plan to achieve a career that "fits".
Prior to launching her coaching business, Stefanie served as Associate Director of Career Services at St. John's University in New York. In her 11-year career there she worked one-on-one with, and delivered hundreds of seminars to, students and alumni around career planning, management and transition.
Stefanie holds her Professional Certified Coach (PCC) designation through the International Coach Federation, is a graduate of Institute for Life Coach Training, holds a Masters degree in Counseling and a bachelors degree in Psychology. She resides in Apex, North Carolina, a place she considers her “best fit”.