Dr. Ann McGee-Cooper has been called a visionary and a catalyst for the transformation of American business. The breadth of her experience is remarkable. She applies her understanding of the mind and its potential to countless companies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. Ann is an author, lecturer, business consultant, creativity expert, and an internationally recognized leader in the field of servant leadership. Her work in awakening personal and team genius through understanding whole-brained learning and Accelerated Learning through all the senses has made her work unique. Quantum Physics, Chaos Theory, Hemisphericity, Psychoneuroimmunnology, and Montessori serve as a back drop as she and her Partners use fun to awaken the mind’s full potential to achieve bold dreams.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in design and architecture from the University of Texas and a master of fine arts degree from Southern Methodist University where she served on their faculty in the School of the Arts and Perkins School of Theology. Later, in conjunction with an interdisciplinary doctoral program at Columbia University, Teachers College on creative problem solving and the politics of change, she founded and directed the internationally recognized Experimental Arts Program at SMU. Ann served on the graduate faculty for three universities in the field of Gifted and Talented Education. She pioneered a program for Gifted and Talented Adult Education for the Dallas County Community College District and has done pace-setting research on awakening genius for four decades. Ann has been privileged to work with internationally recognized thought leaders such as Margaret Mead, Robert K. Greenleaf, Jean Houston, R. Buckminster Fuller, and sculptor, Alexander Calder.
While on the faculty at Purdue University, she participated in research with post-doctoral students in science and engineering to awaken their latent creativity and prepare them for the challenges of the future. She was a pioneer at a time when it was generally believed that creativity could not be taught. Ann proved that it could.
Her pace setting team has created long term INTERdependent partnerships with Clients. Two of TMCA’s longest-served Clients, TDIndustries (since 1976) and Southwest Airlines (since 1990), have been named by Fortune magazine as two of the top ten 100 Best Companies to Work for in America. The variety of TMCA’s Clients speaks for the universality of her messages; she has worked for global utilities such as TXU (now Luminant Power), engineering and construction industry leaders including Fluor and Balfour Beatty (formerly Centex Construction), information technology leaders such as Electronic Data Systems and Texas Instruments, health and hospital systems including Baylor and Parkland Health and Hospital System, and governmental agencies like the Federal Reserve Bank, the U.S. Naval Weapons Center, NASA, and even the CIA.
Her work has been featured in major publications such as the Chicago Tribune, USA Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Fast Company, Vogue, McCalls and International Management. Ann has appeared many times on radio and TV including an appearance on Good Morning America. She has authored four books: Building Brain Power, Being the Change: Profiles from Our Servant Leadership Learning Community, You Don’t Have To Go Home From Work Exhausted!, and Time Management for Unmanageable People, the latter two of which are available in bookstores as Bantam trade paperbacks and also in digital format. International versions are available in Dutch, German, Spanish and Portuguese.
Ann coaches leaders and teams to significantly expand their potential, prepare them for change, and condition them for innovative breakthroughs. She is a strong advocate for servant leadership, having been mentored by its pioneer, Robert K. Greenleaf. Her understanding of the human soul and spirit as well as the mind’s dynamic and unlimited potential is an extremely valuable resource for personal growth and corporate competitiveness.
Deeply committed to applied research, in 2000, her team created the first Servant Leadership Learning Community® (SLLC®) which integrated the field of servant leadership with growing learning communities. As a member of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) this project became an informal fractal linking SoL and the Greenleaf Center. In 2008, the Virtual SLLC® began with 13 global members from the Netherlands, Canada, and the US. The VSLLC® added 23 members in 2009-2010, including one COO participating from a chip manufacturing plant in South Korea.
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"Ann's influence on our organization was a critical element in our being recognized as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in America."