What You Can Count On:

Deborah Welch, Ph.D. is a leadership coach and educator. She brings a wide array of tools and processes into her coaching work based on several decades of experience. She is also an award-winning faculty member at Capella University. Her experience teaching and guiding research at the doctorate level keeps her on the growing edge of great learning processes and practices. Her greatest joy is coaching for inspiring results in individuals, teams, communities and families. Deborah also co-created VSLLC® in 2008 along with Ann McGee-Cooper and Ginny Gilmore. This is a peer-coaching program of dedicated servant-leaders. Recently she co-wrote the book The Art of Coaching for Servant Leadership to capture coaching stories from our VSLLC® because there are so many stories of courage, best practices, and application of coaching principles from within our community. Deborah’s other most recent publications are “Strengths-Based Leadership Coaching” in Consulting Psychology Journal, and the book, Forgiveness at Work. Deborah is proud to have served as a leadership coach and in e-learning program development at TMCA for 8 years. She is happy to join with Ginny and Duane to co-facilitate this VSLLC® program. The dedicated people who join our Virtual Servant Leadership Learning Community®, as well as the local group Deborah co-facilitates, Phoenix SLLC®, regularly embolden her to take that next step on her own servant-leadership journey.

Virginia (Ginny) Gilmore served in executive leadership in her family manufacturing business for 17 years, until the business was sold in 1996. In 2002, she founded the Sophia Foundation in Fond du Lac, WI, with the vision of creating a more caring community. Since then, she has served as a community leader, coach, mentor, and spiritual guide in support of the integration of Servant Leadership in our lives and work. She intentionally lives the mission of Sophia Foundation as she encourages and inspires people to come together tocreate a more caring and thriving community, supporting the spirit, dignity and potential of every person. In 2009, Marian University gave Ginny a Doctor of Humane Letters Degree in honor of her work in Servant Leadership in community and the world. In addition, she has received recognitions within her community that name her deep passion for a caring and compassionate leadership in these times. Agreeing with Jean Houston, she believes that “these are the times; and we are the people.” Ginny appreciates being part of a teaching-learning community to serve and grow with others as servant-leaders in our individual lives, our families and our communities. She is dedicating much of her time now to writing, learning, and coaching with others who are navigating change in their work and in their lives. She is very honored and excited to serve on the VSLLC® facilitator team.

Duane Trammell, Founding Partner and President of Trammell McGee-Cooper and Associates, has been a writer, presenter, and thought-leader in the field of servant leadership since 1982. Duane’s first career was as a classroom teacher in a low-socioeconomic school, and he was awarded “Dallas Teacher of the Year” and named “One of Three Outstanding Teachers in Texas.” It was at this time that he met Dr. Ann McGee-Cooper and they created a company and became business partners for 33 years. Duane has taken a special interest in writing, researching, and developing materials in servant leadership. He has co-authored Being the Change: Profiles from Our Servant Leadership Learning Community, The Art of Coaching for Servant Leadership, Time Management for Unmanageable People, and You Don’t Have To Go Home from Work Exhausted! along with many articles. In addition to writing, Duane facilitates leadership development sessions and major project alignments. He recently received the Industry Excellence Award for Leadership Development on the building of the $1.3 billion New Parkland Hospital for Dallas County. Duane co-facilitated the Business VSLLC® group in 2010 and is excited to be a part of the VSLLC® instructional team again.

Matthew Kosec, M.A. is the Principal Consultant at Matthew Kosec Consulting LLC where he serves Clients with a servant leadership based approach.  Throughout his twenty years of organizational experience, most of it spent in a leadership role, Matt has been a student of servant leadership.  His varied responsibilities have helped him develop a wide variety of competencies, ranging from project management, process improvement, complete remodeling of learning systems, and leading large-scale organizational change.  Matt loves to share his professional and personal journey, from law enforcement to restaurant hospitality, to audiences of any size.  He has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences, including three invitations to present on the integration of servant leadership in organizations at the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership International Conference.  Whether he is teacher, student, or somewhere in between, Matt can be relied upon to deliver insightfulness, academic credibility, and most importantly, humor, in any learning environment.  Matt believes in life-long learning and that the best leaders are always open to be challenged to grow.  He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from St. Edwards University, Austin, Texas and a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington.  During the completion of his Master’s Degree Matt obtained a Master’s Certificate in Servant Leadership from Gonzaga.