My special guest today is Joyce A. Brown, Ph.D. Dr. Brown established ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS, a consulting firm specializing in enhancing the effective management, governance, and leadership capabilities of organizations through program development, evaluation, assessment, and training. Dr. Brown has worked as a counselor, President/CEO of the Southwestern Michigan Urban League, and Regional Director, Kellogg Youth Initiative Partnerships for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Dr. Brown has more than forty years of experience working in diverse community settings, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropy. She has a broad range of nonprofit management skills including team building, staff development, budget development and monitoring, assessing and preparing for future needs.

Joyce A. Brown is a motivational speaker and author who uses her creative energy to give voice and meaning to the challenges women face in all walks of life. She grew up in Rockford, Illinois in a household of strong women, but her professional career expanded her reach into Peoria and Battle Creek, Michigan. She is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and has served as a direct services worker, executive director, program director for a major foundation, and entrepreneur. Joyce has experienced many uplifting moments as a professional and as a dedicated parent and strives to bring those events and lessons to life through her characters in the contemporary fiction novels she pens.

Dr. Brown served as part of the project management team using an approach that democratizes research, planning, and decision-making. The process included more than 40 African American leaders’ participation in goal setting, information-gathering, analysis, and decision-making. She learned that community issues are extraordinarily complex and embedded in the dynamics of the social, economic, political, and environmental systems. She also learned within communities there are complexities of values, perceptions, and the relative power of the various stakeholder groups affected by these decisions, as well as uncertainties and urgency surrounding issues. They developed a theory of change to guide the work, a shared values statement and covenant agreements to guide the participants’ behavior during the development of the Community Renewing Agenda.

EDUCATION and CREDENTIALS:

Ph.D Research, Measurement, and Evaluation Educational Studies; Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI M.A. Counseling and Guidance Bradley University, Peoria, IL B.S. Psychology Bradley University, Peoria, IL

To purchase Dr. Brown's books you may reach out to her via email @ Joycebrown.ods@gmail.com or by searching on Amazon under her name - Joyce A. Brown. Garden Spice Magazine - a bi-monthly magazine that Dr. Brown writes for. The topic for this issue was "Building Community."https://www.gardenspicesmagazine.com/post/creating-and-sustaining-community

Thank you for joining us! In wellness, grace, and humility,Dr. Pamela RobinsonDr. Pamela Robinson’s Amazon Author Page: amazon.com/author/emerginghope