The George Washington University, Center for Excellence in Public Leadership (GWU-CEPL) was founded in May of 1997 as the Center for Excellence in Municipal Management. The Center was housed in the Department of Public Administration within the School of Business. In response to the District of Columbia's significant transition to self-governance from receivership, the School's then-Dean, David Fowler, worked in collaboration with the City Administrator and partners such as the Fannie Mae Foundation, the Cafritz Foundation and the World Bank to develop a program to train and develop middle managers in the DC government. The resulting program, the Program for Excellence in Municipal Management (PEMM) was the first non-state accredited Certified Public Manager Program in the nation. In 2005, the Center changed its name to the Center for Excellence in Public Leadership, reflecting its expanding work with the federal, local and municipal governments.
Given its experience administering the DC Government PEMM, COG partnered with the GWU-CEPL in 2000. With its assistance in shaping the COG's Regional Executive Development Program, the first mutual agreement was signed in 2001.
Jim Robinson is the Executive Director of The George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership. He is a senior executive and change leader with more than 25 years of experience in leading large-scale organization change, strategic human resources development, and organization effectiveness, consulting with corporations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations.
Mr. Robinson's work has focused on the development of empowering leaders and the building of high commitment/high performance organizations that achieve outstanding results.
Mr. Robinson writes, lectures, and leads workshops in the field of personal self-empowerment and personal effectiveness. He has a Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University and a Master of Arts in counseling psychology from Rutgers University.
Dr. Natalie K. Houghtby-Haddon is the Associate Director of The George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership, and an Associate Professor in the GW College of Professional Studies. She teaches leadership theory, ethics, change management, and personal development for a number of the Center's leadership development programs. As part of her administrative duties she serves as Program Manager for the Center's Defense Information Services Agency Executive, Mid–Level, and Emerging Leaders Development Programs. Her other work for the Center includes new business development and proposal development, Center operations, curriculum development, teaching, faculty advising, and management of client relationships and contracts. She is also the Faculty Program Director for the Center's new Master of Professional Studies in Public Leadership with a Specialization in Multi-Sector Management.
Prior to her appointment with GWU-CEPL, Dr. Houghtby-Haddon was President of Immaculate Heart College Center in Los Angeles. She also served both as the Interim Executive Director and faculty member for the Institute for Community Leadership in Los Angeles, CA, a collaborative effort of the LA County Department of Health Services, the UCLA School of Public Health, the University of La Verne, and the Immaculate Heart College Center.
She received the Ph.D. in the Human Sciences from The George Washington University, and holds the Doctor of Ministry and Master of Divinity Degrees from the Claremont School of Theology, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Boston University. She is also an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church, and served a number of local churches in the Los Angeles area prior to her appointment at Immaculate Heart. She is the author of Changed Imagination, Changed Obedience: Social Imagination and the Bent-Over Woman in the Gospel of Luke, published by Wipf and Stock Publishers.
Darrell Harvey is president of Integrated Leadership Solutions, LLC, a Washington, DC consulting firm that provides organizational consulting and education services to public, private, and non-profit organizations. He has approximately twenty years experience providing organizational development, education/training, and human resources research services to a wide array of organizations. This work has included leadership development, organizational assessment and change, team effectiveness, conflict management, design and validation of personnel selection and performance management processes, and the development and delivery of training programs.
A partial list of Mr. Harvey's clients includes NCR, IBM, KEI Pearson, EDS, the Defense Information Systems Agency, the USDA Graduate School, the Defense Logistics Agency, WMATA, Management Support Technologies, Inc., the Department of Energy, as well as the District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General, Office of the City Administrator, and Office of Contracts and Procurement. Recent consulting engagements have included coaching and feedback workshops for federal managers, partnership development and conflict management services for a private sector strategic partnership, a variety of leadership development and team effectiveness classes for public sector managers and executives, and the administration/analysis of a membership survey of a non-profit organization.
Mr. Harvey is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Excellence in Public Leadership at George Washington University where he is a faculty member in two ongoing Certificate in Public Management programs, develops and conducts leadership simulations for federal and municipal managers, and oversees action learning projects in which teams of managers conduct year-long policy analyses of pressing public policy issues. He has also been recognized by the Graduate School-USDA as a Distinguished Adjunct Faculty member for consistently receiving excellent evaluations from his students. In addition, he has also taught business statistics at the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore, MD.
Prior to starting his practice, Darrell spent over eight years providing internal consulting, training/development, and human resources research services at leading private sector firms such as Merrill Lynch (senior research manager) and The Prudential (senior organizational consultant). He holds a Masters of Science degree in Organizational Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology with Highest Honors from Hampton Institute. He received the PhD from Pennsylvania State University, where he focused on leadership, conflict, and performance in organizational teams.
Education
Dr. Harvey received his PhD in Organizational Psychology and a Master's degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and a Bachelor's degree in psychology from Hampton University.
Ina Gjikondi is the Administrator of the Public Manager Programs and Global Initiatives at the George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership.
In this capacity she runs the day to day operations for the Program for Excellence in Municipal Management and the Regional Executive Development Program, which are the Center's two signature Certified Public Manager Programs . In addition, she supports the individual learning for the program participants and facilitates alumni engagement. She is most recently working to enhance global partnerships by bringing the Center's expertise overseas in support to public leadership, through training and development.
Prior to that Ina worked with various international and local nonprofits. Her commitment to community change originated in her home country in Albania where she started her nonprofit engagement and advocacy at the age of 13. She founded the UN Association of Albania and was the Executive Director of the organization for five consecutive years. She was the President of the Citizen's Youth Commission in the Municipality of Tirana for four years, co-founded The Neighborhood Senior Center in Tirana, assisted in the design of the Albanian National Youth Strategy, lobbied the Albanian Youth MDG Resolution and the Law for Senior Citizens in the Albanian Parliament, co-founded the Y-PEER Center with UNFPA Country Office, monitored elections on behalf of OSCE and helped spread the Model UN Program in the rural Albania.
Her core functions within the various organizations have been focusing in brand and program development, building partnerships and empowering leaders as well as in issue advocacy and fundraising.
Ina holds a MPS in Political Management from the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management and a BA in Law from University of Tirana, Albania. She is currently working towards her second master's degree at GWU in Human Resourses Development. She serves in the Board of Directors of the UN Association of the National Capital Area and the Institute for Change and Leadership in Albania.
She is fluent in Albanian, English and Italian and has working knowledge of French. Her true belief is that the world can be a better place by appreciating differences, leading integrated change, developing global partnerships, building sustainable education and empowering women.
Jing Tian is the Program Assistant of the Public Manager Programs at The George Washington University Center for Excellence in Public Leadership. Her current work at the Center includes assisting the management of the Program for Excellence in Municipal Management and the Regional Executive Development Program. Prior to joining the Center, Jing was the Assistant to the Executive Director at the United Nations Association of the National Capital Area.
Jing holds a M.S. Ed in Intercultural Communication from The University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in Economics from Fudan University, Shanghai, China. She is currently working towards her Doctoral degree at The George Washington University, Graduate School of Education and Human Development in Human and Organizational Learning. She is fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese.