About the Authors
Jackie Stavros, DM. Jackie’s passion is working with others to discover their purpose in creating positive change. She is recognized for her creation of SOAR, a positive approach to strategic thinking, planning, conversations, and leading that focuses on strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results (www.soar-strategy.com). She has over thirty years of leadership, strategy, organization development, and change management experience. The heart of her work is using Appreciative Inquiry (AI), one of the most popular approaches to positive change, which brings out the best in people to impact productivity, engagement, and performance in their organizations and communities. Jackie has been integrating strengths-based approaches into her research, teaching, training, coaching, and consulting work to strengthen relationships and inspire innovation. She works with organizations in leadership development, team building, and strategic planning. She helps them identify and articulate their values, vision, mission, strategy, and initiatives to build collaborative teams and communities. She has worked across all sectors, including for-profit, nonprofit, government, and a wide spectrum of industries.
Jackie is a professor at Lawrence Technological University (LTU) College of Business and IT in Michigan. She is a member of the AI Council of Practitioners for the Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry and the Taos Institute. She serves as an AI Mentor for XCHANGE: Conversations for Exponential Outcomes. Before she joined LTU, her industry work included manufacturing, automotive, banking, technology, government, and professional services. Her first professional position was as a sales rep for Cutco Cutlery, whose leaders planted in her a seed of positivity.
Jackie has coauthored many books and articles, including Appreciative Inquiry Handbook: For Leaders of Change and The Thin Book of SOAR: Creating Strategy That Inspires Innovation and Engagement. Her work has been featured in Forbes, SmartBrief, Detroit’s Live in the D, and DBusiness Magazine. She has presented her research and work in over twenty-five countries. She is a keynote speaker on AI, SOAR, and positive approaches to leadership development and change. Jackie earned a DM (doctorate in management) from Case Western Reserve University, an MBA from Michigan State University, and a BA from Wayne State University. She lives in Brighton, Michigan, with her husband, Paul, and loveable dog, Rex.
Cheri B. Torres, PhD. As lead catalyst at Collaborative by Design, Cheri partners with people to catalyze positive change in workplaces and communities. The two simple practices she introduces give leaders and teams the power to strengthen relationships, expand possibilities, and increase productivity and engagement through everyday conversation. These practices are grounded in neuroscience, positive psychology, and Appreciative Inquiry, one of the most widely used approaches for systems change. She’s worked with thousands of leaders and teams around the world to support high performance, engagement, culture transformation, and organization success. She also partners with communities and organizations for whole-system change and strategic planning, bringing all stakeholders together for planning, design, and collaborative action. She has worked across all sectors: corporate, government, education, and social profit/NGOs, online and in person, supporting their capacity for learning and innovation, shared leadership, teamwork, and collective impact. She has trained thousands of trainers and teachers around the world in the use and practice of Experiential Learning, Appreciative Inquiry, and other strengths-based processes.
A perpetual learner, she’s accumulated a PhD in educational psychology with a specialization in collaborative learning, an MBA, a master’s in transpersonal psychology, Level 2 certification in the Barrett Values Culture Transformation Tools, and Level II certification in Spiral Dynamics Integral. She has authored numerous books and articles, including The Appreciative Facilitator: Accelerated Learning Practice, From Conflict to Collaboration, and Dynamic Relationships: Unleashing the Power of Appreciative Inquiry in Daily Living. She’s been featured in leading media sources including Fast Company, Forbes, HR Magazine, SmartBrief, Training Industry, and Training Magazine. Her keynote presentations reach a broad range of people, including HR directors, organization development practitioners, women leaders, youth prevention specialists, educators, and individual social profit organizations and corporations. She codesigned and patented Mobile Team Challenge, an award-winning portable low-ropes course. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina, with her husband, Michael; their dog, Annabel; and Ziggy-cat.