ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Zina Sutch was born and grew up in New England, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in business and economics from Clark University, in Massachusetts. She enjoyed spending her leisure hours in Boston and New York until she moved to the Washington, DC, area to pursue her master’s degree in special education from George Washington University. While working in the field of education, she earned her PhD from the University of Maryland studying behavioral disorders. She believes this is why she can pretty much get along with everybody, especially Patrick. She taught in public and private schools and served as the director of a private school for students with emotional and behavioral disorders before joining the federal government and leading development and diversity programs in the Senior Executive Service. Currently, while continuing in the Senior Executive Service, she is a faculty member in the Key Executive Leadership Program in the School of Public Affairs at American University teaching courses on leadership, team building, and succession planning.

Patrick Malone was born and grew up in Texas. He enjoyed his leisure hours in Austin while earning his bachelor’s degree at Texas State University studying health care administration. After graduating and working as a surgical technician, he moved to San Antonio to complete his master’s degree at Trinity University, followed by work in the private sector health care industry. He then joined the Navy and served as a hospital administrator in the Medical Service Corps, also earning his PhD in public administration and American government from the School of Public Affairs at American University. After a twenty-three-year naval career, he joined the faculty at American University as an executive in residence and now serves as the director of the Key Executive Leadership Programs.

And there’s the connection! Zina and Patrick met while at American University, where they not only found that they had a lot in common with respect to their histories but also discovered that they shared similar values, even though they had grown up in two very different parts of the country. Both believed in the same principles when it came to leadership development, social science takeaways, and common human decency. As they spent more and more time together talking and getting to know each other, they realized that together they could do more than either could do on their own. They still believe that there is so much more to learn and share, and they plan to continue exploring new ideas and new ways to uncover the leader within each unique individual.

Zina and Patrick live on the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, on a forty-foot Bavaria Vision sailboat. Never having sailed, they accepted an invitation to sail with friends and decided that this was the life they wanted, on the water, learning something new about sailing, themselves, and each other almost every day. Without knowing how to sail, or what anything on the sailboat was called (which is really, really complicated), they made the leap, purchased the boat, and aptly named it Madness. There is more to the boat name, but those stories are for a different time!