Program Calendar

Virtual coffee talk

In today’s companies, workplace culture and values are becoming more and more important to workers. It can account for why nowadays, lower-level positions are getting harder to fill. How people are treated when they come into your company sets the value and behaviors that the employee will take on throughout their career. Being aware of workplace bias can create a more tolerant company and attract a diverse talent pool.

Learning Objectives

1. Awareness of common workplace bias
2. How to discover workplace bias in your company
3. Ways to minimize workplace bias in your company .

This program is ideal for: HR managers, first-time supervisors, mid-level managers, nonprofits, and all people who want to learn more about how to identify workplace bias.

About Our Facilitator

Kim Yarborough has a master’s degree in Business Psychology. She works with men and women who want to learn to lead with confidence. She also works with new managers who are just starting out how to lead. She has over 26 years of experience in the public sector leading and managing employees.

Virtual Workshop 2-Part Series

Session #1:
Wednesday, July 27
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

Session #2:
Thursday, July 28
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

Introverts have amazing strengths, but they can often be overshadowed in a fast-paced society focused on energy and charisma. This session is for everyone- introverts, extroverts, and those wanting to learn more specifically about the world of introverts- close to half of the U.S. population. Whether you are more of a listener, a talker, or somewhere in between, learning about personality preferences can help us become more meaningful communicators.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand the world of introverts and be inspired through clarity, confirmation, and confidence
2. Learn how to own your introversion- discover the strengths and attributes of introverts
3. Discover how to most effectively connect and communicate as an introvert or with an introvert

About Our Facilitator

Eilis (A-lish) Wasserman is a virtual facilitator and coach focused on cultivating confidence and inspiring self-discovery. Eilis recently worked at the Ball State University Career Center, The University of Michigan, and The Muse as a Career Coach. You may have seen Eilis acting as a digital producer for one of Shafer’s recent virtual program offerings. She currently serves as Shafer Leadership Academy’s Virtual Program Manager where she coordinates virtual programming guiding facilitators to present their best selves.

Virtual coffee talk

How often do you say “yes” to a request while thinking, “but I don’t really want to do it”? Or maybe you take things on entirely by yourself because you feel bad asking for help? You’re not alone. We’re hardwired to want to please others and also not be seen as a burden. However, when we don’t honor our inner voice, it erodes away the integrity we have with ourselves.

Learning Objectives

1. How to honor your inner voice in these moments
2. Strategies to say “no” that fit your personality
3. Reframe your beliefs about asking for help

This program is ideal for: anyone

About Our Facilitator

Halle Simpson is a globally certified Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation, Keynote Speaker, Trainer and Author of the Know Thyself Journal. Her passion for speaking and coaching stems from growing up in a household with a parent battling depression and the grit gained from a 20 year career in sales and leadership development. In her work with executives and business owners across the country, Halle has come to specialize in creating intentional conversations to grow leaders and their businesses. In her down time, Halle enjoys daily journaling, yoga, massages, watching cooking shows and trips to Traverse City, Michigan. She resides in Indianapolis with her Boston Terrier, Marco (named after Marco Andretti) and is a race fan who attends the Indy 500 each year.

Read a book.
Lead with inspiration.

What are you reading this season? How are you preparing and reflecting upon leadership in 2022?

SLA in partnership with Muncie Public Library is offering a unique quarterly gathering, highlighting important take-aways from inspirational leadership books. At each event, facilitators will share key leadership development lessons from leadership-focused books. This is not a book club, rather a guided discussion around the key takeaways from each book.

Prior reading of the book is not required but we encourage participants to share about what they learned and check-out one of the books from Muncie Public Library. All participants attending will be entered in a raffle to win a digital copy of one of the books discussed.

All sessions are FREE and open to the public. Some events will be in-person and some will be virtual. Registration is required.

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Virtual Workshop 2-Part Series

Session #1:
Wednesday, August 24
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

Session #2:
Thursday, August 25
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

Optimism is a skill. Let’s be clear about that first. And as a skill, it’s anchored in seeing clearly and fully acknowledging what is true in this present moment. Where most leaders stop in their decision-making process is thinking too concretely, choosing what’s obvious and comfortable over what’s hidden and worthwhile.

In this workshop, we will explore grounded, action-oriented definition of optimism. You will have a chance to understand the mental, behavioral, and cultural barriers to optimism most people experience, then uncover practical, reasonable strategies for finding possibilities, especially when things feel most uncertain.

As a leader, you have a responsibility to help people see what’s possible, to inspire and equip them to overcome challenges. Without optimism, your task is infinitely hard and I’m convinced anyone can develop a strong, grounded, and action-oriented practice of optimism.

Learning Objectives

1. Clearly define optimism as action-oriented and a teachable skill
2. Identify your barriers for finding possibilities when things get hard
3. A safe space to practice learning optimism
4. Practical ways to build optimism into your decision-making going forward

About Our Facilitator

Adam Bouse is a Performance Coach at 15Five. With more than a dozen years of frontline management and leadership experience prior to entering the field of coaching, he is focused on helping individuals grow, teams thrive, and organizations maximize performance. He holds an M.A. in Organizational Leadership, is a certified emotional intelligence (EQ) coach, and has experience working with all organizational levels, from the frontlines through the C-suite. Adam’s coaching specialities include EQ, resonant leadership, difficult conversations, change management, manager development, goal setting, and empathy.

Virtual coffee talk

For those in Leadership or preparing for a Leadership role that involves hiring or working with young professional employees. You’ll be taught useful tools to support your young professional employees. Learn how to increase recruitment, engagement, and retention of your young professionals and how intergenerational communication can enhance company culture and productivity.

Learning Objectives

1. Learn about why young professionals are job hopping in the first place
2. What makes young professionals so different from other generations?
3. What young professionals really want to be happy at work
4. How to identify the holes in your young professional culture
5. Tangible takeaways to apply to your workplace today

This program is ideal for: Business leaders and managers who work with young professional employees.

About Our Facilitator

Kamber Parker

Why me? ​You’re probably wondering, “What makes her the young professional expert?” Well, because I’m living it. I’m a 26-year-old YoPro with the same challenges, successes, and fears as the 500+ YoPros I’ve interviewed.

I am empowered by building a better workplace for all young professionals, the future business leaders of our world. Businesses have an obligation to best prepare them too, which is why it is critical in this moment to bridge the gap between the two parties.

Like other YoPros out there, when I’m not working you can find me running on the Swamp Rabbit Trail in Greenville, South Carolina, at Soul Yoga, or spending time with friends and family.

Virtual Workshop 2-Part Series

Session #1:
Wednesday, September 21
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

Session #2:
Thursday, September 22
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

We are hearing each other. We are NOT listening to each other. Ineffective listening is a huge cost and may be one of the highest sources of risk you have. Establishing a clear, focused, and compassionate process to practice listening can inspire trust, build relationships, encourage followers, and produce sustainable results.

The workshop will have a mix of individual reflection, larger group sharing and pair and share opportunities. Follow-up “check-in” meeting(s) – group or individual – available as additional consulting engagement. Pre-work might be assigned depending on the group goals. This workshop can be customized to align closely to organizational/team business goals.

Learning Objectives

1. Become aware of how you listen and how you manage distractions
2. Practice practice tools for wholehearted listening
3. Learn how to build psychological safety in relationships/conversations
4. Build a conversational toolkit to connect, inspire and challenge with respect

About Our Facilitator

Sunitha Narayanan brings creativity, play, gentle humor, and focus with 25+ years of experience in leadership and executive coaching to elevate leadership impact by helping leaders and their teams harness strengths by raising awareness around blind spots, untapped talent, and cognitive diversity.
With deep and intuitive listening Sunitha helps clients uncover where they are in their growth process, to hear where they are out of balance as well as how a client’s vision, values and purpose drive their engagement and alignment to personal and organizational goals. The feedback from clients when clients work with Sunitha is that she offers a safe yet challenging space to experiment without censure; to use failure as creative inspiration; a space to build a culture that promotes psychological safety so that each voice is honored.

Sunitha brings a deep and extensive background in a variety of behavioral and leadership assessment tools to analyze data from stakeholders with exceptional ability and documented success in establishing trust and intimacy of coaching relationships. She is published in industry journals on leadership topics such as authenticity, performance management, team building, and productive conversations. Her personal belief is that exemplary and unstoppable work happens with and through people. And she is on a mission to hold wholehearted space so that clients can listen to their authentic voice first, then connect that to that of a colleague or a team.

In-Person Workshop

Learning Objectives

1. Allow leaders to step back and simplify their day to day priorities
2. Allow leaders to understand their function in specific meetings
3. Give leaders a series of tools to execute their roles more effectively.

This program is ideal for: President, Owner or CEO of a locally based company

About Our Facilitator

Matt Nettleton

From the living room to the board room Matt Nettleton has sold a wide variety of tangible products and high-end services. He understands salespeople and knows how to help them become the best they can be. He helps elevate the profession—and the professional salesperson’s view of himself.

Since 2003, Matt has coached more than 175 companies in a wide variety of industries. He has helped multiple companies grow from $1 million to more than $10 million in annual revenue and has helped clients close more than $2.3 billion in new sales. Coaching people using the “Sandler Selling System” seasoned by personal sales experience and the experience of his clients.

IN-Person Lunch & Learn

What’s the distinction between diversity and inclusion? It’s important to listen carefully to conversations about diversity and inclusion. Although they mean different things in practice, the terms “diversity” and “inclusion” are often used interchangeably. Many organizations have yet to adopt practices that truly promote inclusion.

Ideally, the diversity and inclusion commitment that an organization espouses aligns with what employees actually experience. When employees experience high levels of organizational, work-group, and supervisor inclusion, they report the most favorable outcomes in terms of individual engagement, job performance, and intention to stay with the organization. Group processes and organizational performance outcomes are also best when all three forms of inclusion align.

Learning Objectives

1. Examine the differences between diversity and inclusion
2. Identify group processes and performance outcomes impacted when D& I efforts align

This program is ideal for: Organizational leaders and managers

About Our Facilitator

Dr. Tracey Danner-Odenwelder, CFRE With over 25 years’ experience in organizational development and corporate social responsibility, Tracey is passionate about serving others and impacting our global community. Tracey collaborates with key stakeholders to address organizational and community needs, focusing on long-term sustainability, evolving relevance and expanding community impact. She is results-oriented and takes pride in developing cohesive and cause driven staff, board and volunteer teams.

Tracey earned her doctorate in Human and Organizational Learning from George Washington University; her dissertation researched the impact corporate social responsibility has on the organization’s culture, particularly studying the role of senior leadership and cross-sector partnerships. Her MPhil and MS degrees are in Organizational Dynamics, with dual certification in Organizational Leadership and Global Studies, from the University of Pennsylvania. Her BS in Human Services is from Springfield College. Tracey has studied abroad in eight countries; she researched social service systems and how community needs were met in each country.

Tracey was the recipient of the 2020 Robert Shoemaker- Thomas Branum Service to Humanity Award and the 2018 Presidential Excite, Engage, Evolve Award.

Professional Certifications
• Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE)
• Certified in Denison Culture and Leadership Assessments
• Certificate in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Cornell University

In-Person Workshop

Learning Objectives

1. Review strategies for setting exceptions and instilling accountability
2. Explore the different types of meetings
3. Understand how to build an actionable agenda
4. Learn what to do before the meeting begins
5. Examine the different types of difficult people and how to handle them
6. Discuss how to appropriately conclude a meeting
7. Understand the steps to take after a meeting
8. Understand the purpose of the “one on one”
9. Discuss the timing of a one on one
10. Learn how to prepare for a one on one
11. Understand how learning styles influence the one on one
12. Explore how one on ones build trust

This program is ideal for: anyone who hosts or participates in 1:1 and group meetings

About Our FacilitatorS

Tisha Gierhart was hired as Shafer Leadership Academy’s first Program Director in January 2014. She is primarily responsible for all activities related to the development, delivery, and assessment of leadership programs presented by Shafer Leadership Academy. In this role, she focuses on building collaborative relationships with Shafer Leadership Academy’s participants and partners.

Tisha holds a degree in Business Administration from Indiana Wesleyan University. She has worked in the healthcare field for fourteen years, where she developed her skills in leadership, project management and facilitation. Tisha served as an internal coach for IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, where she worked to enhance the patient experience by cultivating a culture of service.

Tisha is an alumnus of Shafer Leadership Academy’s Emergence program and has completed Advanced Facilitator Training. Tisha is a Certified John Maxwell Speaker, Coach and Trainer. She is certified in The Leadership Challenge and has over 40 hours of certified coach training. Tisha is an active member in her community where she serves as a board member for the Jay County Cancer Society and is the Co-Chair of the Jay County Cancer Walk. She enjoys volunteering and is a member of the Portland Evening Optimist and Hickory Grove Church of the Brethren. Her work reflects her passion for making a difference, building relationships, and motivating others. She believes in leading by example and developing purposeful connections.

Carisa Aguilar is the Lead Indiana Trainer for Northwest Bank, maintaining training labs in Muncie and Bloomfield. In that role, Aguilar trains virtually and in-person new and existing employees on company history, onboarding, systems, sales and soft skills. Before that she spent six years working in the school district, first as a parent volunteer coordinator where she acted as the liaison between parents and the school, maintained a database of approved volunteers, communicated teacher needs to parents as well as coordinated events that fostered home, school and community involvement.

IN-Person Lunch & Learn

How do we move the professional kitchen into an era of safe and positive impact for growth and appeal to the next generations? How can we fold traditional apprenticeship training techniques into a more affirming experience for the apprentice and the trainer? What is the potential of the future professional kitchen?

As a trade-based industry, professional kitchens are hurting worldwide. We have high turnover, high stress, slow growth, and minimal pay. The only way we can move from our past, into a positive future, is to adjust to modern culture and societal standards of a positive work environment.

Many cultures believe and use food as medicine, comfort, and a way to show love. The professional cook’s kitchen can be the same!

Learning Objectives

1. Build a positive learning environment in the kitchen.
2. Attract next generations to the professional kitchen industry.
3. Grow your business through growth of your staff.

About Our Facilitator

Kyle Reninger was born and raised in Clearwater, FL. He attended the University of South Florida and has worked in the service and retail industry for the past 20 years. He and his partner, Amanda, moved to Muncie in 2008 were Amanda attended Ball State University for her Master’s Degree and Artist Diploma. They found great community and connections in Muncie, and decided to continue their life in Muncie and start a business. Kyle is the President of Acquisitions and Amanda is the Owner of Sea Salt & Cinnamon. Amanda is the master of the science and math in the kitchen, while Kyle is focused on developing new savory items and expansion of distribution. Through SLA and the Emergence Program, Kyle and Amanda have gained the training and knowledge to help grow the Muncie Community. In their free time, Kyle and Amanda can be found enjoying Downtown Muncie, at the movies, or at home with their three dogs and six cats.

In-Person Workshop

Learning Objectives

1. Strategies for managing incoming items (mail, emails, meeting notes, etc)
2. How to create and use a To Do System
3. Techniques for more efficient filing
4. A method for prioritizing work and following through

This program is ideal for: anyone who hosts or participates in 1:1 and group meetings

About Our Facilitator

Janet Jackson is passionate about three things: her faith, her family, and helping others find time to pursue their passions, professionally and personally. She started Organization Solutions, LLC, in 2001, because she loves people and hates inefficiency.

Prior to starting Organization Solutions, Janet spent six years with Honda of America Manufacturing where she served as the Purchasing Lead on a corporate-wide software implementation, ensuring business and system processes were efficient and effective. She left Honda in 2000 to start Organization Solutions and to have more time for her biggest priority, being a mom.

Janet attended Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, where she double majored in Business Administration and Psychology. She graduated with honors in 1993. While at Taylor, she continued to grow her desire and ability to serve as a leader, which was cultivated initially by her ten-year involvement with Indiana 4-H.

With Indiana roots, Janet and family are currently planted in Ohio. She speaks regionally and nationally to bring increased organization, productivity, and efficiency to businesses and individuals.

IN-Person Lunch & Learn

What separates the best of the best from everyone else when it comes time to perform? You’ve prepared, practiced, and now it’s time to shine, but there is something in your head that could potentially undo all of your hard work when you are on the big stage. We will discuss mental skills, mental performance, and how taking time to learn more about ourselves and controlling what goes on between our ears can lead to better performance when it counts the most. Topics such as self-awareness, resilience, and self-talk will be touched on, with the goal of giving you the tools to perform at your best when you need to the most.

Learning Objectives

1. Awareness and understanding of what is going on in your mind and how it can affect your performance.
2. Tools to practice the skills necessary to improve your mental performance.
3. The physiological response to stressful situations and how mental skills can help you perform in those moments.

This program is ideal for: Supervisors looking to get more out of their employees. Anyone looking to better themselves in personal or professional endeavors.

About Our Facilitator

Justin Knox was born and raised in Muncie, Indiana and graduated from Delta High School in 2002. He has been a Firefighter since 2012, first with the City of Muncie Fire Department before moving to the Brownsburg Fire Territory on the west side of Indianapolis in 2020. Justin has an Associate of Applied Science degree in Fire Science from Ivy Tech, as well as a number of state and national professional certifications. Justin is an Emergence graduate and currently sits on the Board of Directors for Shafer Leadership Academy.

Is supervision for me?

The transition from frontline employee to supervisor is a big leap.

This program is designed to help participants better understand the roles and responsibilities of supervision. In this interactive course, we will explore the fundamentals of frontline supervision. Participants will examine core elements of supervision such as building trust, managing conflict, and communicating effectively.

At the end of the program both participants and employers will be ready to answer the question “Is supervision for me?”

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