About Us

About the PLSeminar Partners

Sheila Ramsey, Ph.D. Sheila Ramsey, Ph.D., principal consultant of the Crestone Institute is known internationally for her work in the field of intercultural relations, international leadership development, team building and the facilitation of individual and group creativity and innovation. Sheila is a skilled facilitator and consultant with 25 years of experience. Her forum for this work has been in the corporate sector, education, and in the not-for-profit arena since 1975. Dr. Ramsey has a Ph.D. in communication as well as a background in theater and anthropology. Her training and consulting is focused on enabling clients to utilize their creativity and unique abilities to develop workplace effectiveness and global partnerships.

Dr. Ramsey has designed and implemented large-group participatory change events, international leadership-development seminars, intercultural technology-transfer projects, multicultural work-force development seminars, team-building and total quality management designs and orientation for overseas-living programs.

For seven years she was on the faculty of the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication in Portland, Oregon and is a Senior Fellow of SIETAR, (Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research) Japan, Tokyo Branch. Her publications are in the areas of nonverbal behavior, training methodologies, communication-style differences between Japanese and Americans, creativity and managing change.

She has worked as a professional photographer, studied as a potter’s apprentice in Mashiko, Japan and is professionally certified in the Enneagram of Personality. She currently lives in Washington D.C.

In her work, she has seen how those who make a commitment to bring forth the highest and best in themselves are also those who are most creative in their own lives and inspiring to others.

Sheila Ramsey, Ph.D.
4511 15th St.
Washington D.C. 20011 U.S.A.
Phone: +1 202 722 0518
Fax: by arrangement
E mail: sramsey@plseminars.com

Barbara F. Schaetti, Ph.D. Barbara F. Schaetti, Ph.D., principal consultant with Transition Dynamics has a particular passion for helping people cultivate their core intercultural capacity. She specializes in multicultural team development, the creation of inclusive communities, expatriate and leadership coaching, and the development of a personal practice to leverage intercultural competence. Barbara is internationally recognized as an innovative leader in the field of expatriate and repatriate family services.

Dr. Schaetti helps her clients maximize the personally and professionally transformative potential inherent in the experience of living and working across cultures. She recognizes that precisely because such a lifestyle is fraught with ambiguity, frequently confusing intercultural encounters, and often significant isolation from known support systems, it presents us with unparalleled opportunities to "wake up" to our authentic selves.

A member of the faculty of the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication and of the ICI/UOP Master of Arts in Intercultural Relations, both in Portland, Oregon, Dr. Schaetti is also the lead coach for the spouse coaching program of the Global Coaches Network (www.globalcoaches.com). A founding member of the Board of Directors of the Families in Global Transition Conference (www.figt.org), Barbara has served in several capacities including as Secretary and as a member of the Executive for four years, and as program chair or co-chair for the six conferences held between 2000 and 2007.

Dr. Schaetti grew up in ten countries on five continents, and moved internationally twelve times by the age of twenty-two. She has dual-nationality (American and Swiss), and speaks and reads French in addition to English. She holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences/Intercultural Communication (Cultural Identity Development), an M.A. in Whole Systems Design (Intercultural Conflict Resolution), and a B.A. in International Political Science. Earlier in her career, Barbara worked in multilcultural community meditation and as a diversity trainer with U.S. corporations and government agencies.

Barbara F. Schaetti, Ph.D.
Transition Dynamics
2448 NW 63rd St.
Seattle WA 98107 U.S.A.
Tel: +1 206 789 3290
Fax: by arrangement
Email: bfschaetti@plseminars.com

Gordon Watanabe Ed.D. Gordon Watanabe Ed.D., is a professor emeritus of education and former special assistant to the president for intercultural relations at Whitworth University in Spokane, WA, USA. He is a member of the faculty of the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication.

Dr. Watanabe’s work has focused in the field of intercultural education for the past nineteen years. While starting his career as a public school teacher, he was asked to become a trainer for the Washington Education Association in their Minority Involvement Program. This event began his facilitation and diversity work while also maintaining his commitment to improvement in education. Dr. Watanabe’s educational background includes: undergraduate majors in biology and psychology; a masters in counseling; as well as a doctorate in education.

At Whitworth’s School of Education, Dr. Watanabe was involved with an innovative master’s program where he taught multicultural education and advanced educational psychology. Additionally, he had major responsibility for the nationally known multicultural program which sends education students to teach abroad and within country, in cultures very different from their own. His former intercultural work was as the Director of International Student Affairs, Director of Minority Student Affairs, and the Asian Pacific American Counselor & Head Minority Counselor.

Dr. Watanabe’s work is founded on the basic principle that understanding one’s self is critical for successful cross-cultural negotiations. He is committed to innovation and creativity, and facilitates organizational thinking and paradigmatic shifts for cultural change at the institutional and individual levels.

Dr. Watanabe’s diversity facilitation work includes educational institutions, corporate entities, and community programs.

Gordon Watanabe Ed.D.
Spokane, WA U.S.A.
Tel: +1 509 777 4373
Fax: +1 509 777 3785
Email: gwatanabe@plseminars.com

About the PLSeminar Facilitators

Jin Abe, M.A. Counseling in Higher Education, is a former “salary-man” in Japan and a licensed counselor in Michigan who advised international students at Western Michigan University for 7 years before returning to Japan in 2005. Currently, he is an assistant professor/international education advisor at Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, Japan. The 2003 internship experience at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication was his introduction to Personal Leadership as an intercultural communication tool. In 2004, as he was balancing out the needs of his family to return to Japan and career promotion in the U.S., Personal Leadership and its visioning process had a personal impact on regaining a sense of congruency, making Personal Leadership an integral part of his everyday life.

Esther Louie, M.S., is the assistant dean for students at Whitworth College, Spokane, WA, where her responsibilities include student leadership development for undergraduate students. She consults and trains in the areas of intercultural communication, leadership development, and community- and team-building for city, state, and federal agencies and in higher education across the Northwest US and in Mexico. She is the intern coordinator for the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication (SIIC), Portland, OR; serves as president-elect for the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR); and is president of the Women in Higher Education Roundtable, 2005. Esther enhances her professional career and personal life by teaching and practicing Personal Leadership.

Jan O’Brien is an intercultural consultant and coach who has lived and worked extensively overseas, in particular in South-East Asia. She is a UK/US dual national and president of Jan O’Brien & Associates, Intercultural Consulting, based in Houston, Texas. She specializes in intercultural communication and leadership training and coaching, both in the US and internationally. Jan has worked as a core instructor with the University of Houston, Executive Coaching Institute and is an accredited associate of the ICS-CONNECT communications program and assessment tool. She is a board member of SIETAR Houston (Society for Intercultural Education, Training & Research) and a member of SIETAR USA and the IAC (International Association of Coaches). She is committed to incorporating Personal Leadership into all of her work in order to enhance her clients’ ability to interact effectively across cultures.

Heather Robinson, M.A., heads the consulting firm Success Across Borders, a self-organizing network of consultants who come together to provide the right blend of backgrounds—industry, national, language and technical—to serve the needs of clients across the globe. A primary focus is building multinational teams and coaching leaders in global business. A Swiss/US dual national, Heather has lived and traveled in all parts of the world; she is particularly fluent in the cultures of North America, Western Europe, and the Asian Subcontinent (India and Pakistan). Heather was elected to the governing council of the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR) and is currently president of SIETAR-USA. She has been practicing Personal Leadership and introducing it to her clients since 2003.

Megumi Sugihara, M.A., is an independent interculturalist based in Tokyo. A native of Japan, she has lived, worked, and studied in the US, Europe, and Africa. She consults, trains, and coaches in the areas of intercultural communication and international education. Currently, she is on her journey of becoming a PhD through the Human and Organization Development program at Fielding Graduate University. Her source of inspiration is engaging in co-creative dialogues in professional, academic, and personal settings. Having been exposed to PL since 1998 and practicing it intensely since 2004, for Megumi PL is much more than an intercultural communication tool; it is a way of life that allows significant personal as well as professional transformation. She is the director of Personal Leadership Seminars - Japan.

Rita Wuebbeler, M.A. Applied Linguistics, is president and owner of Interglobe Cross-Cultural Business Services, Inc., an Atlanta-based cross-cultural training and consulting firm. A dual US-German national, Rita specializes in global business skills training, relocation training and teambuilding programs for global virtual teams serving clients in the for-profit and non-profit sectors in the U.S. and Europe. She is an Advisory Board Member of the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research SIETAR USA, a certified Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Administrator, and frequently speaks and publishes on the topic of effective cross-cultural communication. Rita has
a passion for building bridges to help people reach their highest potential.
She uses Personal Leadership as a tool to do so in her professional and personal life.

About the PLSeminars Facilitators-in-Training

Thorunn Bjarnadottir M.A. International Education, is a Program Associate at International Student & Scholar Services at the University of Minnesota. Originally from Iceland, she runs a program called Culture Corps which teaches international students organizational and leadership skills to help them operate fully in foreign environments. Her first encounter with Personal Leadership was in 1999 at the Summer Institute for Intercultural communication. She had been searching for ways to make living and learning in a foreign environment more real, and PL has become the missing link. She is completing her PhD at the University of Minnesota, and is doing her dissertation research on PL.

Viviane Ephraimson-Abt, Ms Ed., is the Assistant Director for the culturally diverse residential community of Apartment Life at Colorado State University. For the past 20 years she has been an Interculturalist at several universities, in K-12 schools, and with non-profit organizations. Her intercultural experiences include being a first generation American from a multi-national, multi-lingual and multi-religious family and living in Germany and Japan. She is an intercultural trainer, and also facilitates mindfulness based practices for groups and individuals. Viviane was first exposed to PL in 1998 at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication. She enjoys watching herself and others achieve mindful transformations through learning and practicing PL.

Tina Johnson is Director of International Programs at Randolph College (formerly R-MWC) in Lynchburg, VA, where her responsibilities include coordinating study abroad programs and short-term seminars as well as working with international faculty. She studied abroad in England and is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, Russia 1996-98. In 2004, she first encountered Personal Leadership through a graduate program in Intercultural Relations offered by the Intercultural Communication Institute (ICI) and the University of the Pacific. She has introduced PL to study abroad participants, college residence life staff, and students in the Susan F. Davenport Global Leadership program. Tina believes that Personal Leadership, which is the focus of her current master’s thesis project, offers valuable applications within the education abroad arena.

Adair Linn Nagata, Ph.D. was formerly Professor of Intercultural Communication at the Rikkyo University Graduate School of Intercultural Communication in Tokyo, Japan and is now teaching at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University, Tokyo, and the Master of Arts in Intercultural Relations (MAIR) program jointly offered by the Intercultural Communication Institute, Portland, OR, and the University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA. After careers in international education and corporate training, communication, and organizational development in a global financial services company, she earned her doctorate in Human Development from the Fielding Graduate University. Her publications focus on the cultivation of consciousness and communicative competence in intercultural relationships and for intercultural researchers using "bodymindfulness" and Mindful Inquiry. Both her scholarly activity and her teaching emphasize pedagogy that encourages integrative transformative learning in intercultural education. She has been has been studying and practicing Personal Leadership since 2005 because it too cultivates these very qualities, and has integrated it into her work and life at the intercultural interface.

Katsuko Sugiyama, M.A. works in a U.S. financial services company in Boston, MA, as Relationship Manager for Japanese institutional investors and global advisors; her focus is on meeting the particular intercultural business needs of her clients. Born and raised in Osaka, Japan, Katsuko has studied and worked in the U.S. for the past 16 years, and has expertise in intercultural management, teamwork and communication. She practices Personal Leadership to align her personal and professional life with her life purpose and vision. Katsuko introduces PL as a tool and/or a way of life to individuals and organizations seeking personal and professional transformation via coaching, consulting and training.

Alex Eunkyeong Yu, M.A., MBA is an intercultural management consultant based in Seoul. She represents ITIM International in Korea. Alex loves to explore all the delicacies of intercultural interactions, and is happy to provide her corporate clients with the relevant insights and encouragements to maintain their creativity in the presence of intercultural conflicts. Her major interests are developing intercultural competencies in management, leadership, communication, and team building. Her encounter with Personal Leadership brought her a way to practice how to deal with intercultural challenges. She also believes Personal Leadership will bring balances between corporate vision and personal vision to her clients.

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