OUR FACILITATORS

Sharon Kristjanson, MA

Chicago, Illinois, USA

• Leadership Development
• Transformative communications skills
• Political dialogue and understanding

PL Work
Sharon Kristjanson is the owner of SVK Intercultural, a consulting firm specializing in skill development for growing leaders, with an emphasis on higher-level communication skills. Sharon offers workshops and individual coaching to help people expand their capacity to work with differences, and to elevate their collaborative efforts. Her proprietary workshop—Engaging with Difference®—provides a blueprint for working with different viewpoints constructively.

Since learning and working with the Personal Leadership process, Sharon integrates PL into all of her workshops and coaching, as well as her daily life. She has found it to be a transformative process that expands opportunities, deepens dialogue, and brings clarity into decision-making.

Other work
Sharon writes a blog and sends out a monthly newsletter with tips and tools for understanding other perspectives. She also volunteers her time moderating workshops for Better Angels, a non-profit organization committed to depolarizing America by teaching skills for dialogue across the political divide.

Personal Background
Sharon’s background is international. Her parents came from two very different cultures—Icelandic and Iranian. As a family they were Canadian, but for most of Sharon’s youth they lived in Rome, Italy, with a couple of years in Tehran, Iran—all due to her father’s international work. As a young adult Sharon also lived in France and Switzerland, and her education was in British, American, Canadian, and Swiss systems. Sharon speaks French and Italian in addition to English.

Amidst all of these cultural influences, Sharon identifies as a TCK (Third-Culture Kid). She has assimilated, over and over again, into new cultures and environments, starting at age 6. She understands—profoundly—what it means to find commonalities even as we marvel at, engage with, or step back from, differences.

Sharon’s experiences and training point to one overarching message: that an ability to explore context and frames of reference (one’s own and those of others) is essential to creating cohesive relationships and effective collaboration.

Academic
Sharon’s education is international and includes graduate studies in advanced economics at the Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales (now known as The Graduate Institute, Geneva) in Geneva, Switzerland, and an Honors B.A. in Economics (equivalent to an M.A. in the U.S.) from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Certifications include: Certified Intercultural Practitioner (CIP); Qualified Administrator (QA) of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI); and Senior Facilitator of Personal Leadership (PL).

Other Interests
Sharon enjoys cycling, kayaking, and reading, and above all, gathering with friends.

WEBSITE: https://www.svkintercultural.com/