A review of our staff biographies will reveal that many of our facilitators are trained professionally as counselors, psychologists, social workers, psychotherapists, and other healing practitioners.  Our staff also come from the disciplines of education, law, community organizing, business management, and theology.  We have been, as an eclectic group, since 1984, finding connections and linkages between and among these disciplines such that our organizational change work includes attention to the personal, interpersonal, systemic / institutional, and cultural aspect of any social issue.

Our goal is to support organizations in transformation efforts.  Strategic planning, organizational redesign, creating mission and vision are all critical elements.  Yes, we are interested in the personal impacts of social oppression.  We are committed to developing a language for identifying and naming these impacts and a methodology for changing them.

We recognize that our work involves understanding process and accepting the protracted nature of the problem. We aim to provide tools that support organizations in developing effective on-going change processes.  Such processes acknowledge the current legacy of historic power imbalances; as well as, what is different for this generation of employees.  Yes, individuals grow.  This is a critical aspect of a healthy system.  And equally as important, groups flourish and power is effectively shared.

Lead Consultants

Valerie A. Batts, Ph.D., the originator of the workshop, is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. She is Executive Director of VISIONS, Inc. and leads the Consultation and Training component. Since 1976, she has provided training to human service providers, educators and managers in a variety of areas. Working both nationally and internationally, Valerie helps people develop and maintain environments that support, respect and appreciate differences.

Reverend Hilda Ryūmon Gutiérrez Baldoquín is a priest in the Soto Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.  She is also a consultant, trainer, facilitator and bilingual/bicultural mediator with twenty-five years experience in the fields of organizational development and conflict resolution.  Her personal and professional endeavors have taken her to Latin America, New Zealand, Cuba, Canada, Japan, Europe, and to forty-nine states in the US.  Born in Las Tunas, a small town in eastern Cuba, Rev. Gutiérrez Baldoquín grew up in Harlem and lives in San Francisco, California.  Her life journey has taken her from working class, immigrant, monolingual Spanish language origins, to the enjoyment of middle class, intellectual privileges – all due to many years of formal education at Florida State University in Tallahassee, the State University College at Buffalo, New York and Stanford University in California.  On the Editorial Board of Conflict Resolution Quarterly, the international professional journal of the Association for Conflict Resolution, she has co-authored and served as advisor to several publications on cultural competence and conflict resolution.  As a Zen Buddhist priest, Rev. Gutiérrez Baldoquín brings attention to issues of culture, race and power to Buddhist practices by anchoring her work in the practice of compassion and with faith in the human capacity to end suffering.

Terry Berman, M.A., is a native of South Africa. She has been working as a consultant for community-based multicultural organizations and for the private sector for over 15 years. Skilled in the areas of conflict resolution, alliance building and anti-racism, she is particularly interested in exploring the meaning of whiteness and its impact on white people in this country.

Angela R. Bryant, J.D., is a Senior Consultant and co-founder of VISIONS and is the former Director and one of the developers of the Wright Center, Inc., (VISIONS' multicultural adult day care health project, in Rocky Mount, N.C.).  Angela was also the project director for an award winning Diversity and Community Care Education Project for elders, disabled adults, their caregivers and service providers. She is the caregiver for her 90 year old mother.  Angela has 25 years of legal experience and was a former state administrative law judge for ten years. Angela has been consulting to and training individuals and organizations in applying principles of justice to interpersonal problem solving and organizational development issues, particularly in the areas of equal opportunity, affirmative action, community economic development, managing transitions, collaborative problem solving, meeting facilitation, internalized racism issues and train-the-trainer models.  Angela actively supports numerous community organizations and is elected to the governing board of her state university system.

Angela M. Giudice, is an educator and community activist who has provided consultation and training on issues of racism and social justice since 1976. Her specialty areas are in multicultural organizational development and in constructing effective models for white women to better understand and challenge racism. At present, Angela is on staff at VISIONS. Previously, she has held various programming and administrative positions in non-profit, social change organizations. In addition to being a previous executive director of The Multicultural Project, she also served as chair of The Boston Women's Fund. In recent years, her work has increasingly reflected her experience as part of an inter-racial, lesbian couple parenting a biracial, adopted son.

Jo Bowens Lewis, Ph.D., is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who has provided psychotherapy services to a wide variety of clients since 1976. She is also the mentor of VISIONS’ Executive director and several other VISIONS’ consultants.

Emily Schatzow, M.Ed., has been a psychotherapist since 1971. On staff at an urban hospital, she is also a Lecturer on Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. She views her work in multiculturalism as a form of prevention of psychological trauma and distress.

Joan E. Schoenhals, Ph.D., has served in dual roles as the Associate Director of Programs and Consultant with VISIONS, Inc. since 1987. She holds a Doctorate in Counseling Psychology, and is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. She has provided training and consultation in the area of diversity and multiculturalism to a wide range of groups and organizations, within the public and private sectors. Beginning with her working class roots in a small, racially homogeneous town, in rural southern Ontario, Canada, Joan's ongoing journey has led her through experiences as outsider, particularly as lesbian and non-U.S. born, as well as, through loss, grief, peace, and joy. These and other life events have shaped her interest in exploring the intersection of the dynamics of oppression and internalized oppression with faith, spirituality, art and healing for the benefit of self and others.

Sarah Stearns, Ph.D., a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, has taught, consulted and had a therapy practice in the San Francisco area since 1977. She currently specializes in systemic theory and interventions which place individuals in the context of their relationships and communities. Raised in rural New England, Sarah has been drawn to work on multiculturalism as a way of challenging the impoverishing norms in the dominant culture.

Cooper Thompson, M.S., was the National Coordinator of the Campaign to End Homophobia and is an independent trainer. Since 1980, he has trained in the areas of homophobia, racism, and sexism from the perspective of being heterosexual, white and male.

Deborah J. Walker, Ph.D., is a professional trainer and process consultant who has provided multicultural consultation and training to a wide range of business and corporate leaders and managers, police and community groups, legal professionals, educators, and health care providers since 1986.  Her primary foci are personal empowerment, conflict resolution, team building, and interpersonal problem solving from a multicultural perspective.  Her personal goal is to help create and maintain organizational environments that recognize, understand, appreciate and utilize differences. Her background has is in higher education.

S. Gene Washington,  has 30 years of experience in Leadership and Management in major corporations.  He is skilled as a Team Development and Change Management facilitator and has developed and conducted multicultural educational processes for over ten years.  Gene is a military veteran and actively supports numerous community organizations.  As a corporate manager, Gene was a key leader in corporate change and transition projects.  He brings a wealth of first-hand organizational development and business management experience.  Gene has an interest in understanding cultural world views and their influence on the relationships between people in organizations and teams.  Gene's interest in African and African-American history and the African-centered world view has played a  major role in his development of networks for his own cultural group within organizations; e.g., Black Employee Leadership Teams, and for other groups, e.g. Women's, Hispanic, and Asian Support Networks.

Mark Wise, Psy.D., is a Licensed Psychotherapist who began providing clinical services to a wide variety of populations in 1976. He has consulted to hospitals, clinics, and chemical dependency treatment centers, with a specialty in training and supervising mental health professionals. For several years, he has been conducting workshops on multicultural issues in the workplace.

Four-Day Consultants

Jane Ariel, Ph.D., is a Licensed Psychotherapist who teaches, consults and has a private practice in the San Francisco Bay Area. Particularly interested in bringing the effects of systemic oppression into her psychological work, she has been engaged for many years in researching and implementing innovative educational policies for non-dominant groups in different cultures.

Joycelyn Landrum-Brown, Ph.D., is a Clinical Psychologist and educator who has been focusing on diversity and social justice issues since 1981. She has taught and worked as a faculty and staff psychologist at several universities. Her specialty areas include teaching about world view, understanding the relationship between power, privilege and oppression and facilitating diversity and social justice dialogue groups.

Beverly G. Buston Ph.D., is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist with a private practice in Richmond, VA.  She divides her time between private practice and organizational consulting.  She is an Associate Professor, in the Department of  Family Practice, at the Medical Center of Virginia, in Richmond, VA.  She blends these with her nursing background to focus on issues of diversity, leadership training, teambuilding, conflict management and sexual misconduct.

John Capitman, Ph.D., a Social Psychologist specializing in race / ethnicity and gender issues in health and human services, and is a VISIONS co-founder. He has been particularly interested in the emotional component of white racial attitudes. He has studied the ways that whites, men, and others with institutional power make decisions that unintentionally sustain inequalities in the amount and quality of life. John helped to develop the modern racism theory highlighted in the VISIONS workshops and consultations. He has assisted in consultations in diverse public and private settings. Capitman is also a professor at the Heller School, Brandeis University.

Dana N. Courtney, MSW, has over 25 years of administrative and direct experience in human services, social work services, training, organizational development, and human resources in large and small organizations.  She now provides training and consultation with groups and organizations in the areas of cultural competence and leadership development.  She has been recognized for lifetime achievement by the Training and Development arm of the American Public Human Services Association, based on her leadership in public human services.  Dana has a passion for social justice work and is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and the University of  North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She is currently continuing her professional development in group and family therapy at the Southeast Institute in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Felipe Garcia, M.A., LMFT, a Mexican American, is a trainer, process facilitator, and psychotherapist. He has been an advocate for community building through cooperation for thirty years, in both public and private sector contexts. He has worked extensively in the United States, Europe, and Latin American with groups and organizations assessing levels of cooperation; and training in communication and team building skills. Being bilingual, Felipe has trained psychologists and trainers in Mexico City, Monterey, Caracas, and Santo Domingo in Spanish for many years. He is an active member of the International Transactional Analysis Association. Felipe has published several articles on communication, gender equality, cooperation, and parenting / counseling men. Some have been translated into other languages.

Linda Gonzalez, M.S.W., a second-generation Latina and Southern California native, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 15 years experience in group training and facilitation. Her expertise is in multicultural facilitation and in identifying organizational barriers to change. Linda is a board member of the Bay Area Network of Latinas, and the American Society for Training and Development. She has worked in both the public and private sector and has considerable experience helping bridge differences among people of color in work settings, as well as, in working with other forms of oppression.

Renae Gray, is an educator and community activist who has been providing training and consultation on issues of race, class, and gender since 1987. She is committed to issues of social and economic justice. The process of change and transformation (how organizations and people change) inspires her.  Renae brings experience from the nonprofit sector and has worked on issue of violence against women, women's issues, and African American women's empowerment issues. She lives in Cambridge, MA.

Thomas Shelden Griggs, Ph.D., is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and has since 1978 worked in the area of organizational development training and clinical consulting to municipalities, as well as non-profit, public and private corporations. He uses a whole-systems perspective in his consultations on organizational effectiveness and has a special interest in creating environments in which differences are celebrated.

Farzaneh Guillebeaux, M.A., is a Licensed Counselor in private practice. She has conducted training both nationally and internationally since 1988 in the areas of empowerment for women, interracial / intercultural marriage, sexism, communication and conflict resolution.

A. Jack Guillebeaux, M.A., brings to this work a wide of experiences which began in the civil rights era with sit-ins and organizing aimed at desegregating public facilities in his home town of Asheville, N.C.  His passion for empowering oppressed peoples and his exceptional skills for facilitating the work of groups led him to study and work in this field for more than 40 years. In addition to working in the U.S., Jack has trained groups with outstanding success in Australia, Europe, and Israel in organizations ranging from industry, local, and federal governments to primary, secondary, and higher education and community-based organizations.  He is President of Connectors, Inc.  For more than 35 years, Jack has shared an interracial, intercultural marriage with Farzaneh Guillebeaux, born in Tehran, Iran.

Sidney Holloway, M.A., M.Ed., has trained in education and psychology since 1984 focusing on cross-cultural issues. He is the past director of an adolescent residential treatment facility in Boston and is currently the President of Concerned Black Men of Massachusetts. Sidney has provided over 100 consultations to universities, corporations and a variety of other organizations.

Gerald Jackson, M.S., a consultant and trainer, has worked as a national consultant to universities, business and industry in the areas of multiculturalism and race discrimination since 1975. He has written more than twenty-five articles in the field of Black psychology and multiculturalism.

Vincent O. Johnson, B.A., is a graduate of Harvard University, 1979, with a degree in Economics.  Vincent worked with the Procter & Gamble Company for over 22 years (the last eight as a Senior Human Resources Manager), before joining VISIONS, Inc.  Vincent has an avid interest in Organizational Effectiveness and Diversity work. Vincent has many skills, such as the knowledge of ongoing management of large numbers of people, information, processes and systems.  He has expertise in many areas of effective business management from a multicultural perspective and he combines attention to detail with wise vision.

Jane Lynch, M.Ed., a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, has trained, consulted, and had a therapy practice in the Boston area since 1978. She has extensive experience in education, human services, community organizations, government, and business. A deep commitment to personal liberation and social justice supports her focus on challenging oppression and empowering individuals and organizations to embrace their uniqueness and realize their full potential.

Adelaide Simpson, Ph.D., is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in private practice in Richmond, VA. She has also been a consultant with VISIONS for many years and has worked in educational, corporate, government, and clinical settings. Her background also includes teaching and faculty development work. In addition to her analytical and clinical skills; she brings a strong communications perspective, along with a keen interest in problem solving at the interpersonal and organizational levels.

Julian Sonn, Ph.D., is a Counseling Psychology Resident, born in Capetown, South Africa. Julian was educated as a teacher there. His early training specialized in teaching children within the context of an oppressed society. He brings this perspective to his consultation and training with those who work on issues facing adolescents.

Joe Steele, M.B.A., consults to international corporations on managing their changing needs in developing a diverse workforce in today's global economy.  He designs and facilitates workshops for management and non-management dealing with the challenges of communicating and interacting as diverse individuals in the workplace.  His programs are offered to both U.S. and international staff.  He also does executive coaching for senior and middle management focusing on leadership, career development, and performance.  For organizational development purposes, Joe conducts climate surveys of the work environment.  He advises senior management and diversity councils about how to make systemic changes to better leverage the opportunities arising fro the diverse strengths of the changing workforce and customer base.  Joe also offers diversity workshops to teachers and students, in both public and private schools.  The primary objectives are to build more trusting multicultural relationships by strengthening self-confidence, nurturing interpersonal skills, and shaping effective effort to foster personal and community development.

Donna L. Yee, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Asian Community Center in Sacramento, CA., which includes the Asian Community Nursing Home, a 99 bed skilled nursing facility and a community center for lifelong learning, wellness, and information for older adults.  She was previously Director for Policy and Research at the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging in Seattle, WA., where her projects produced and disseminated bilingual materials in seven Asian and Pacific Islander languages to address information and health care access issues.  She also conducted health services research for almost 10 years at the Institute for Health Policy (Heller School, Brandeis University), and for 14 years was a health administrator and clinician in varied long-term care settings.  Dr. Yee received her M.S.W. from the University of Washington and her Ph.D. in Social Policy at the Heller School, Brandeis University.  She has been a resource consultant with VISIONS for more than ten years.

Tina Tong Yee, Ph.D., is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist with a specialty in multiculturalism and Asian American issues. Since 1976, she has been engaged in clinical practice, community mental health and substance abuse administration and management, teaching and consulting on cultural competency, cross cultural psychology, and workplace diversity in community, government and corporate environments.

Send mail to office@visions-inc.com for questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 1996 VISIONS, INC
Last modified: August 20, 2004