Consultant Profiles

Deborah Mackin - Founder of New Directions
Deborah Mackin is a successful international consultant, trainer, author and presenter whose work has involved travel throughout the United States and abroad. When asked what distinguishes Deborah from other professionals in the field, clients cite, again and again, her keen insight and depth of experience as the key factors that make the difference. Our clients repeatedly report how much they benefit from her flexibility. She is able to move from one area of an organizations' concern to another — providing "just-in-time" training or consulting as the need arises.

Deborah believes her role as a consultant is to bring new and different thinking to situations, be bold and persistent when necessary, challenge the status quo and share the experiences of other organizations. Her philosophy is based on the integration of team processes and total quality management concepts into the workplace including focus on the customer, continuous improvement, empowerment and management by fact. The collaborative process is integrated into every aspect of the work. People are presented with choices and then they are encouraged to make their own decisions based on the nature and character of the company.

Publications, Publication Citations and Articles
• The Team Building Tool Kit, Second Edition
• The Team Building Tool Kit: Tips, Tactics and Rules for Effective Workplace Teams
• Keeping the Team Going: A Tool Kit to Renew and Refuel Your Workplace Team
• Handbook of Best Practices for Teams, 1997 and 1998 Teams
• Intervention Resource Guide: 50 Performance Improvement Tools
• Team Management Briefings
• Your Company Magazine (Inc. Magazine publication)
• Personnel Journal
• Compensation and Benefits Review
• Getting Results
• Team Leader
• Investor's Business Daily

Television and Radio Appearances
• PBS Special Business Programming
• American Management Association (AMA) by Satellite
• Bloomberg Information Radio and Television
• KFNN Radio
• Money Radio
• Success Radio
• WAMC - Vox Pop

Presentations
• Center for the Study of Work Teams at the University of North Texas, Dallas
• Queens University's Centre for Industrial Relations in Kingston, Ontario
• American Management Association's Executive Development Program
• Association for Quality and Participation
• American Society for Quality Control
• American Society for Training and Development
• Regional Human Resource Associations
• American and Regional Bankers Associations

Professional Associations
• American Arbitration Association
• American Management Association
• American Society for Quality Control
• American Society for Quality and Participation
• American Society for Training and Development
• Society for Human Resource Management

Education
• Masters Degree in Organization and Management from Antioch/New England Graduate School
• B.S. in Speech and English from Syracuse University

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Lisa Dunbar - Senior Consulting Associate and Trainer
Lisa has been a member of the New Directions’ team for over twenty years and has been involved in all aspects of the business from the day-to-day operations and marketing to training and consultation.

In 1986, Lisa began training on time management, superhuman syndrome and teambuilding. As the business has progressed, she now trains on a variety of topics including teams, supervision skills, quality customer service, conflict resolution skills, to name a few, and for all types and sizes of organizations. Lisa enjoys training in our roundtable format for local organizations where participants spend 2 hours a week in training for six to eight weeks. Here they learn a focused amount of information that they immediately put to practice and build upon as the training progresses. She has also worked effectively one-on-one with individuals to provide coaching and training on particular issues/topics.

Over the years on the consultation side, Lisa has focused on providing organizations with the capability to survey their customers online and gather critical feedback for strategic planning and quality process improvement. She also provides companies with a way to conduct 360 degree feedback assessments for employee development, pre- and post- training surveys as well as custom design surveys that fit whatever data needs to be collected and analyzed. Lisa has also worked with organizations to provide telephone client surveys as well.

Lisa has also worked with organizations that needed help forming or improving teams to tackle various goals and objectives or improve their ability to work together effectively.

As President of the local SHRM chapter, Lisa also has helped organizations with human resource management needs and provides training in managing diversity, corrective action and dismissal and sexual and general harassment training.

Over the years, Lisa has received such feedback about her training and consulting:

"Lisa is wonderful. She engaged everyone well, got us to think and problem-solve for ourselves, and gave us new perspectives and insights. She was encouraging and supportive, and she consistently offered to go the extra mile to ensure everyone understood the information. And, all the while she made it fun. I would definitely recommend her for future trainings and would personally look forward to participating in another of her trainings.”

"Thank you for the terrific job you did in your afternoon session at Clemson University’s Conference on Professional Development for Women. I have heard only praise about your session as you thoroughly instructed and challenged participants. On a personal note, I want you to know that I really enjoyed working with someone of your professional caliber."

Lisa has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Latin American Studies from Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA as well as graduate level course credits in Organization and Management.

She lives in Mount Tabor, Vermont with her husband, Steve, and their daughter, Caroline.

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Michael Harrington - Director of New Training and Strategic Initiatives
Having joined New Directions in January, 2009, as Director of New Training and Strategic Initiatives, Michael's focus is to design and deliver training and development programs for a wide range of employees including Gen Y. With experience in management and departmental growth, Michael brings with him an understanding of business systems, project management and employee relations that help organizations become more efficient and people-centered in a time of financial uncertainty and employee disenfranchisement.

Prior to New Directions, Michael served for three years as Chief Student Affairs Officer at Paul Smith's College where he was able to grow his department by 300%. Charged with implementing a comprehensive student development program that focused on student motivation and accountability, Michael was the key administrator for student services. With the national spotlight on disaster preparedness and crisis management, it was the focus of the Student Affairs department to ensure student safety through the development and implementation of critical systems and processes. Designing and implementing student training and educational programs was vital to his role when it came to improving retention and student life at Paul Smith's.

Michael received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communication and Master's in Administration and Leadership from SUNY Plattsburgh.

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