Bad Boss Braintrust
Dean M. Schroeder, PH.D.
Dr. Dean M. Schroeder is an author, educator, and consultant recognized for his work helping organizations improve management outcomes. His latest book, Practical Innovation in Government: How Front-Line Leaders are Transforming Public-Sector Organizations, co-authored with Alan Robinson, has been recognized as one of the most important books published on continuous improvement in government. His previous book, The Idea-Driven Organization, was selected as the featured book on leadership by the Washington Post and was recognized as one of the year’s best books on Leadership by USA Book News. Dr. Schroeder has worked with many leading organizations in North America, Europe, and Asia, and has personally led organizational transformation initiatives in four companies.
Dr Schroeder holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Montana. His PhD in Strategic Management from the University of Minnesota where he also did extensive work at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs. In addition to his books, Dr. Schroeder has published over a hundred articles and has served on four boards. He currently is a Senior Research Professor at Valparaiso University.
For more information on Dr. Schroeder, please visit his website at dmschroeder.com
Victoria Ward
Victoria Ward is a data-driven writer with technical expertise involving a heavy research component. She takes complex information and translates into understandable and accurate prose that gets peoples’ attention.
Currently, Ward works as Content Specialist at Antidote, an 83bar Company. It is a patient recruitment company that locates, educates, and recruits patents for clinical trials and commercial products. (Clients include Johnson and Johnson, Medtronic, Stryker, AvaCare Medical.) She writes content, analyzes data and communication flows, and refines messages for optimum effectiveness. Her expertise is data-driven optimization for target audiences. In other words, she writes really good instructions targeting specific audiences.
During the Covid pandemic Ward acted as the Chief Operating Officer for Rafe Nova, an ethical sourcing company for softgoods. The company was an early mover in the area of cloth masks. She joined the company prior to the launch of its first website. She optimized the company’s international supply chain and logistics systems, created the product management systems for the warehouse and supervised layout and organization of the warehouse, created multiple websites, and customized four different software systems to meet the company’s rapidly growing needs. She was core to the company going from zero to $9.8 Million customer-direct sales in less than ten months.
Ward has a bachelor’s degree in management, and enjoys kick boxing. She lives with her husband (Jacob) in a close suburb of Milwaukee along with their seven year old daughter and a nine year old son.
Elizabeth Beres, MBA, PMP
Elizabeth Beres is the founder and principal consultant for Projects & Processes, a consulting group that helps clients improve their operations. She spent 10 years working for Whirlpool as a project manager and improvement expert. During her time with the company she coordinated large projects, some with hundreds of millions of dollars in impact.
Beres has a Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Business Administration degrees from Valparaiso University. She is a certified Lean Six-Sigma Blackbelt and also holds a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the global organization Project Management Institute (PMI). She is an Adjunct Professor at Valparaiso University where she teaches courses in project management.
Beres is the Chair of the Board of Brookview Montessori School in Michigan.
For more information on Liz Beres, please visit her website at ProjectsProcesses.com