ISPI Faculty

 

ISPI Faculty are a selected cohort who are approved to offer ISPI workshops and institutes. They have been invited to be part of this group because of their dual backgrounds in teaching, training, coaching as well as research and practicum experience in the field of performance improvement. Moreover, they have demonstrated exemplary leadership within the Society by upholding the 10 Standards, code of ethics, and membership code of conduct.
 
Formalizing a faculty cohort serves our Society in two ways: 
 
  • First, our members can choose a faculty member to provide a workshop or institute based on their location, background, and area of expertise. This approach empowers our members to customize their workshop and institute experience. 
  • Second, the faculty cohort will work together regarding changes or updates to any workshop or institute materials. This collaborative approach empowers our faculty to keep ISPI materials current, based on current research and best practices.

Please direct any questions and suggestions for the faculty at faculty@ispi.org.

Meet The ISPI Faculty

BRETT CHRISTENSEN, CPT, MS

WORKSHOPS AND INSTITUTES
•PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES 

BIO
Brett is the President of Workplace Performance Consulting and an Adjunct Graduate Professor at Boise State University. He has earned his Certified Performance Technologist (CPT) designation from the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), Certified Training Development Professional (CTDP) from the Canadian Society of Training Development (CSTD), M.Sc. in Instructional and Performance Technology from Boise State University and B.Com. in Entrepreneurial Management from Royal Roads University. Brett volunteers for ISPI, previously as a Director, Chapter President earning the Chapter of Merit award 2010 and 2011 and currently as the Co-Chair for the 2018 and 2019 International Conferences. He is also a member and volunteer for the Institute for Performance and Learning (I4PL). Brett writes for PerformanceXpress, the Performance Improvement Journal and eLearn Magazine when he isn’t blogging at https://workplaceperformanceblog.wordpress.com/.

NANCY CRAIN BURNS, CPT, PHD

WORKSHOPS AND INSTITUTES
•CPT WORKSHOP
•PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

BIO
Nancy Burns is the President of Crain Burns Associates, LLC and is dedicated to serving others and helping organizations enhance success and productivity. As a Certified Performance Technologist, she approaches each situation with a systematic view of appreciation and opportunity. While working full-time in a financial services organization, Nancy completed her doctorate in Business: Organization and Management from Capella University. She also earned her MBA from Northwood University, after completing a dual BBA in Business/Computer Information Management

Her areas of industry expertise include education, leadership, business planning and strategy, human resources, business information systems and project management. Nancy has led strategic and vision planning sessions for organizations, including the Youth Achievement Foundation of Crossville. She created and led leadership/planning and volunteer engagement workshops for the Fairfield Glade Art Guild. In addition, she coached individuals through career transition. Nancy worked as Manager/Project Manager: North American Operations - New Development Program Office and as a strategic planning liaison to five business departments, including Human Resources and Communications.

Nancy served as the lead coach for the Cumberland Business Incubator’s Springboard Your Business to Success Entrepreneurship Workshops. Nancy’s heart for small business stems from working in her family’s New Orleans perfume shop. The business remained in her family for over 60 years. You may still find the shop in the French Quarter where the current owners are celebrating the shop’s over 170 years in business. Nancy and her husband invested their family’s savings in a tire and auto repair shop located in rural Oklahoma. She understands the challenges of one spouse supporting another’s dream. Her dissertation topic was the “Impact of personal influence on the success of entrepreneurial women.” The focus was leadership, communication and influence.

Dr. Burns has served as an adjunct professor for five colleges, including Roane State. She has taught Leadership, Organizational Behavior, Business Management, Entrepreneurship/Business Planning, Philosophy of American Enterprise and Project Management courses. In addition, she is certified to assess prior experiential learning and recommend college credit.

Nancy is a member of several professional organizations, including: Crossville Rotary, ISPI (International Society for Performance Improvement) Board of Directors, ISPI Tennessee, Capella Virtual Chapter, PMI (Project Management Institute), PMI East Tennessee Board of Diiectors-Academic Liaison. Nancy also served as VP of Programs for ISPI MI, President of ISPI

Capella and Program Chair for ISPI-TN. She is the Steering Committee Chair for the Crossville-Cumberland Horizon Initiative (Community Visioning Project).

JUDITH HALE, CPT, PHD

WORKSHOPS AND INSTITUTES
•CPT WORKSHOP

BIO
Judith Hale, one of the more prolific writers and well-known consultants in the field of performance improvement, is the author of the popular Performance Consultant’s Fieldbook 2nd ED and the award-winning Performance-Based Certification, 2nd ED. She has been a consultant to the public and private sectors across all industries since for more than 30 years. Judy has developed credentials for dozens of professional and trade disciplines in addition to suppliers, after-market partners, and customers. Some of the certifications are being used in over 90 countries. What distinguishes her work is the development of universal standards that transcend borders, the application of Plain Language and Global English Standards, and a focus on having a clear line of sight between the goals of the organization and the promise and features of the credential. Judith offers workshops on credentialing and performance improvement.

AL CRAIN

Info Coming!

FRANK FU, CPT, PHD

WORKSHOPS AND INSTITUTES

•PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

BIO
Frank Q. Fu is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Missouri - St. Louis. He obtained his Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Houston. He also holds an MBA in Marketing from the University of Rochester. His research and teaching interests focus on sales and marketing performance improvement. In 2010, he received the Anheuser-Busch Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of Missouri - St. Louis. He has won the 2006 American Marketing Association Sales SIG Award for best doctoral dissertation in professional selling and sales management. In 2005, he was selected as one of the four winners to receive an AMA Sales SIG/DSEF Sales Dissertation Research Grant. He is also one of the recipients of the Firooz Hekmat Award for the best paper at the Marketing Management Association conference in 2004.
He has published articles in the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, Marketing Letters, Journal of Strategic Marketing, Journal of International Management, Performance Improvement, PerformanceXpress and Human Performance. He has also presented research papers at various national and international conferences, including the ISPI Annual Conference. Currently, he serves as an editorial review board member for the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice and a research associate at the UMSL International Business Institute.

Prior to join the academia, he gained valuable sales, marketing, and management experience in the pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries. For five years, he worked as sales representative, commercial supervisor, and district sales manager for a Johnson & Johnson company in China. As sales manager, he led a team of 30 pharmaceutical sales representatives and was responsible for a $12 million sales budget. In 2006, he was inducted to Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society for collegiate schools of business. He joined the Alpha Mu Alpha National Marketing Honorary Society as a faculty member in 2012.

He has been an ISPI member since 2011 and received the designation of Certified Performance Technologist (CPT). He is a founding member, Vice President and liaison of the ISPI China Chapter and served as the Vice President of Membership/Marketing of the ISPI St. Louis Chapter. For years, he has been working as a CPT Reviewer (both English and Chinese), serving the ISPI Awards of Excellence Committee, reviewing for the ISPI Annual Conference, and volunteering for the ISPI Marketing Committee. Together with colleagues in ISPI-China, he has been promoting the ISPI and HPT in China since 2011. As part of the effort, they have translated five books, dozens of articles and the HPT Model into Chinese (see the Chinese version HPT Model posted on ISPI webpage). For years, he has been conducting research by integrating the HPT with marketing and sales management literature. As results of the endeavor, he hasnintroduced the HPT to business school curricular by offering redesigned marketing and sales management courses with built-in performance improvement components. His research on the interface of marketing and performance improvement has generated multiple articles published at major academic journals and a book proposal, which is currently under review by a major publisher. Recently, he was appointed as the International Associate Editor of Performance Improvement Quarterly, the only academic journal dedicated to performance improvement research. In addition to academic research, teaching and volunteer work, he helps American and Chinese companies and organizations improve their business performance through consulting and advising efforts.