Faculty Bios

The program is delivered by outstanding faculty and trainers with extensive professional experience and research-based knowledge on effective management processes, leadership practices, and the legislative institution from throughout the country.  The curriculum design and delivery emphasizes learning by doing, with practical application of skills for effective communication, team building, negotiation, legislative staff and enduring professional relationships connected by core values.

The biographies represent presenters from current and previous LSMI programs in Sacramento. 

• Tony Beard, Chief Sergeant at Arms, California State Senate
• Paul Danczyk,  Interim Director, State Capital Center, University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy
• Jerry Estenson, Professor, CSU, College of Business
• Ron Gilbert, Professor of Management, Florida International University
• Roderick Q. Hickman, Roderick Q. Hickman & Associates
• Dina Hidalgo, Director of Personnel, California State Senate
• Elisabeth Kersten, Chair, Policy and Public Administration Advisory Committee at CSUS
• Laree Kiely, President, L. Kiely, Inc.—Organizational Effectiveness Consultants
• Karl Kurtz, Director, Trust for Representative Democracy, National Conference of State Legislatures
• David Landis, Teacher, College of Law & Public Administration, University of Nebraska
• David Logan, Partner, JLS Consulting—Leadership, Strategy, Cultural Change & Executive Coaching
• Chester A. Newland, Teacher and Duggan Distinguished Professor of Public Administration, USC

Tony Beard
Tony Beard is the California Senate Chief Sergeant at Arms, serving in that role since 1979.  He is the past president of the National Legislative Services and Security Association, former president of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals, and past executive committee member of the National Conference of State Legislatures.  He is currently an advisory board member of the University of Southern California State Capital Center, SPPD; associate member of Bomb Technicians and Investigators; associate member of the Sacramento Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team; and member of the Northern California Peace Officers Association. 

Paul Danczyk, PhD
Paul Danczyk is the State Capital Center Interim Director for the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy. In his current capacity, Paul designs, coordinates and presents in leadership and management programs--impacting national, state and local governmental and nonprofit organizations--and teaches master-level classes on strategic management, leadership and public administration.

Paul is the past president and current board member of the American Society for Public Administration/Sacramento Chapter and the past president of the USC Alumni Club of Sacramento. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Namibia where he was an acting director of a teacher-training program at the National Institute for Educational Development.

Paul earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, focusing on Public and International Affairs; Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California; and BS from the Pennsylvania State University. danczyk@usc.edu
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Jerry Estenson, DPA
During more than 30 years in management, Jerry Estenson served as chief administrative and operations officer of a public agency and chief executive officer of two private corporations.  Estenson consults extensively in the United States, Russia and Asia.  His private clients have included INTEL, Raley’s, ATT (GBCS), and Sierra Spring Water.  In the public sector, his list of past and current clients include: California Department of Transportation, Sacramento Regional Transit District, Alameda Contra Costa Transit, Placer County, and the cities of Vallejo, Walnut Creek and Vacaville.

Since 1980, he has taught organizational behavior for California State University, Sacramento, and management for the University of California, Davis, St. Mary’s College of California, and Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.  He is currently a professor in the CSU, College of Business. He is actively engaged in research related to leadership behaviors of exemplary senior executives in business, government and the military.

He served in the United States Army starting as private and ending his service as an Infantry Captain.  The majority of his time in the Army was spent in Special Forces including a tour in Vietnam where he was a Recon Team Leader in Project Delta.

Estenson received his B.S. in Economics from the University of San Francisco.  He holds and M.B.A. from Portland State University, Oregon and master and doctorate degrees in Public Administration from the University of Southern California.

Ron Gilbert, PhD
Ron Gilbert is a professor of Management at Florida International University (the University of Florida at Miami).  Gilbert has also taught at the University of Colorado, University of Virginia, University of Southern California, and George Washington University.

He is involved in business and government as a speaker, workshop leader, management consultant, and organizational development specialist.  He works with corporate boards of directors, top executives in government and business (including key executives in the U.S. Office of the President), senior executive development centers, as well as professional societies, trade associations and key civic groups.  Several of his client organizations are distinguished as world class quality.

Gilbert is widely published in the areas of human resources management, policy management, organizational development and organizational design.  He has conducted original research in organizational quality, leadership and followership.  His leadership assessment instruments are used internationally in a variety of industries.  Gilbert is able to provide unique tailor-made programs for his clients who are dedicated to organization-wide participation for quality-driven performance.  He targets managing for quality in the workplace through service excellence, leadership, followership, tactical and strategic planning, team building and organization-wide participation.

Gilbert has co-authored the text Beyond Participative Management and has authored the book The TQM Factor and You Learn To:  Lead Yourself, Manage Your Boss, Delight Your Customer.

Roderick Q. Hickman
Rod Hickman is a nationally acclaimed corrections executive, reformer and consultant. Professionally he is recognized for his work in leading the historic reorganization of corrections in California. He was sworn in on November 17, 2003 at the historic inauguration of Governor Schwarzenegger, and again on July 1, 2005, after he led the largest government reorganization in California history. Mr. Hickman’s experience encompasses a wide range of public and private sector expertise in addition to a wealth of leadership and management experience to include, but not limited to, the following: Managing Director; Chief Deputy Director; Agency Secretary; Regional Administrator; Warden; Chairman, Corrections Standards Authority. 

Mr. Hickman has presented sessions to leaders of the following organizations: California Bar Association, National Association of Public Administration, Public Management Conference, American Psychiatric Association, California Legislature, National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, VERA Commission, California Little Hoover Commission, California district Attorneys Association, and American Probation & Parole Association.

Dina Hidalgo
Dina Hidalgo is the Director of Personnel for the California State Senate and is recognized as one of the State’s leading personnel professionals. In addition to writing and implementing the Senate’s EEO policies, she manages personnel matters for approximately 1000 employees and the other 39 Senators.

Dina is active in a number of community and civic affairs locally, statewide and nationally. She is the first woman to be elected as President of the National Legislative Services and Security Association and serves on the Legislative Staff Coordinating Committee of the National Conference of State Legislators. Recently, she was selected as a fellow to participate in the American Leadership Forum.  She is also currently an appointee to the Sacramento County Planning Commission and previously served as a Sacramento Sports Commissioner.  Dina was a founder and the first Co-Chair of the Latina Political Action Committee.

Elisabeth Kersten
Elisabeth Kersten has served as director of the Senate Office of Research for 20 years, a bipartisan think tank developing policy and preparing studies for the 40 members of the California State Senate.  In addition, the office assists the Senate Rules committee in background investigations into gubernatorial appointees subject to Senate confirmation.   She served under three Pro Tems and supervised a staff of up to 35 professionals.  Prior to joining the Senate Office of Research she served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown, Jr., consultant to the fiscal committees in the Senate and Assembly and deputy director in two executive agencies, the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Department of Employment Development.

She studied at UC Berkeley, receiving undergraduate degrees in English and Economics and a Master’s Degree from the School of  Public Policy.  This year she was recognized as the Alumna of the Year from her graduate school and also was awarded Outstanding Public Administrator  by the American Society for Public Administration, ASPA.

She recently retired from the Senate Office of Research and currently volunteers on a number of nonprofit boards in the areas of civic education, youth development and international environmental policy.  She also serves as chair of the Policy and Public Administration Advisory Committee at California State University Sacramento, an adjunct advisor with the UC Davis Masters’ program in Community Development and a member of the USC Sacramento Center Advisory Committee.
 

Laree Kielly, PhD
Laree Kiely is President of L. Kiely, Inc.—Organizational Effectiveness Consultants—and previously served for 15 years on the faculty of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, where she taught in the Executive MBA, executive education, and facilitator and trainer programs.  She has 25 years experience consulting, facilitating, and teaching organizational behavior in the US, Canada, Australia, the Czech Republic, and the People’s Republic of China.

Kiely received her B.A. and M.A. from the University of Colorado and her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.  Prior to her appointment at USC, she was the manager of Technology Services at First Interstate of California.

Kiely is the recipient of several teaching awards including the USC Marshall School of Business “Golden Apple” Award for Teaching Excellence and the “Teacher of the Year” Award from the USC Food Industry Management Program.  Her Distance Learning Course called “Leading the Global Workforce” was awarded the Best Distance Learning Program of 1996 by the International  Distance Learning Association.  In 1997, she was given the  “Most Significant Contribution by an Individual to Distance Learning” award by IDLCON. In 1998, she was awarded the overall “Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching” IDLCON, and in 1999, her course on “Negotiation:  Plays, Ploys, and Pitfalls” was granted the Best Distance Learning Program for Corporate Development from IDLCON.   In 2000, the International Society for Performance Improvement presented Dr. Kiely with the “Best Instructional Product or Intervention” award.

In addition to several papers and articles on business issues, Kiely is the author of “Measurement in Executive Development:  Is It Gonna Show, Do We Wanna Know?” in The Corporate University Handbook: Designing, Managing, and Growing a Successful Program, Amacom Press 2002; “Overcoming Time and Distance:  International Virtual Executive Teams” in Advances in Global Leadership, Volume 2, JAI 2001; and co-author of Taking Charge:  A Guide to Personal Productivity, Addison-Wesley 1991, and Everything’s  Negotiable, Amacom Press 1994.

You can see her award-winning program Introduction to Business Communications:  Tools for Leadership, regularly on PBS/ETV and on the Federal Training Network. 

Karl Kurtz, PhD
Karl T. Kurtz has worked for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) since its founding in 1975. He is director of NCSL’s Trust for Representative Democracy, a public outreach and education program designed to promote civic engagement and counter public cynicism and distrust toward American democracy. Karl has written, consulted and lectured widely on American state legislatures, elections and public opinion. He is coauthor of Republic on Trial: The Case for Representative Democracy (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2003) and coeditor of Institutional Change in American Politics: The Case of Term Limits. He has provided advice and assistance in the development of democratic institutions to legislators and legislative staff throughout the world.

Before joining NCSL, Karl taught political science at the University of Georgia. He worked on the staff of the United States Congress as a Congressional Fellow of the American Political Science Association. He currently chairs the regional selection panel for the Harry S Truman Scholarship Foundation and serves on the Boulder County Planning Commission. He holds an AB degree from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. from Washington University (St. Louis). 

David Landis, J.D.
David Landis is director of urban development for the city of Lincoln, a former Nebraska state senator, an award-winning teacher and a skilled negotiator in the public arena.  Many of the over 250 bills he has passed in twenty-four years in the Nebraska Unicameral were consensus measures forged by negotiation that brought contesting parties to agreement.  Landis has brokered legislative agreements between labor and management, utilities and ratepayers, big banks and small banks, insurance companies and trial attorneys and other seemingly intractable foes.

Landis has passed legislation to create a statewide network of mediation centers, establish a system for negotiated administrative rulemaking in state government, extend the use of arbitration to resolve disputes and create the state labor-management collective bargaining system.

His skill has been developed at training seminars at Harvard, MIT and the University of Illinois.  Currently he teaches lawyers and graduate public administrators to negotiate at the University of Nebraska College of Law and the Department of Public Administration.  Landis has three times been the Best Teacher award winner at Doane College.  His workshop clients include: Internal Revenue Service, Pacific Public Policy Program, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, State Farm Insurance Co., Western Fire Chiefs Association, Rocky Mountain Public Policy Program, California League of Cities and the Southwest Leadership Program.

Landis graduated from the University of Nebraska with a B.A. (1970), Juris Doctor (1971), a Masters of Public Administration (1984), and a Masters in Regional and Community Planning (1995). 

David Logan, PhD
Dave Logan is an expert in the practice of building high-performance organizations.  He is also a frequent keynote speaker on the topics of emerging patterns of corporate leadership, executive coaching, organizational transformation, and team performance.

Logan consulted to the California Performance Review, started by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, which is created with recommendations that will save the state $32 billion over five years.  He is on the faculty at the Foundation for Medical Excellence, along with former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, and teaches in the International Center for Leadership In Finance (ICLIF), endowed by the former prime minister of Malaysia; in that capacity, Logan has met with the current and immediate past prime ministers of the country, and has taught the top corporate officers of East Asian banks.

He has been interviewed on CNN, National Public Radio, the Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal.  Logan is Senior Partner of JLS Consulting., a management consulting firm specializing in cultural change, executive coaching and strategy.  JLS's clients include Amgen, Intel, American Express, Southern California Edison, and Health Net.

From 2001-2004, he served as Associate Dean of Executive Development at USC’s Marshall School of Business, where he still serves on the faculty.  He teaches in the Executive MBA, the Master of Medical Management, and in Executive Education programs.

He has written dozens of articles, training programs and two books, including Reinventing Your Career (1996, McGraw-Hill), and The Coaching Revolution (2000 and 2004, Adams Media, with John King).  Logan has a Ph.D. in Organizational Communication from the Annenberg School at USC.

Chester A. Newland, PhD
Chester Newland is a teacher at the University of Southern California, where he is the Duggan Distinguished Professor of Public Administration.  He is a fellow and past trustee of the National Academy of Public Administration.  He is a past national president of the American Society of Public Administration.  He has been an honorary member of the International City/County Management Association since 1980, and he is a member of the Cal-ICMA Board, 2003-2004.  Newland was the initial director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, first working at the White House and then in Austin to establish that institution.  Newland served twice as director of the Federal Executive Institute, the U.S. Government’s training and development center for top executives.

In the Summers of 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000, Newland served in Kazakhstan for the United Nations Development Programme in work to create the Agency on Civil Service and as a UNDP Functional Review Advisor to the Government and the World Bank.  In 2002, he returned to Astana for Strategy Kazakhstan 2030.  His other recent international work outside of Canada and Mexico has been in Kuwait in 1991 and in 1995-1997; Bangladesh, 1997; Greece, 1999-2002 & 2004; Hungary, 1991-1992; Korea, 1998, Moldova, 1994; Poland, 1991-1992, and Taiwan, ROC, 2001.