ICSEW Conference Speakers Announced!

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2018 ICSEW Conference At-a-Glance

Presenter Information

Keynote: Theresa Whitmarsh, Executive Director, Washington State Investment Board

Topic: Goal Setting

Goal-setting and career plans are powerful tools for professional development. But sometimes there is no substitute for opportunistic risk-taking. Theresa Whitmarsh, Executive Director at the Washington State Investment Board, describes her own career as a non-traditional experiment rather than a perfectly planned path. As a woman leader (the name plaque on desk says “Girl Boss”) working in a traditionally male-dominated industry, Theresa has combined empathy, curiosity, communication and some big risk-taking to navigate her way to leadership. She will share highlights of her journey, including some hard lessons learned.

Topic: Your Financial Preparedness Emergency Kit

Presenter: Suzanne Klenk, Washington State Employees Credit Union
Emergencies happen, so come get the tools you need to be ready for an emergency – natural disaster, financial or otherwise.

Topic: Successfully Navigating the Multi generational Workforce

Presenter: Joanne Lee, Department of Enterprise Services
Millennials are increasing in numbers in the workplace, entering workforce with Baby Boomers. May have different learning, management styles. How to create a harmonizing workplace among many generations, retaining institutional knowledge.

Topic: Finding Your Genius Zone

Presenter: Sue Hallowell, CEO, Courageous Chicks Consulting
Discover your genius zone, that place where your unique gifts meet the world’s need. Create your personal mission statement.

Topic: Authentic leadership: Showing up as your best self on even the worst day

Presenter: Amy Leneker
We will explore authentic leadership and what the research from around the world says that team members want in a leader.  Each participant will leave with a personalized action plan to take the next step on their authentic leadership journey.

Topic: Values 

In this workshop we will each identify our own values and explore how our values are (or are not) showing up in our lives every day.  We will also discuss how values can aid us in decision-making.

Topic: Acing the Toughest Interview Question

Presenter: Beth Rokstad and Marra Johnson, Employment Security Department and Labor and Industries Employment Specialists.
If you are actively looking for work, or looking to advance in your current field,you know the importance of adequately preparing for a job interview. But how do you prepare for the trickiest ones? From behavioral questions, questions designed to talk about weaknesses, co-workers you didn’t get along with, to questions about salary and benefits, this session will help you prepare for the toughest ones.

Topic: Identifying and Communicating Transferable Skills

This session focuses on how to “crack the code” of state employment applications. Beth Rokstad and Marra Johnson will explain the ins and outs of creating a job application that gets results. The session will focus answering questionnaires completely, and how to not only identifying skills, but communicating them on your application so it won’t get screened out.

Topic: Compassion Care

Presenter: Felice Davis, Washington Corrections Center for Women
Working on your own trauma while adding protective factors in your own life increase your effectiveness at work. Primarily for employees who work with at-risk populations (i.e: law enforcement, health/medical, corrections, social work, and first responders). Will have “takeaway tips” for mental health/work life balance/work effectiveness that can be applied to all professions

Topic: The Way of the Mysterial Woman – unlocking your inert leadership skills.

Suzanne Anderson, psychologist, author, executive coach, speaker and transformational facilitator
Faith Trimble, founder and owner of The Athena Group
Suzanne has dedicated the past 15 years of her career in leadership development to decoding an embodied, integral and accelerated pathway to unlock women’s innate leadership potential through her university certificate leadership programs. She is the co-author of the triple award-winning book The Way of the Mysterial Woman: Upgrading How you Live, Love and Lead. Faith has been a student of the Way of the Mysterial Woman for 2 years, and is integrating the “mysterial” into state and local government work when clients are open to transformational shifts in the way the work together.

Topic: Navigating the Generational Workforce

Presenter: Joanne Lee, Office of Financial Management
Millennials are some of the fastest growing generation segments in the workforce. Meanwhile we have baby boomers and everywhere in between who may have different work styles and values. They also maintain key institutional knowledge that will be passed to the newer workforce. This workshop focuses on how to maintain harmony and balance in the workplace across generations.

Topic: Culture Shift: Igniting and Sustaining Positive Change

Presenter: Betty Lochner, CEO, Cornerstone Consulting,
This presentation has the following objectives 1) Explore the definition of culture shift and your role in the process, 2) Learn how to assess gaps in your current organizational culture, 3) Tips and tools that will empower you to impact the culture you work in.

Topic: Overcoming Adversity in Today’s Workforce

Presenter: Danielle Armbruster, Assistant Secretary of the Reentry Division for the Department of Corrections
Danielle started working for the state over 20 years ago, she began her career as an Office Assistant and has risen through the ranks to the. An excerpt from Danielle’s speech: My first job was working as an office assistant in the sales department. I didn’t know how I was going to make it, but I took a deep breath and did my best to learn and grow as much as I could every day. I worked for terrible bosses and good ones too. There were moments I wanted to give up, moments I didn’t think I could make something of myself. It was tough being a young mom, daycare issues, and long hours away from my daughter. I cried a lot, but I used those tears to gain strength and show up every day good, bad or indifferent. Well… 21 years later I stand in front of you as an Assistant Secretary of the Reentry Division for the Department of Corrections which is one of the largest agencies in the state. My hard work has paid off and I have continued to be proud of the differences I have been able to make within each of the roles I have held. I will admit this wasn’t an easy journey although I have a passion for the work and the drive to continue to make a difference in lives for positive change.

Topic: Mindfulness at Work

Presenter: Larisa Benson and Vicki Oyadamori, Mindfulness Coaches, The Athena Group
Practicing mindfulness can ease your stress, improve your focus and increase resilience and creativity. In our fast-paced society, we are constantly distracted and it’s so easy to lose focus, become stressed out and overwhelmed. Based on the latest research in neuroscience and emotional intelligence, mindfulness can help you remain calm under pressure and cultivate that unmistakable sense of poise and presence. Benefits include improved health, resilient relationships, and higher personal and team performance. Join us to learn simple practices that can have a profound effect on your ability to perceive, connect, focus and relax.