Dr. Omowale Elson

Experience

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  Nation Newspaper (Barbados)

  Jan 1982 - Jan 1991

  Journalist

  News, Feature, and Business Writer.

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  AKRI

  Jan 1995 - Jan 2010

  Consultant

  Designed and facilitated three-day and week-long experiential leadership training activities for executive and organizational leaders from government, private sector, higher education and nonprofit sectors; coached them to understand their organizational roles and their authority to undertake tasks within their in institutions; and supervised trainee consultants in understanding system dynamics and the boundaries of their role; collaborated with other consultants on the team to achieve conference goals; and supported the director’s role. As former chair of marketing committee, I designed promotional strategies to increase visibility and attract new membership to leadership training conferences; and served as Editor of the organization’s newsletter. Show less

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  Morgan State University

  Jan 2000 - Jul 2006

  Lecturer

  Curriculum development and instruction in the following courses: Communication and Conflict, Communication for Leadership, Business & Professional Communication, and Team Development, Political Communication, Advanced Public Speaking, Strategic Global Communication, Group Discussion, and Telecommunication Internship. Taught graduate courses in: Strategic Planning and Control, and Telecommunication Project Seminar; and co-founded an annual Explorations of Leadership Conference for graduate and undergraduate students. Served as Graduate Coordinator for Masters Degree in Telecommunications, 2004-2005. Program received more support from the Graduate School and student enrollment increased by 30 percent, enabling the program to offer courses in sequence. Chaired Adjudication Committee, 2003, containing 100% disputes within the department. Show less

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  University of Maryland

  Jan 2006 - now

  As a senior member of a large consulting team, worked closely with department deans, chairs, managers and administrators to identify opportunities for better ways of working together within and across departments, and in designing strategic plans to align with the institution’s mission and vision. Provided project leadership, design, and OD solutions to a wide range of projects in the form of faculty/administrators retreats, strategic planning, and advisement at meetings. Coached leadership groups – chairs, faculty, managers, and administrative directors – on effective cross-functional communication, change management, role and task clarification, boundary management, and behavioral change. Designed training programs using adult learning methodology, communication and management theories, and systems thinking. Leveraged expertise in focus groups, structured interviews, document reviews, surveys, exit interviews, narrative and thematic coding as a solid triangulated methodology to collect and analyze data from which strategic objectives were developed and implemented. Taught a senior-level undergraduate course of 30 students in Leadership in Groups. Show less

  • Adjunct Professor

    Jan 2000 - now

  • Former Internal Organizational Development Consultant

    Jan 2006 - Sept 2009
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  Plexus Institute

  Jan 2008 - Jan 2009

  Consultant

  As a group of senior consultants, we met monthly to share consulting experiences, best practices, and new organizational development methodologies with the intention to increase knowledge and competencies, and plan training workshops.

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  Trinity Washington University

  Jan 2010 - Jan 2015

  Adjunct Graduate Faculty

  Assisted the university to achieve its mission in graduating professionals and leaders for the public relations and media industry.

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  Montgomery College

  Jan 2016 - now

  Part-Time Professor of Communication
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  Elson Consulting Group LLC

  Aug 2021 - now

  Vice President for Growth & Strategic partnerships

  In this new role, I will identify and build sustainable relationships with our partners. While developing internal capacity to response to exponential changes in the environment, I will collaborate with our partners to interpret what opportunities are present in this new psychological situation of the Covid-19 disruption of the macro-environment in which their enterprises and employees reside. Defining key communication processes to energize employees’ leadership run core to the growth initiatives embedded in our new agile products and services, which I will be leading in our client systems for transformation and empowerment. I am delighted that this process has already started where I am consulting to one of our partners to not only flatten its hierarchical authority structure but is engaging its employees as core decision-makers in every aspect of the company. As a subject matter expert in leadership, human communication, and capacity building, I will continue to assist organizations to grow the capability to unleash the creative potential that resides in their staff, the organization, and with their strategic partners. Show less