Our Core Faculty
david huffner
president & principal consultant
David Huffner is the President and a Principal Consultant for Avid Learner, Inc. Before co-founding the company in 1999, he spent ten years as a Senior Consultant for Development Dimensions International, one of the top talent management consultancies in the world. Most of his time is spent serving corporate clients, though he often teaches at the University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, and was an Adjunct Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business. He is also an Executive Coach.
David’s consulting and research place him in frequent and close contact with emerging leaders, star performers, and those who aspire to star performance in the workplace. His engagements include working with all levels of management, and have taken him beyond the United States and Canada, to South and Central America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He draws extensively on these experiences when presenting.
View David’s LinkedIn Profile
David Binder
executive coach & facilitator
Specialty: Executive Presence, Communication and Presentation
David Binder is a co-founder of Avid Learner, Inc., and an adjunct Talent Management Consultant for the company. He has worked with organizations in industries including manufacturing, high technology, banking, service, health care and government. He has extensive experience in delivering training on productivity, leadership, organizational change, team-building, problem-solving, performance management and selection skills to employees and all management levels.
David’s clients have appreciated his outstanding facilitation skills, his ability to link learning to business objectives and outcomes, his intense focus on customer satisfaction at all levels, and his content knowledge. He is frequently sought by customers to facilitate sessions for senior audiences, and he works effectively with all organization levels. He is also an Executive Coach, and certified in the administration of Hogan Personality assessments and StrengthsFinder.
View David’s LinkedIn Profile
Alice Pescuric
executive coach & facilitator
Alice Pescuric is an adjunct Talent Management Consultant for the company who brings to our clients a wealth of experience as an Executive Coach and facilitator, drawing on her former roles as a business unit manager and human resources professional. Alice began her career in the fast-paced, competitive world of retailing where her responsibilities included Director of Training, Director of Executive Development, and finally, Director of Manpower and Succession Planning. After 10 years in retail, Alice joined Development Dimensions International (DDI), a world leader in Human Resources consulting.
Alice successfully led several of DDI’s business units and served as a senior officer of the company and member of the executive operating committee. In these roles, Alice spearheaded the management and launch of over 20 new products including award-winning initiatives in the areas of leadership and executive development. She also drove the use of advanced electronic delivery technologies including the highly innovative intranet-based leadership system, OPAL (Online Performance and Learning).
View Alice’s LinkedIn Profile
AMY FOSTER
culture change consultant & executive coach
Amy Foster is an Adjunct Consultant on Transformational Change for Avid Learner, Inc., and a Leadership Coach. She is also the President and founder of Unbridled Performance, LLC, a transformational change management, team and leadership development consulting firm. Her personal mission is to be a catalyst in changing the way business is done by helping individuals, teams, and organizations transform the way they think and behave, in order to achieve unbridled performance. Amy has a deep background in leadership coaching—both group coaching processes to build high performance leadership teams and individual leadership coaching. She also has over 25 years of experience in strategic facilitation in the area of business model innovation, setting strategic intent and dynamic steering for effective execution.
Amy is the developer of “Horse Enhanced Accelerated Learning,” a unique outdoor business simulation utilizing horses to create an accelerated learning environment where top management teams can learn the importance of and gain skills in:
• Developing a clarity of vision, mission, and goals
• Gaining commitment to action
• Opening honest communication channels
• Encouraging individual accountability and shared leadership
• Building strategic thinking capabilities and customer focus
• Allowing for creative risk taking
• Distinguishing the difference between effectiveness and efficiency
View Amy’s LinkedIn Profile and Unbridled Performance Website
AUDREY SMITH
EXECUTIVE COACH
Dr. Audrey Smith is an avid practitioner, thought-leader, and architect for executive services and succession offerings. She has over 25 years of experience with boards, CEOs, and executive teams striving for high performance, business transformation, and growth. In collaboration with numerous colleagues, Audrey has created an extensive range of leadership strategy, assessment, and development offerings to help client organizations shape new futures.
Audrey is known for leading executives to incisive personal and business insights, helping them imagine new possibilities in their unique context. Her consulting and executive coaching experience spans diverse industries across the globe, including manufacturing, healthcare, technology, energy, engineering, consumer products, retail and financial services.
She is a prolific author and speaker across a range of leadership topics. She has authored and collaborated on numerous articles, research studies, and books, including Grow Your Own Leaders (2001), Leaders Ready Now (2016), and High-Resolution Leadership (2016). Recent whitepapers and blogs include “Are We Underselling the Promise of Women Leaders in STEM?”, “Disruption is the CEO’s Best Friend”, and the soon to be released “How to Prepare for the C-Suite Churn Ahead.”
B. JEAN FERKETISH
culture change consultant, facilitator & executive coach
Jean brings experience in business, healthcare, and academia, as she partners with organizations to improve performance and strengthen culture. By simultaneously focusing on both the people and process sides of the organization, she has improved service and product quality, leadership, teamwork, and employee engagement.
Jean served as Secretary of the Board of Trustees and Assistant Chancellor for the University of Pittsburgh for 14 years. She was an elected officer of the University and directed the office that provided professional support to the Chairman of the Board, the 84 members of the Board and its 15 standing committees. She led a variety of projects requiring an ability to build consensus across constituency groups, affect the image of the University and provide advice on sensitive and complex situations.
She directed more than fifty successful organizational improvement efforts within the University, including process redesign, culture change, competency-based systems alignment, training, and team structures. Jean was also recognized by the University of Pittsburgh for exemplary accomplishments, including the introduction of organizational development methods to improve service quality and cost-effectiveness.
During this time, she also held joint appointments on the faculty of the School of Education and the Graduate School of Public and International Affair and taught graduate level classes in the School of Engineering, the School of Public Health, and the School of Social Work on change management, innovation, leadership, and organizational culture.
anna-maria rose
executive coach
Anna-Maria Rose brings a wealth of experience from the thousands of executives she’s assessed and coached to be their best selves. She is known for the challenging yet warm and engaging style with which she invites managers, professionals, and executives to align their leadership styles and drive specific business and cultural objectives. Her natural empathy and nonjudgmental listening style inspire profound trust. Clients appreciate her knack for supporting greater self-insight and focus on exploring pragmatic actions to identify and resolve concerns.
Anna-Maria has lived and worked in Germany, China, and the UK successively. She has broad experience in succession management, executive assessment, coaching and development. Her international exposure deepened the knowledge she had already gained as an expert in talent management solutions and their implications for multinational organizations. Her rich background in assessment analytics, research, development tools and techniques, her values and commitment to meaningful and measurable change, are core to her approach, whether designing an effective succession management strategy or coaching a newly hired VP.
Heidi Florczak
EXECUTIVE COACH
Specialty: Executive Presence, Communication and Presentation
Heidi Florczak is an energetic consultant with a rich training background. Through personalized one-on-one coaching, Heidi supports executives and other business leaders in becoming dynamic, impactful speakers who exude confidence and executive presence.
She has worked with executives, organizations, and industries around the world, including aerospace, automotive, aviation, biopharma, banking and other financial services, healthcare, hi-tech, manufacturing, military/defense, retail and transportation.
She frequently facilitates workshops on topics such as presentation skills, leadership development, customer service, team building, business etiquette, conflict resolution, employee engagement, and performance management. Heidi relates well to individuals and groups of all levels, from the individual contributor to executive leadership. She fosters connections and delivers results with her depth of knowledge, warmth, relatability and wonderful sense of humor.
Leanne Meyer
Executive Coach & Facilitator
Leanne Meyer helps leaders navigate critical inflection points, refocus professional identities and develop new skills. With more than thirty years of senior-level consulting and executive development experience, Leanne offers her coaching clients evidence-based methods that can reinvigorate their professional lives by reclaiming passion and purpose.
Her work often focuses on assisting leaders as they transition, where many have outgrown their professional identity and, given the demands and responsibility of their roles, need to change their perspective regarding what is important and where to spend their time. She helps leaders identify new ways of thinking, new skill sets and behaviors they need to develop.
Leanne’s calling is to help leaders make sense of their lives and strengthen their impact. Beginning in South Africa, Leanne had the good fortune to follow this calling on three continents in corporate, academic, and non-profit settings as a business leader, program designer and developer, entrepreneur, facilitator, speaker, educator, and coach.
Her career and creativity are anchored in leadership development—in helping people discover their potential, stand strong in their values, claim their worth, and believe in their talents to become the leaders they want to be in ways that embrace possibility and potential.
tiffany castagno
facilitator
Tiffany Castagno is the CEO & Founder of CEPHR, LLC, a Human Resources Consulting Firm that supports small to mid-sized businesses to build their infrastructures-to-scale, strong teams, and a strong employer brand and culture.
She is a transformative HR Curator of Culture. Tiffany has practiced Human Resources for 14 years and has a true passion for Human Resources and continuing to cultivate the evolution of Human Resources. She knows and appreciates the power of relationships, and trusts her stakeholders in the process as much as they trust her
Her “Why” is building more psychologically safe organizations and cultures and stronger leadership to support the people and processes within organizations.
SUSAN TUCKER
EXECUTIVE COACH & FACILITATOR
Susan Tucker has a broad background in executive assessment, succession management, coaching and organizational culture change. She has worked with hundreds of organizations across the spectrum of technology, retail, energy, manufacturing, and health care.
For more than 30 years, Susan has been involved from the ground up in creating and implementing succession planning initiatives, helping organizations identify their hidden talent, and then coaching leaders to increase their readiness to take on roles with increasing responsibilities.
She has advised organizations on selecting board members, coached new CEO’s as they took on the daunting task of running an organization, and helped hundreds of independent contributors successfully transition into their first leadership roles.
Susan’s passion lies in helping people grow and in realizing their full potential, creating meaning in their work, and connecting who they are with what they do. Her direct, but warm and non-confrontational style provides a mirror for leaders to gain a true picture of their strengths and potential derailers. She encourages leaders to capitalize on those strengths while at the same time improving in their areas of development.
SHEILA RIOUX
EXECUTIVE COACH & FACILITATOR
Sheila Rioux is an Adjunct Consultant and Facilitator for Avid Learner, Inc. and is the founder of LeadBeyond Coaching, LLC. She helps leaders harness their analytical skills and hone their emotional intelligence to solve the big business and people challenges in front of them with confidence. She capitalizes on 20+ years of experience in behavioral assessment to empower leaders with the knowledge and skills to impact the business and inspire their people.
As a coach, Sheila blends science with practical methods to build leaders’ skills and strengthen their mindsets. Sheila works with leaders to open their minds, allowing them to think and ‘feel’ from different perspectives. She quickly helps them see to the core of organizational challenges and interpersonal dynamics. Leaders gain greater awareness of self and others, along with a broader perspective of the business. Sheila’s clients walk away with the confidence and skills to tackle leadership challenges with a positive attitude and make a lasting impact within their organizations.
Sheila makes leaders feel at ease yet challenged and energized to make significant changes that result in both personal growth and positive business outcomes. She helps them “trust their own voice and lean into their own authentic leadership style.”
ARADHNA OLIPHANT
EXECUTIVE COACH & STRATEGIC FACILITATOR
Purposeful and positive, Aradhna is a thoughtful listener, which allows her to grasp the strategic drivers of an enterprise or system as well as develop authentic relationships quickly—a skill set that she leverages in her coaching engagements.
Aradhna has a broad range of experiences that make her well-suited as an executive coach—she has led and successfully grown organizations herself, and has helped thousands of emerging and more senior leaders—including women and people of color—connect with their potential. She serves on a number of public and private sector boards and advisory groups, is sought-after by the media for her insights on leadership, and is a frequently-requested guest speaker at conferences. And she understands how to overcome the challenges involved in bringing about change in complex systems and organizations. She especially enjoys coaching clients on how to broaden their perspective and think holistically, use strategic influence, navigate the politics of an organization and make impactful presentations.
Her training in Organizational Development as well as in neuroscience-based coaching has sharpened her ability to help groups navigate complex decision terrains while being mindful of the external brand and internal company culture. She recently completed a long tenure as the President and CEO of a Leadership Institute in Pennsylvania. Her work with over 3,000 established and younger leaders from a diversity of companies and backgrounds gives her a unique perspective on the talent pipeline across industry sectors. An entrepreneur by nature, Aradhna demonstrates an intuitive understanding of emerging trends.
Contact us to find out more, or to schedule a consultation with an expert on talent development, team development or organizational change.