Jeff Nigro
Jeffrey Nigro is an independent art historian, lecturer and educator. He received his B.A. at Oberlin College and his M.A. in art history at the University of Virginia. Jeff has had a professional relationship with the Art Institute of Chicago for over 20 years, first as a staff lecturer, then as Director of Adult Programs in the Department of Museum Education. He has acted as Study Leader on Art Institute sponsored trips to Italy, Greece and Germany, and received the Art Institute Chairman's Award for outstanding service in 2003. Jeff has given pre-concert lectures for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, both at Symphony Center and at the Ravinia Festival, and is a frequent speaker for The Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA). Jeff was The JASNA Traveling Lecturer for the Midwest for 2001, and currently serves as Academic Liaison for the Greater Chicago Region of JASNA.

Annie Morse
Annie Morse is Senior Lecturer in Museum Education and liaison to the academic community. At the Art Institute, she coordinates the annual Graduate Student Seminar and a Chicago-based artist lecture series, Artists Connect. Annie has been lecturing for the Department of Museum Education at the Art Institute since 1996. She graduated from the Master's program in Modern Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute after earning her undergraduate degree at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and recently received her Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is an independent curator who has worked with the Contemporary Arts Council, The Three Arts Club of Chicago, and the Hyde Park Art Center.

Margaret Farr
Margaret Farr is a lecturer in the Department of Museum Education at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has also worked as Assistant Director of Teacher Programs. She received her Ph.D. in Art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she specialized in nineteenth-century French art, writing The Mythologization of the Modern Artist: Van Gogh’s Published Letters for her master’s thesis and The Impressionist Portrait: A Study in Context and Meaning for her dissertation. She previously worked as the Assistant Director of Education at the Museum of Contemporary Art, where she lectured and helped shape education programming, and has worked as a freelance lecturer, editor, and evaluator. Margaret has also taught at Columbia College Chicago and St. Xavier University.

Brendan Sullivan
Brendan Sullivan helps organizational teams and leaders to communicate and collaborate more effectively, in order to create more dynamic solutions, better ideas, and a healthier, more positive work environment where talented people can thrive. His clients include Kellogg’s, GE, Aetna, Harley-Davidson, Marriott Hotels, Sara Lee and Jenny Craig. Brendan’s programs are informed by his career as an advertising sales manager for the New York Times Magazine Group, as well as his second career as a professional improvisational performer, coachand teacher since 1988.

Jonathan Vehar
Jonathan Vehar is a Senior Partner at New & Improved, LLC, an organizational development firm focused on the people skills for innovation. Organizations that have benefited from expertise include: Disney, GE, Johnson & Johnson, McDonalds, Pfizer, Texas Instruments, and the US EPA. Investor’s Business Daily calls Jonathan an “Innovation Guru” and he has written extensively about innovation and creative thinking. His latest book, co-authored with Bob Eckert is entitled, “More Lightning, Less Thunder: How to Energize Innovative Teams.” As a speaker and seminar leader, Jonathan has presented creativity programs to tens of thousands of people, primarily in The Americas. Jonathan lives in the Chicago area, and when he’s not working, Jonathan can be found racing sailboats, cooking, and chasing after his dog.

Jan Southern
Jan Southern is an independent consultant and founder of Wheatland Consulting Group that specializes in Corporate Training, Large Group Facilitation, and Teambuilding. She brings insight and innovative thinking with over 20 years experience working in both corporate and manufacturing settings with great Fortune 500 companies such as Abbott Labs, Kraft Foods, Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., and PepsiCo. Jan’s style is fun, energetic and collaborative, with attention to detail and design of all her workshops. Jan finds inspiration in her many flower and vegetable gardens, biking along the prairie paths in Naperville, and traveling in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

Adam Shames
Adam Shames (rhymes with “promise”) is an organizational consultant, facilitator, speaker and founder of the Kreativity Network, whose clients include Accenture, McDonald’s, Edelman Public Relations and the Promotional Products Association International. An expert in creativity, teambuilding and adult learning, Adam designs and facilitates leadership retreats, seminars and team meetings that help organizations build cultures of innovation and collaboration. He is a former “Teacher of the Year” with a master’s degree from Stanford University, and a writer whose blog, Innovation on my Mind, can be found at www.innovationonmymind.com.

Troy Cicero
Troy Cicero is a dynamic and engaging Diversity and Inclusion facilitator and consultant with nearly two decades of consulting services to various corporate clients. Highly effective at communicating important ideas in practical, useful ways that encourage individual and institutional accountability, Troy’s unique facilitation style and use of hands-on strategies ensure that all individuals are enlightened and empowered to achieve their organizational goals. An emotional intelligence strategist, Troy has an uncanny ability to convey genuine empathy and respect as he develops best methods to improve working relationships and strengthen organizational culture.

Elizabeth Cross
Specializing in designing and facilitating programs to heighten the innovative and creative process, Elizabeth Cross works with a range of clients including artists, medical students, agricultural suppliers, and market research analysts. She uses her own creative experience as a poet and a teacher for artists to guide and encourage clients to problem solve and create like artists do. Each program emphasizes experience based learning so that clients practice not just thinking creatively, but working creatively in order to enhance innovative abilities necessary in the workplace. Liz earned her Ph.D. in literature and creative writing at the University of Denver and has taught writing for the last 18 years at various locations including the University of Michigan and her current position in the Writing Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Awards and grants for her poetry include the Michigan Council for the Arts, the Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative Writers, and the Rocky Mountain Women's Institute.

Leslie Marquard
The phrase "we make clients wildly successful" began with a client describing the Leslie Marquard effect. Her way with questions and on-target guidance have created a global fan base of leaders and organizations that use her to help them set, refine, and reach stunning new goals. Her high-tech, collaborative methods produce actionable outcomes allowing clients to raise their own leadership bars. Leslie is a veteran leader of Ernst & Young's Chicago-based think tank, and now co-owns and operates Marble Leadership Partners. She is also a certified leadership coach. Past clients include: Nestle, Deloitte Consulting, Wal-Mart, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park and Moody Broadcasting. Leslie's vast corporate experience also covers utilities, textiles, pharmaceuticals, aerospace and defense, insurance, banking and healthcare. She earned her BS degree from Louisiana State University and her executive coaching certification from Georgetown University.