Legal

Roland Smith, Ph.D.
Senior Faculty and Lead Researcher

Roland Smith is a Senior Faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership. He is one of the lead designers and trainers for CCL's work in the legal sector. He has ten years of experience working with in-house counsel, senior teams (executive committees), practice groups, and regional law offices.

Roland leads CCL's current research agenda focused on senior lawyer-leaders (Changing Nature of Leadership in Law Firms) as well as organizational/firm issues related to new generation lawyers, high impact teams, diversity, wellness and fitness.

In addition to his work with attorneys, Roland has provided leadership training for doctors, scientists, engineers, accountants, and C-level corporate executives.

He received his Ph.D. in Organizational Learning from the University of Idaho.

Corey Criswell
Faculty

Corey is a faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership in Colorado Springs. She is the co-lead of the Legal Practice group. She has five years of experience working with lawyers and studying lawyer-influenced cultures. She concentrates on the needs of senior lawyer leaders, in house counsel, government lawyers, early career lawyers, and law firms. Her research serves as the basis for the development of customized solutions for organizations, law firms, government agencies, and law schools.

In addition to her work with attorneys, Corey has provided leadership development training for scientists, senior executives, high potentials, and human resource professionals.

She received her M.S. in Ecology from the Florida Institute of Technology.

William A. Gentry, Ph.D.
Faculty

Bill is a faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership's Greensboro campus. His areas of expertise include next generation lawyer leadership and high potential lawyer leadership. In addition to his work with lawyers, Bill focuses on research, where he has presented at more than fifty conferences, published more than thirty peer-reviewed publications and six book chapters. His work on nonverbal communication and political savvy has also been featured in more than 40 internet and newspaper outlets. He is also an adjunct assistant professor in the Leadership Studies Doctoral Program at North Carolina A&T State University, the Psychology Department at Guilford College, the Business School at Wake Forest University, and the Organizational Sciences Program at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

Bill received his Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of Georgia.

Ted Grubb, Ph.D.
Senior Faculty

Ted is a Senior Enterprise Associate at the Center for Creative Leadership in Colorado Springs. His areas of expertise include developing and delivering custom programs on leadership and coaching for law firms, individual and team coaching of senior partners and executives, and writing and research.

He has more than fifteen years of experience working with lawyers and in-house counsel on a variety of issues related to individual and organizational leadership development.

Ted received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts.

Jamie Gurley
Senior Faculty

Jamie is a Senior Program Associate with the Center for Creative Leadership. He assists lawyer-leaders in setting strategic direction, creating team alignment, and ensuring staff motivation in support of business performance.

Jamie designs and delivers leadership development, executive team building, coaching, and strategic alignment processes and programs. He is an expert in organizational culture change.

Jamie has extensive international experience delivering multiple leadership programs in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Australia, New Zealand, and Korea.

He holds a Master's of Divinity from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.

George Houston
Design and Delivery Manager

George Houston is the Design and Delivery Manager at the Center for Creative Leadership's San Diego campus. He has been working with senior executive teams, law school students, and large law firms since 2007. George manages the faculty pipeline and oversees program design at the San Diego campus.

In addition to his work in the legal sector, George has provided leadership development experiences for community medical clinics, non-profit organizational executives, all levels of education, high ranking military officers, intelligence agencies, state department, pharmaceutical companies, media networks, and the food & beverage industry.

George has completed doctoral requirements at Antioch University in Leadership and Change.

Claudia Busch Lee, Ph.D.
Adjunct Faculty

Claudia Busch Lee is an Adjunct Faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership. Her area of expertise includes designing and delivering customized programs to senior leaders and partners worldwide and her work has assisted in the development of high performing cross-cultural teams in Russia, Poland, Holland, Germany, Singapore, China and Indonesia. She has worked with lawyers, executives and teams from a variety of Fortune 500 companies in wide range of fields including Manufacturing, Educational, Technology, Energy, and Insurance.

Claudia obtained a Ph.D. from Florida State University, an M.S. from the University of Colorado, an M.A. from the University of Wyoming and a B.S. degree from North Dakota State University.

Dave Loring
Senior Faculty

Dave Loring is an adjunct Faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership. His areas of expertise include the formation and sustained growth of senior firm leadership, measuring lawyer team effectiveness, and assisting lawyer teams in the creation of action plans that improve business results.

He has more than 23 years of experience developing and delivering leadership programs for clients worldwide. He has been designing and facilitating leadership training for lawyers and law firms since 1999.

Dave received his Master's degree in Organizational Development from Loyola University in Chicago.

William McCord, Ed.D.
Senior Advisor

Bill is a Senior Account Manager at the Center for Creative Leadership. Because of the depth and breadth of his business experience, Bill manages key accounts including several large and mid-sized law firms. He is skilled at assessing firm needs with particular expertise in the areas of senior firm leadership and leading lawyer teams for impact. Bill has experience providing account management for a variety of professional groups including physicians and astronauts. He has years of experience matching firms with the right instructional designer, faculty, and executive coaches as well as making sure that services and outcomes meet each firm's expectations.

Bill holds a Doctorate in Education from Syracuse University.

Sharon McDowell-Larsen, Ph.D.
Fitness and Health Faculty

Sharon is a Program Associate at the Center for Creative Leadership at the Colorado Springs campus. She has created a Fitness for Leadership module designed specifically to help law firm partners improve their health and fitness. In addition to her work with law firm partners, Sharon has worked with a variety of other top professionals including senior corporate executives, surgeon generals, and military leaders. Her areas of expertise include examining the relationship between law firm leadership and fitness, and the impact of exercise on reduction of risk factors for coronary heart disease.

Sharon holds a Ph.D. in exercise physiology from the University of Nebraska where she conducted extensive research on the effects of exercise on the immune system.

Nick Petrie
Senior Faculty

Nick is a Senior Faculty member with the Center for Creative Leadership. Nick designs and delivers partner level leadership programs as well as customized leadership programs for senior leaders around the world. Nick conducted research on "Future Trends in Law Firm Leadership Development" in partnership with Harvard Law School. His current research focus is on methods to increase learning transfer and behavior change in the six months following a training program. Nick is from New Zealand and has significant international experience having spent ten years living and working in Japan, Spain, Scotland, Ireland, Norway and Dubai.

Nick holds a Master's degree from Harvard University and two undergraduate degrees from Otago University (New Zealand) in Business Administration and Physical Education.

Debby Stone, JD, CPCC, PCC
Adjunct Faculty

Debby Stone is an Adjunct Faculty member at the Center for Creative Leadership. In addition to being a certified, accredited coach, Debby is a former practicing lawyer. She began her 16-year legal career with McKenna Long & Aldridge and then she founded and ran her own law practice focusing on corporate, technology and intellectual property law. Debby provides coaching and training to lawyers and their firms to improve leadership, management and communication skills. In addition to her work with lawyers, Debby also coaches and trains corporate executives and high potentials in a variety of industries.

Debby holds undergraduate and law degrees from Duke University.