Meet the Authors

Stewart I. Donaldson is Professor and Chair of Psychology, Director of the Institute of Organizational and Program Evaluation Research, and Dean of the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences at Claremont Graduate University. Dean Donaldson continues to develop and lead one of the most extensive and rigorous graduate programs specializing in applied psychology and evaluation science. He has taught numerous university courses, professional development workshops, and has mentored and coached more than 100 graduate students and working professionals during the past two decades. Dr. Donaldson has also provided organizational consulting, applied research, or program evaluation services to more than 100 different organizations. He has been Principal Investigator on more than 30 extramural grants and contracts to support research, evaluations, scholarship, and graduate students at Claremont Graduate University. Dr. Donaldson serves on the Editorial Boards of the American Journal of Evaluation, New Directions for Evaluation, and the Journal of Multidisciplinary Evaluation; is co-founder and leads the Southern California Evaluation Association; and served as Co-Chair of the Theory-Driven Evaluation and Program Theory Topical Interest Group of the American Evaluation Association for eight years. He has authored or co-authored more than 200 evaluation reports, scientific journal articles, and chapters. His recent books include What Counts as Credible Evidence in Applied Research and Evaluation Practice? (2008; with Christina. A. Christie and Melvin M. Mark); Program Theory-Driven Evaluation Science: Strategies and Applications (2007); Applied Psychology: New Frontiers and Rewarding Careers (2006; with Dale E. Berger and Kathy Pezdek); Evaluating Social Programs and Problems: Visions for the New Millennium (2003; with Michael Scriven); Social Psychology and Evaluation (forthcoming; with Melvin M. Mark and Bernadette Campbell); and Applied Positive Psychology: Improving Everyday Life, Schools, Work, Health, and Society (forthcoming; with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Jeanne Nakamura). Dr. Donaldson has been honored with Early Career Achievement Awards from the Western Psychological Association and the American Evaluation Association.

Chrismon Nofsinger, CEO and founder of Nofsinger Group, a consultancy focusing on organizational change and leadership, is a trusted confidant and advisor to numerous CEOs, board members, and private equity investors. Chrismon is currently collaborating on his forthcoming book STAGE INTELLIGENCE: SECRETS OF HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS which will reveal the way he has used the powerful tool of analyzing the stages leaders are in during the course of his work as a consultant to more than 200 companies, from start-ups to Fortune 50. A protégé of Peter Drucker at Claremont Graduate University from which he attained a master’s degree and Ph.D. in organizational psychology and for which he now serves on its board, Chrismon developed his own leadership model called The Shift from One to Many™. After studying numerous leadership stage models as well as many other stage models during his 15 year career, he realized that using the stage lens was what enabled him to help his clients be far more effective in their lives and allowed him to somewhat predict the future for them, their companies and their teams. That understanding led him to examine what a more conscious use of stages could mean in people’s lives across the board. A sought after speaker and thought leader, Chrismon frequently speaks on the use of stages, organizational change and leadership to business, academic and nonprofit groups. He was a featured speaker at the National Association of Corporate Directors and the International Conference for Chief Financial Officers and at numerous CEO summits sponsored by private equity and venture capital. He has also spoken and taught leadership training at Claremont and Seattle University. The author of numerous articles and research being used by the Kellogg School of Management, Chrismon penned a dissertation titled the Use and Usefulness of Metaphors in Organizations that is frequently sited in leadership and learning articles and curriculum. He resides in Seattle with his wife Rena and their two sons.

Chrismon chose Echo Montgomery Garrett, a journalist with 25 years’ experience, as his co-author after she outlined in detail the process of writing and publishing a book. She is the author of How To Make a Buck and Still Be a Decent Human Being: A Week with Rick Rose at Dataflex (HarperBusiness, 1993), which received glowing reviews in the Wall Street Journal, Inc., Publisher’s Weekly and many others, and the ghost writer of Tales From the Top: Ten Crucial Questions from the World’s #1 Executive Coach (Nelson Business, Oct. 2005; Piatkus, Nov. 2005—U.K. only), a summer read pick in the Harvard Business Review On-line. Echo wrote Dream No Little Dreams: How Clay Mathile transformed The Iams Company into the leader of the pack in the world of pet nutrition, the authorized biography of Clayton L. Mathile, former CEO/Chairman of The Iams Company. A former contributing writer to Money, Business Week, Management Review and Investor’s Business Daily, and The Atlanta Business Chronicle, Echo has been published in more than 75 national magazines, newspapers and websites including INC. Magazine, The New York Times, Chief Executive, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, and ABCnews.com. She has been interviewed on Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, NY-1 and has done more than 50 radio interviews supporting book projects and magazine articles. Most recently she served as editor-in-chief of Atlanta Woman magazine. Her first issue took the Gold for Best Single Issue out of 300 entrants at the 2005 GAMMA awards sponsored by the Magazine Association of the Southeast. Married to Kevin Garrett and the mother of two teenage sons, the Auburn University journalism school graduate serves on the boards of Gift for a Child/The Heart Gallery Southeast, which encourages adoption out of the foster care system, and The Ruby Slipper Project, which grants interior design makeovers to families in need.