John F. Talbot, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President and Senior Associate
OPEN MINDS

Dr. John F. Talbot has more than 30 years experience in a variety of aspects of health care, including upper management, consultation, education, direct clinical work, and serving as the president of a nonprofit board. Talbot has provided consultation, training, and operational assistance to behavioral health providers, nonprofit organizations, and managed care organizations across the country.

Areas of focus for consultation and training include strategic planning, the development of successful strategic alliances, board development, organizational reengineering, operations management, management and leadership development, and change management.

Prior to his current position with OPEN MINDS, Talbot served as the president of nationally- recognized Colorado Care Management, a network of agencies providing care to children and families. In his role with Colorado Care Management, Talbot led the development of a coalition of Colorado business executives to address the issues of providing care to abused and neglected children, and he led the establishment of a nationwide purchasing cooperative for nonprofits. Talbot’s other previous experience included serving as director of the master of health systems program and associate dean of University College at the University of Denver. He also held senior management positions at Mount Airy Psychiatric Center in Denver.

Talbot has been a featured speaker at a number of national and state venues including the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, Mental Health Corporations of America (MHCA), the American Association of Children’s Residential Centers, the Medical Group Management Association, the Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council, and the New Jersey Association of Mental Health Agencies.

Talbot is the former publisher and editor of Today’s Healthcare Manager, a newsletter focusing on leadership and management skills for healthcare managers, and has written numerous articles, manuals, and book chapters. [TOP]

Alex Smith
Professional Football Player
San Francisco 49ers, National Football League

In addition to being a remarkable football player during his high school years, Alex Smith, was also a high achiever in the classroom, graduating 13th in a class of 430. In addition to leading his high school football team to a 25-1 record over two seasons, he also earned the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete honors twice.

Smith went on to be a student-athlete at the University of Utah, playing football and graduating with an economics degree in just two years with a GPA of 3.71. In 2004, Smith became the University of Utah’s first-ever Heisman Trophy finalist and he was selected as the Academic All American of the Year from a field of more than 360,000 student-athletes. In 2005, Smith was working on his master’s degree in economics when he was picked first in the National Football League draft and subsequently became a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League.

With continual parental involvement and encouragement in his own life, Smith wanted to share his positive familial experience with other children and began searching for innovative ways to help others—especially foster youth. He founded the Alex Smith Foundation, devoting its efforts to helping foster youth transition to a successful adulthood. He helped create the Alex Smith Foundation San Diego State University Guardian Scholars Program, which provides former foster youth the opportunity to receive individual and group support with personal, academic, and financial issues, allowing them the opportunity to experience a well balanced college experience free from financial and emotional burden, thus increasing their chance of graduation success.  [TOP]

Mike Eichler
Executive Director, Consensus Organizing Center
San Diego State University

Mike Eichler is a faculty member of the School of Social Work at San Diego State University and the director of the Consensus Organizing Center. He has more than 20 years experience in community organizing and is the creator of the method of consensus organizing. He has worked with unemployed steelworkers, casino owners, welfare recipients, bankers, corporate executives, and the homeless bringing them together around common self interest.

Eichler began his organizing career in Pittsburgh where he helped a neighborhood battle the illegal practices of racial steering and blockbusting by joining forces with a for-profit real estate firm. When hired by Pittsburgh executives to help address economic problems caused by the closing of the steel mills, he brought the unemployed and the business leaders together to begin revitalization of the region.

He was asked by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) to expand his work throughout the country and organized new grass roots efforts in such diverse cities as West Palm Beach, Fla.; New Orleans, La.; Las Vegas, Nev.; and Houston, Texas. Eichler began his own national nonprofit, the Consensus Organizing Institute, which trained organizers in the consensus organizing method.

In 1999 he joined academia where he said he “would never be heard from again.” Eichler has been recognized for his contributions by receiving the Mon Valley Initiative’s coveted John Heinz Award and has been selected by San Diego State University students as professor of the year in 2001, 2004, and 2005.

The mission of the Consensus Organizing Center at San Diego State University is to work in partnership with under-represented communities in an effort to train and develop students, community leaders, and residents in the Consensus Organizing Model.

The goal of the center is to generate and educate the development of a new generation of trained grass-roots community leaders capable of working with government agencies, business leaders, churches, and other organizations. This is done through the Consensus Organizing Center's educational talent pipeline. [TOP]

 

Peter B. Goldberg
President and CEO
Alliance for Children and Families

Peter Goldberg is president and chief executive officer of the Alliance for Children and Families and its parent holding company, Families International, Inc.

The more than 360 Alliance member organizations serve millions of individuals annually in thousands of communities, providing a vast array of services ranging from residential care for children to community-centered prevention and intervention programs to economic self-sufficiency initiatives.

As president and CEO of Families International, Inc., Goldberg oversees a unique corporate structure that allows four organizations to operate under one parent company. This allows for the financial independence of each of the organizations which also creates an environment that encourages collaboration. Goldberg also serves as chief executive officer of Ways to Work, Inc. and United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA).

Prior to joining the Families International group of companies in 1994, Goldberg held a variety of positions in the corporate and philanthropic field and in the public sector. He was president of the Prudential Foundation (1990-94) and head of Primerica's social responsibility programs (1982-88). He was project director of the New York State Heroin and Alcohol Abuse Study (1981-82) and special assistant to the director of the U.S. government's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (1979-81).

Goldberg is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and a board trustee of The Bridgespan Group. He is also chair of the advisory committee of the Listening Post Project at the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University and convening chair of Leadership 18, a group that consists of the major national nonprofit human service organizations in the United States.

He has served on numerous other nonprofit boards in the past, including the National Human Services Assembly, Independent Sector (which he chaired from 1999-2001), Jobs for the Future, Children of Alcoholics Foundation, the Advertising Council, the Community Service Society of New York, Long Wharf Theatre, and George Street Playhouse.

Goldberg has been selected by The NonProfit Times as one of the 50 most influential people in the nonprofit sector six times since 1998. [TOP]