Sam Kaner is regarded as one of the nation's leading experts on collaborative decision-making. He is the senior author of Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making, which has gone through more than 20 printings. As a system-change consultant for the past 25 years, Sam's social sector clients have included the United Nations, March of Dimes, Greenpeace, Omidyar Network, Special Olympics, the Elders, California Supreme Court, U.S. Green Party, Goodwill Industries, Humanity United, Stanford University Center for Social Innovation, Virgin Unite, Annie E. Casey Foundation, and more than 250 NGOs, foundations, and community-based organizations around the world. His private sector clients have included VISA International, Charles Schwab & Company, Montage Hotels and Resorts, Symantec, Hewlett Packard and many more. Sam has been a featured speaker at the annual conferences of National Organization Development Network, the International Association of Facilitators, The Association for Quality and Participation, Craigslist Bootcamp, and more than 40 other professional associations. Sam is the founder of the consulting firm Community At Work, and he has been its Executive Director since 1986.
Sarah Fisk, PhD. is an organization development consultant specializing in participatory decision-making and collaborative systems change. She is a co-author of Facilitator’s Guide To Participatory Decision-Making and has been a featured speaker of the annual conferences of the National Organization Development Network and the International Association of Facilitators as well as an adjunct professor at California Institute of Integral Studies. Sarah’s corporate clients have included Hewlett-Packard, Agilent, VISA International, Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Inc. and many other Fortune 500 businesses. Her public sector clients have included the March of Dimes, the Charles and Helen Schwab Foundation, Earth Island Institute, the City of Edmonton, Alberta, and numerous educational and government agencies and community based organizations. Sarah has been a senior consultant with Community At Work since 1996.
Cathy Toldi, M.A. is a specialist in multi-stakeholder collaboration, with a national reputation for effectiveness with public school systems. She has worked with educators and school administrators in Minnesota, Delaware, San Diego, Wisconsin and in numerous school districts throughout the Bay Area. She is a co-author of Facilitator’s Guide To Participatory Decision-Making, and she has led the Community At Work GROUP FACILITATION SKILLS workshops many times around the country. She has also taught conflict resolution and group facilitation in graduate programs at John F. Kennedy University and at Cal. State University, Monterey Bay. Cathy maintains a busy consulting practice in the San Francisco Bay Area, supporting community-based organizations and small businesses. Cathy has been professionally affiliated with Community At Work since 1994.