Patrick Jeffs, Ph.D The Resiliency Solution
Dr. Patrick Jeffs founded The Resiliency Solution to help combat the impact of chronic stress and burnout in the workplace. The members of The Resiliency Solution believe that chronic stress negatively impacts organizations by blocking the Creativity, Productivity, and Capacity of teams and individuals. Dr. Jeffs works with healthcare professionals, C-suite executives, start-up founders, government officials and many others to optimize their day-to-day stress levels. Together, they aim to enhance their organizations’ capacity, connection, and productivity, ultimately enabling these individuals and organizations to maximize their performance.
As a Resiliency Consultant, Trainer, and Coach, Dr. Patrick Jeffs has spent almost two decades working with individuals in both personal and professional capacities to increase their resilience and flow. Dr. Jeffs co-founded and served as the CFO of NC Center for Resiliency, PLLC (the first somatically based group psychotherapy in the southeast) in Chapel Hill, NC until it was sold in early 2020.
Dr. Jeffs lives and breathes the resiliency principles with which he supports his clients. When not working to better these communities, he can be found working on his own resiliency with his wife and two girls on the trails of North Carolina or training for his next endurance adventure.
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Barbara Pullen-Smith, Ph.D, MPH Bridging Possibilities and Solutions Consulting
Dr. Barbara Pullen-Smith’s public health career has span 35 years. Her early career included community engagement and health advocacy work for the General Baptist State Convention of North Carolina and American Cancer Society. At the state level, she served in key positions during her 27 years in North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, including founding Director of the NC Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities, serving in that role for 19 years. Dr. Pullen-Smith’s national leadership roles include serving as past President of the National Association of State Offices of Minority Health (NASOMH) and contributor to the National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities, Health and Human Services. Since retiring from state government in 2012, this author, Public Health consultant/grant writer, and entrepreneur continue to serve others. For five years she developed and coordinated an Internship Program for undergraduate Public Health majors at St. Augustine’s University, Raleigh, NC.
Dr. Pullen-Smith obtained her undergraduate degree in Public Health Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Master’s degree in Health Administration from Emory University, Atlanta Georgia and a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Greensboro, N.C.
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Christy Shi Day, MS Shi Day Consulting
Christy Shi Day is a seasoned systems thinker, strategic consultant, and process facilitator. She builds capacity in groups for awareness of self and others, to increase alignment and coherence while fully embracing complexity and difference. From two decades of internal and external consulting in process improvement, organizational development, community engagement, systems change, and strategic communication, Christy brings experience and insights across financial, higher education, information technology, local government, and non-profit sectors as well as from small businesses, individuals, and community groups. Multi-faceted, adaptive, and a natural communicator, Christy shifts and challenges outdated patterns to help us ‘level up!’ into new ways of being and working together.
As a consultant with Shi Day Consulting, Christy focuses on strategic planning, organizational development, engagement, and process consulting. She provides collaboration support and facilitates the process of a Z Smith Reynolds grant-funded collaborative effort to increase community resilience, including monitoring and reporting progress to key stakeholders; facilitating learning among collaborators through ongoing reflection and coaching; and bringing in outside expertise as needed.
Christy is a resident of Gloucester, NC along with her husband John.
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Karen Jackson, Ph.D Katalyst Innovating Consulting Services (KICS)
Katalyst Innovative Consulting Services (KICS) is a consulting firm focused on helping organizations understand themselves through research, evaluation, and appropriate data use. KICS has worked with non-profit organizations and educational institutions to provide services including program and organization design/redesign, theory of change, logic modeling, and strategic planning. KICS is led by Dr. Karen T. Jackson, Principal Researcher and Evaluator. Dr. Jackson has a B.S. in Chemistry (1994) an M.Ed. in mathematics and curriculum and instruction (2004) from The University of Southern Mississippi and a Ph.D. in educational research and policy analysis (2014) from North Carolina State University. She has also been chosen as preferred evaluator by the Annie E. Casey Foundation Research, Evaluation, and Learning (REAL) Unit. She has successfully worked with inter-disciplinary teams to assist non-profit organizations with strategic planning, design, and using data to make meaningful policy decisions. Dr. Jackson resides in Greensboro, NC.
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North Carolina Research and Engagement Group (NCREG)
In 2012 a group of doctoral students enrolled in a Community Engagement Course taught by Dr. Forrest D. Toms, an adjunct professor at North Carolina A&T State University. A class project was assigned to conduct research on the twenty counties with the highest population of African American population in public school systems, community colleges, state universities.
The team's research focused on the Historically Underutilized Businesses (HUB) participation rates and performance of public schools, state universities, and community colleges. The team also looked at demographic indicators in the areas of healthcare, wealth disparity, and voting to identify disparity gaps among and between African American populations. The team's first publication " The Guide" was the result of this research project.
Mr. Richard Hooker, a Cleveland County Board Member and President of the NC Black Alliance (during the time) )was a strong advocate of this project pushed for the distribution of this research to the elected officials. The research team presented the data at multiple conferences.
On May 21, 2021, North Carolina Research & Engagement Group, LLC (NCREG) became an official entity and the board voted Dr. Forrest D. Toms as the CEO.
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