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PRINCIPAL
CONSULTANT
Taunee Besson
 Taunee
Besson is president of Career Dimensions, Inc., a consulting firm founded
in 1979 that works with individual and corporate clients in
executive coaching, career transition, talent management and small
business issues.
"One of the smartest minds in the career field,"
according to Tony Lee, publisher of the Wall Street Journal's Online
Vertical Network, Besson has been an award-winning columnist since
1985 for CareerJournal.com (formerly National Business Employment
Weekly), as well as WorkingWoman.com and Oxygen.com. She has
authored three editions each of NBEW's Premier Guide to Resumes and
Premier Guide to Cover Letters and a variety of articles for trade
and business journals. Ms. Besson has been quoted numerous times in
The Wall Street Journal, The Dallas Morning News, Business Week,
Time, Smart Money and a number of other magazines, newspapers,
business and trade publications.
In 2000, she and Gerry Myers co-founded Advisory
Link, Inc., which helps organizations increase their number of
female employees, managers, executives and customers by developing
and facilitating external Women's Advisory Boards and Exec-U-Link
mastermind groups. Out of 470 entries, the firm was named as a 2005
Stevie Award Finalist for Women Entrepreneurs in both the "Women
Helping Women" and "Community Involvement Program of the Year"
categories.
Since 1995, Besson has been giving back to her
profession as a director of the World Council of the Association of
Career Professionals International, past president of the
organization's USA Board and past president of its Dallas/Fort Worth
Chapter. She is also the founder and chair of its International
Advisory Board of distinguished professionals from around the world.
She began her term on the Institute for Career Certification
International in 2001, where she served on the task force to
evaluate and update her field's professional certification process.
An alumna of Leadership Dallas, Besson has worked
on community nonprofit boards and committees for the past 25 years
including Girls Inc., Women's Center of Dallas, Girl Scouts and
Dallas Women's Foundation and Mortarboard, among others. She was
also a member of the Leadership America Class of 2003.
In 1994, the Dallas Chapter of the American
Society for Training and Development chose her as its "Professional
of the Year". In 1999, Alpha Gamma Delta, a 200,000 member fraternal
organization, named her as one of three "Distinguished Citizens" at
its biannual international convention. Her NBEW columns were
selected for the “Ten Best Article Award” in 1990, 1994 and 1997.
She has been a Career Management Fellow of the International Board
of Career Management Certification since 1995. |
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LIFESPACE/WORKSPACE
CONSULTANT
Gary John
 Dr.
Gary John has been a professor at Richland College since it opened in 1972.
In 2007, Richland College received the “Malcolm Baldridge Award”. Dr. John
was coordinator for the Quality Enhancement Program (QEP) for his division.
He is currently the Coordinator of the Human Development Division, which has
four full- time faculty and twelve part-time adjunct faculty. During his
tenure, he has taught Human Development Courses in Interpersonal Relations,
Personal/Social Growth, Study Skills and Career Development. He also
coordinated Richland College’s Career Services, supervised master and
doctoral-level interns from area universities and taught Intro Psychology,
Sport Psychology and many honor-level courses.
Dr. John currently serves as
an adjunct professor for Argosy University in Dallas, Texas, where he
teaches a graduate-level course in career development. He has completed the
training in Quality Matters, the premier organization for certification of
online course instruction at the college level. Dr. John also teaches a
hybrid course, Personal and Social Growth, that involves his students in a
service learning project each semester.
He has taught graduate level
counseling courses for A&M University at Commerce and Amberton University
where he specialized in Stress Management, Career Counseling and Wellness.
Dr. John has been selected three times as the “Outstanding Faculty Member”
by his division and has received the “Outstanding Faculty” award from
Richland College. Texas A&M University chose him as the “Outstanding Alumni”
from the Department of Counseling, the same year he served as president of
the Truax Foundation at Texas A&M.
Dr. John developed “Managing
Your Professional Development,” a career development course for engineers
and taught the pilot at Rockwell International. He also created Lifespace/Workspace℠
with Taunee Besson and has taken thousands of students and clients through
this process in the last thirty years. He is also president of his own
consulting firm that works with corporations to select and train their
employees. Dr. John has been a member of the World Future Society since 1969
and regularly consults with organizations and individuals to forecast and
plan their futures. An enthusiastic runner, Dr. John taught the first
graduate-level wellness course in Texas in 1979. In 1992 he completed his
second marathon just after his 50th birthday. At 64, he and his wife both
completed a half marathon together.
Dr. John has an Ed.D. from
Texas A&M University at Commerce (formerly East Texas State University) in
Counseling and Community College Education. He holds a M.A. in Counseling
and Student Personnel Administration and a B.A. in History and English from
Austin College. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor (LPCS) by
the Texas State Board of Examiners and a National Certified Counselor (NCC)
by National Board for Certified Counselors. |
