GOOD Network is the regional OD network serving Central Florida from coast to coast

Greater Orlando Organization Development Network

Our 2020 Leadership Team

Meet the team that makes it “all GOOD”!  If you are interested in volunteering your time with this high-performing team that follows solid OD practices and leads our organization from “GOOD” to great, please send us an email using our contact form.

Executive Board

Krystena Sterling, President

Krystena Sterling is an Executive Coach and Industrial-Organizational Psychologist specializing in emotions and customer experience in the workplace. She has been working in the hospitality industry for over 30 years in various disciplines, including operations, learning and development, and project management. She has lead teams from 5-500 employees at companies such as House of Blues, Walt Disney World, and Disney Cruise Line during her career. Currently, Krystena is the President of Sterling Coaching and Consulting Group. She holds a master's degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and is completing her Ph.D. She is a Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) from ATD. Her passion is engaging individuals and teams by leverage their emotions to create the best experiences possible. 


Anita Gabbard, Program VP

Anita Gabbard, Manager of Operations in the Division of Digital Learning at the University of Central Florida (UCF)  is responsible for the effective and efficient oversite of operations for both the Center for Distributed Learning and the Office of Institutional Resources. She holds a BA is from Indiana State University in Human Resources Development and MA from St-Mary-of-the-Wood College in Leadership Development. 


Renée DeRouin-Jessen, Membership VP

Renée DeRouin-Jessen is an HR leader directing leadership, talent, learning, and organizational development solutions. She has 12+ years of internal consulting experience for both corporate teams and field employees in organizations ranging from 10K to 400K+, including Marriott International, Marriott Vacations Worldwide, and Hilton. Renée holds a PhD in Industrial & Organizational Psychology from the University of Central Florida. Her passion lies in creating impactful organizational solutions aligned to business strategy and objectives.

Linked In:  

www.linkedin.com/in/reneederouinjessen/


Margo Hamel, Treasurer

Margo is Principal at Empower Coaching and Consulting LLC specializing in personal, professional and executive coaching and performance consulting. She spent her last 30 years at SunTrust Bank in Private Wealth Management and SunTrust University specializing in leadership development and coaching, advisor development, instructional design, sales and sales management consulting, performance management, and client loyalty programs. Margo holds an MBA from Florida Institute of Technology and is a Registered Corporate Coach through the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches. 


Vanessa Gomez, Secretary

Vanessa is a Training and Development Specialist at New Season, a healthcare agency devoted to helping people recovering from addiction. In her role, she is responsible for the development and facilitation of training programs in areas of leadership, compliance, and self-empowerment. She is a certified virtual training facilitator and holds an EdM degree in Learning and Instruction from University at Buffalo. Linked In Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-gomez-4a83926


Communication Team

Newsletter Editor - Beth Swanson

Carol Emmett, Website Administration



Appointed Directors

Tim Strimel, Communications Director


Tim Strimel is Talent Development Manager for Orlando Utilities Commission with over 10 years experience supporting diverse industries including public utilities, retail energy, hospitality and food service. 


Karen Agrait,  Community Programs & Events Director

Karen Agrait, an Organizational / Learning and Development Leader and Consultant, has two decades of experience in helping individuals grow and companies thrive. With a focus on improving organizational health, Karen combines her expertise in Instructional Design, Facilitation, Leadership and Behavioral assessments to rapidly develop solutions to meet the needs of identified performance gaps with individuals and organizations as a whole. Organizational culture and cultivating safe and productive learning environments is a passion for Karen. Through formalized training and just in time coaching, she has been successful in cutting turnover in half and rapidly improving accountability across multiple disciplines. Karen holds a Masters Degree in Instructional design and is Certified Training Director, Franklin Covey Instructor and Virtual Facilitator.


Marissa Carevelis, Hospitality Director

Marissa is a Sr. Manager of Leadership Development and Training at A. Duda & Sons. She has the opportunity to create, lead and execute organizational, team and individual  development initiatives for a very diversified workforce.  She is passionate about helping people reach their full potential. She holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration - Finance from the University of Central Florida and an MBA from Rollins College. 


Donna Hogan, Conference Director

Donna is an Organization Effectiveness Sr. Specialist with Lockheed Martin. With over 30 years of experience in Human Resources, she has expertise in Learning and Development, HR Business Partner, EEO/AAP and Compensation and Performance Management.  Donna is a certified coach and Prosci Change Management certified and is currently focused on transforming how learning and development is delivered in line with workforce of the future principles. This includes building self directed learners using a social collaboration group built on SAP JAM platform.


Advisory & At Large Board

Kristin Chase

Kristin is the Senior Director of the Organizational Development (OD) department for Universal Parks & Resorts. She has contributed to Universal for 17 years through consulting and leading employee feedback surveys, performance and talent management, executive development and assessment, mentoring, competency model development, employee research, facilitation, and team effectiveness. She is a 2003 graduate of the UCF Masters' program in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. 

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinchase


Vicki Lavendol

Vicki is an Associate Instructor at UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management.  Formerly Vicki was Director of Leadership & Training for Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center and Director of Human Resources for Charles Schwab. Vicki was in Human Resources at Walt Disney World and led change at Tupperware.  Vicki holds an MHR and an MBA.


Mark Griffiths  (Also leads Technology CoP)

Mark is the client partner for Newleaf Training and Development in Florida and Georgia.  He is responsible for business development and setting the strategic direction across the Florida and Georgia.  


Isabella Johnston 

Isabella consults and coaches entrepreneurs and executive leaders with profit and nonprofit organizations in areas of leadership development, team building & communications, intern programs, and organizational growth. Industries/Sectors include: entrepreneurship, tech, nonprofits, legal, accounting/finance, marketing & sales, real estate, art/culture, manufacturing, medical, and game development.   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabella-johnston-1339546


Carol Emmett

Carol provides executive coaching, training, team building, survey design, facilitation, and instructional design to clients in high tech, hospitality, financial services, and health care industries, and to government on all levels. Carol holds her MA from University of Maryland in Organizational Communication and is a certified executive coach.


Communities of Practice Leaders

Don Knagge, Coaching Group Chair

Don is an Executive Coach with 7th Evolution Coaching & Consulting.  He combines his training and love of coaching executives, entrepreneurs, and teams with his three decades of business experience as a corporate executive and entrepreneur in a variety of industries to be a catalyst for transformation in business and in life.   


Deborah Novak, Internal Consulting Co-Chair

Deborah Novak, MBA has helped leaders build high-performing sustainable teams for 15 years. She brings depth and breadth of change management strategies, executive coaching and leadership development design and delivery to being the Internal Consulting Co-Chair. She is certified in PROSCI change management, LMAP 360 Senior Executive Assessments and is a certified Marcus Buckingham Standout 2.0 Coach. As part of Florida Hospital, she presented nationally on Team Engagement as a Driver for Patient Experience, Employee Engagement, Retention and Promotion. She thinks strategically and builds strong collaborative client partnerships while delivering tactically. She is currently acting as an Interim Leader at DSN Consulting while she is looking for her next full-time internal opportunity. 

Cynthia Barnes, Internal Consulting Co-Chair

Cynthia has twenty-four years of experience in leadership, management, and process improvement. She has a consistent history of providing professional expertise to organizations to assist the organization in documenting their business processes, removing waste, and improving the overall process efficiency without increasing operating costs.  Previously, Cynthia served on four different Goodwill boards between 2003 and 2010: (1) Goodwill Industries of Middle Georgia in Macon, Georgia; (2) Goodwill Global Inc. in Bethesda, Maryland; (3) Goodwill Industries International in Rockville, Maryland; and (4) Goodwill Industries of Coastal Empire, Inc. in Savannah, Georgia.  She has a BS in Mechanical Engineering and her JD from Florida Coastal School of Law, and is a Six Sigma Black Belt.


Amanda Major, Project Management Chair

Amanda Major, EdD, CPLP, PMP is an organizational development and project management specialist in the field of online learning in higher education. Currently, she currently contributes to projects at University of Central Florida. Actively involved in the field, she has presented at national and international conferences and has peer-reviewed publications about e-learning organizational development, operations, and projects.  She holds a Project Management Professional certification from the Project Management Institution (PMI) and a Certified Professional in Learning and Performance certification from the Association for Talent Development (ATD).


Midge Streeter, Leadership Development Chair

Midge is an Organizational Development expert with success across leadership development, employee engagement, culture transformations, change management, and performance management.   At her core, she is a thought leader, executive coach, and facilitator with a servant leader’s heart, the tenacity of a successful project manager, and thought processes of an innovator.  Midge currently works with companies to improve performance by helping leaders to lead change, develop teams and improve emotional and social awareness, and overall leadership capacity.


Anisa Ali, Book Club

Anisa Ali is currently a Senior Manager in Organization Development.   She has been with Universal Orlando Resort for 15 years, and started with the company as an intern.  Anisa obtained her undergraduate Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Florida (Go Gators!) and her Master’s of Science degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Central Florida.    She has spent her career in HR, and has been an Organization Development professional for 13 years.  Her organizational development role frequently involves project architecture/management, data analysis, consulting/writing on feedback surveys, succession planning, focus groups, research, analytics, employee engagement, 360 Feedback, leadership competencies and performance management.

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