Mission:

Transform

To work alongside organizations and individuals to build their strength and resilience in order to help them achieve mission and thrive.

It all started when…

…a tornado struck the town where I grew up. I had always been curious about the differences I had seen between places in terms of whether they were thriving or not. The tornado brought to the foreground questions related to institutions and cultures and their levels of social capital and resilience, as well as their ability to communally act in times of stress. I have spent my career researching these questions in various cultural and institutional contexts as well as applying the lessons I have learned to build institutional strength.

Dr. Janel Curry, Visionary Leadership Executive

Visionary Leadership

Throughout Dr. Janel Curry’s professional and academic career there have been three constant themes that have captured her attention and characterized her vision and leadership…

Informed by Global Experience

Inter-cultural competence is essential for today’s world. The trajectory of my life was changed because of an early deep cross-cultural experience. My older daughter’s name, Marie, embodies my own journey. Marie is my middle name, but my daughter is named after Marie Dupre, a Houma tribe member, who welcomed me, cared for me, and served as my cultural translator when I had the privilege of working for the tribe right after my undergraduate degree. She was my bridge as I moved through my world to the Houma Tribe’s world. She was my guide in my journey in uncovering the cultural layers below the surface. I have continued to work in settings and seek experiences that build understanding and relationships across cultures and places.

Assessing Effectiveness

Often institutions are fearful of asking the question—how do we know we are being effective? Yet a culture that nurtures this posture of humility and transparency is one that continues to grow and learn. Good stewardship of resources and effort arises out of this openness to assessment. As an administrator and social scientist, Dr. Janel Curry approaches the development of any new initiative or the evaluation of programs through the lenses of: How do we know we are and will be effective? How are we going to measure success? We must not be afraid of asking the hard questions of ourselves from the very beginning.

Growing Leadership

The development of leadership capacity comes through the intentional efforts of leadership in organizations. Women in particular face unique challenges in terms of internal and external barriers to their growth as leaders. Rather than focus on the barriers faced by women, however, I have chosen to focus on identifying the successful strategies for developing a culture that incorporates the gifts that women bring to an organization. This approach is similar to the Harvard Kennedy School Women and Power seminar that I attended where we focused on successful strategies and multiple approaches rather than barriers. For missional effectiveness, women and men need to recognize the need to each person to be able to exercise their gifts.