Get to know Gary

About Gary

Gary is an experienced leader providing executive level, project-based and leadership development coaching to individuals and teams across seven states and 20 California counties. For seven years, he served as the director of a large governmental agency overseeing a $300 million budget and staff of 1500. His experience includes strategic planning, budget oversight, community engagement, data analysis, working with the faith based community, as well as workforce development. He is also instrumental in consulting on race, equity, and diversity programming. Gary is also a Senior Fellow with the Child Welfare League of America, Faculty Member with the Child Family Policy Institute of California, the Consortium For Children, and has served as Faculty on the Administration of Children and Families, Quality Improvement Center on Domestic Violence in Child Welfare. Much of his career has been dedicated to child welfare as well as other human service and for profit agencies, large and small, public, and private such as SCRAMM/Nexus. His life coaching services include partnering with authors, artists, and tech firms. One of his proudest achievements was successfully assisting a family and their teenager in making important life decisions.

Raised in a large family in segregated Kentucky, Gary honed a number of leadership skills early on. Being a middle child of 7 he learned respect, integrity, compromise, collaboration and accountability, while formally he has attended a variety of leadership trainings and seminars through his career. He brings both lived experience and cultural insight into racialized oppression in the U.S. He cultivated an early interest advocating for fairness and equity in education and employment and later within organizations. As Gary advanced from providing direct services to the role of executive leader, he applied an early lesson: To whom much is given, much is required. He continues to abide by this lesson through helping cultivate budding leaders. A long-time resident of California, Gary has made a full career of supporting leaders and their organizations to be effective in pursuing their personal and strategic business goals.

Resume available upon request.

Speaking Engagements/Lectures

U. C. Berkeley, Cultural Awareness

California Public Defenders Association, Disparity and Disproportionality

The Raise Foundation Annual Child Abuse Conference

Orange County Family Resource Center Conference, Diversity and Equity

International Wraparound Convening, Taipei, Taiwan

Child Family Policy Institute of California, Directors Leadership Convenings (1-8)

Blue Ribbon Prevent Child Abuse, Santa Ana, Child Fatalities

Saddleback Church, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. Foster Parenting

Child Welfare League of America, Washington D.C., Faith Partnerships

Child Welfare League of America, Washington D.C., DEI Implementation

Child Welfare League of America, Washington D.C., Coaching

Leadership Coaching Wraparound Conference, Anaheim, CA.

Partnerships Newport Church, Newport Beach, Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth

Vanguard University, California, Child Welfare Core Practice Model

Vanguard University, California, Human Trafficking of Foster Youth

California State University Long Beach, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Mariners Church, Newport Beach, CA. Foster Parent Conference

Knott Avenue Church, Buena Park, CA. Foster Parent Conference

Serving Commercially Sexually Exploited Youth Newport Church ,
Newport Beach, CA

Certifications and Associations

Coaching for Work and Life Credential, U.C. Davis

24/7 DISC Behavioral Assessment Practitioner

International Coaching Federation, Lexington Ky.

Orange County Chapter International Coaching Federation

Adoption Mediator, Consortium for Children

Education

B.S. Hospital Administration, Western Kentucky University

M.S. Human Services Counseling, Murray State University

A.A. Administrators Certificate, Early Childhood Education,
Fullerton College