Faculty Bios
Maureen Carruthers
Maureen Carruthers started her professional arts career at the Delaware Theatre Company in 1998 before moving to Blacksburg, Virginia, to continue her education in Arts Administration. During this time, she worked for the Colquitt/Miller Arts Council in Colquitt GA, on Swamp Gravy, a community arts initiative combining the expertise of professional writers, directors and designers with the spirit, time and energy of volunteer actors to create theatre pieces based on the stories, songs and history of the region.
With Artists in Virginia's New River Valley, Maureen developed ArtsMatch, an on-line community dedicated to creating new opportunities for artists to meet, support and collaborate with each other. It was this aspect of the Art and Community connection that drew her to ICPP in the summer of 2003.
Maureen holds an MFA in Arts Administration from Virginia Tech and a B.S. in Speech Communication and Theatre Arts from the University of Nebraska-Kearney.
Julia Fabris McBride
Julia Fabris McBride is dedicated to helping individuals and organizations know themselves deeply, and then use that knowledge to align actions with values, forge powerful connections, and do good work in the world. Julia's personal mission is to help people connect with their true selves, each other, the earth and the spirit. She takes a systems thinking approach to coaching individuals, couples and work teams, incorporating the arts, the natural world, movement and meditation as well as more traditional coaching and facilitation methods.
Individual clients include executive directors and key staff of nonprofit organizations, artists and writers, mothers, university professors, independent consultants, volunteer leaders, and entrepreneurs. Clients work with Julia to uncover their own answers to questions about personal and professional issues including career development, job changes, preparation for retirement, time management, diet and health, self-care, and work/life balance. Julia's clients live in communities across the country, but they share a deep commitment to community service and creative expression.
Organizational clients have included Americans for the Arts (Washington, D.C.); Center for Lobbying in the Public Interest (Washington, D.C.); the Donors Forum of Chicago; the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation; Friends of the Chicago River; National Association of Realtors, Symphony in the Flint Hills (Matfield Green, KS), and the Voice and Speech Trainers Association. As an associate of the James P. Shannon Leadership Institute (St. Paul, MN), Julia facilitated their yearlong program for renewing community leadership in 2004 and 2005 and has led workshops for associations such as Theatre Communications Group. She is on the adjunct faculty of the University of Chicago's Graham School of General Studies, teaching classes in leadership and public policy advocacy for nonprofits.
A member of the International Coach Federation, Julia is an accomplished public speaker and workshop leader on topics such as work/life balance, purposeful living, navigating transitions, and avoiding burnout. Prior to launching her own business (formerly known as Community Collaborations), Julia served as deputy director for programming at the Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation where she was responsible for the education, research and outreach programs of Illinois' primary multi-disciplinary arts advocacy organization. Julia is a trained mediator, certified by the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago. She has served as treasurer of the board of Chicago Women in Philanthropy, vice president of the National Community Arts Network and president of Plasticene Physical Theatre Company. Active in Chicago theatre from 1985-2005, Julia is an artistic associate at About Face Theatre and one of the founders of their acclaimed program for LGBTQ youth. She holds a BA in Theatre from Case Western Reserve University and is a graduate of the 3-year acting program at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
She lives with her husband, artist and architect Bill McBride, in Matfield Green, Kansas. She is an avid organic vegetable gardener.
John McCann
John McCann is an educator, facilitator and consultant. His specific expertise is in leadership education, visioning and strategy development for organizations and conflict mediation.
McCann is a founder and Director of the Institute for Cultural Policy and Practice (ICPP) at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, VA. In this capacity, McCann has designed the Community Arts Leadership Academy for the Michigan Association of Community Arts Agencies (MACAA); serves as lead faculty for the Orchestra Management Fellowship Program of the American Symphony Orchestra League (ASOL); and has designed leadership seminars for Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance, Dance/NYC and Americans for the Arts, the national service organization for local arts agencies.
The Institute, under the direction of John McCann, manages the Orchestra Forum, a ten year leadership and change initiative of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation involving 14 of the nation's most diverse and artistically vital orchestras. Additionally, McCann has served as a faculty member for the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations, the Prairie Arts Leadership Institute, the New York Alliance of Arts Organizations, the Empire State Partnership for Arts Education and the American Planning Association.
As co-founder of Emc.Arts, Inc., McCann has served as a member of the consulting team for a broad array of clients including the Aspen Music Festival and School, Arts International and the 18th Street Arts Complex. He has facilitated planning retreats and strategy development sessions for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, the Choral Arts Society of Washington, DC, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Washington Ballet, Dance Place, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), Maryland Citizens for the Arts and the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. On behalf of the National Endowment for the Arts, McCann facilitated the focus groups designed to inform the creation of the Challenge America program. Recently he has been a member of the moderator team for both the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City and the Louisiana Recovery and Rebuilding Conference in New Orleans.
He is currently Vice President of the Association of Arts Administration Educators and serves as a regular panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts.
Eugene (Geno) Schnell, Ph.D.
Geno Schnell is an independent consultant focused on the areas of leadership development and organizational change. Clients have engaged Geno as coach, facilitator, trainer, advisor and designer to help them develop robust solutions for complex problems. Recent consulting work with MedImmune, Neuro-Nexus, Lockheed-Martin, Fannie Mae, Medex Assistance Group, Zurich Insurance and Akros Chemicals has been focused on challenges such as developing leadership bench-strength, new venture acceleration, senior executive on-boarding, top team development and corporate diversity strategy.
Geno also works with extensively with professional staff and scientists in non-profit and government settings, such as the Stanford University BioDesign Program, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Institutes of Health, Institute for International Education and the Whitaker Biomedical Foundation. In addition, he is the designer and faculty director for the highly-regarded Executive Leadership Institute, an action learning leadership program for urban leaders and librarians.
Prior to running his own business, Geno was a professor focused on the areas of leadership, negotiation, innovation with the Carey Program in Entrepreneurship at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and also served as JHU's Director of Organization Development and Diversity from 1998 until 2004.
Outside the United States, he has presented and consulting with the University of Iceland, University of Lodz (Poland), Ministry of Health for the Republic of Kenya and in the U.K. for the Cambridge Management Center and the Oxford Psychologists Forum.
Geno is the author of several popular management development materials that are based on an interpersonal relations instrument known as the FIRO-B, including Introduction to the FIRO-B in Organizations, The Leadership Report Using the FIRO-B and MBTI, and Participating in Teams. He is also the author or co-author of several chapters in books and of research articles appearing in Leadership Quarterly, Mt. Eliza Business Review (Australia), Journal of Venture Management, Journal of Consulting Psychology, and the Annual Review of Research on Quality Management.
Geno received a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland and an M.S. in Adult Learning/Human Resources Development and a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Rochester. He is former member of the Coordinating Council for the Diversity Leadership Forum and a member of the Executive Coaching Roundtable.