Welcome!
Thank you for visiting my web site. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and tell you a little about my life experiences and passions in the hope that this will enable you to understand why and if Allshouse & Associates may be the company to provide your consulting needs.
My personal quest to find meaning and a purpose began in college (DePauw University), but the need to understand human culture (history, philosophy, religion, etc.) became a continuous journey with the end still not in sight. Asking the right questions became more important than having the right answers. And Heisenberg’s Principle of indeterminacy achieved a new relevance when applied to how and what we learn. In my time I have seen all Institutions (governments, economic systems, educational organizations) become but fragile shells washed upon the shore by a sea of change.
With the help of a Bois-Kilburn Fellowship, a Rockefeller Theological Fellowship and, eventually, a Kent Fellowship I continued to pursue these interests at Yale University. The power of knowledge to transform society was intoxicating. It was the early 60s and life in and beyond the university was changing. I participated in one of the most significant changes in American higher education – what some have called the “democratization” of a system that had once been a “meritocracy”. Certainly there were trade-offs, but we learned that we (the students) could change our institutions. I vowed that I would never stop learning and teaching became my passion.
I spent the 1960s teaching philosophy (19th century, non-western systems, aesthetics, and theory of knowledge) at Dickinson College. I learned as much - if not more - from the students than they learned from me. My most exciting courses, for both me and the students, involved travel (theory of learning by on site-visits to 9 experimental colleges; an in-depth study of the modern city by way of a visit to “Expo-67” and residence at the University of Quebec; and studying Indian aesthetics while visiting various temples in India.) These were transformatve experiences for all of us. But for me professionally, the most life-changing event of the 1960s was the Kent State Massacre. On May 4th, 1970 I made a promise to myself that from then on my life would be devoted to changing the structure of educational institutions. How and what we learn now had to shape our institutions, not the other way around.
The turbulent 1970s were spent as the president of Bloomfield College, where I helped transform what was formerly a suburban white private college, located a stone's throw from Newark, NJ, into a multi-cultural institution serving both both traditional and working adult students. The cloud of industrial smoke rising from downtown Newark was the backdrop of our struggle to become a college that worked with urban issues rather than running from them. And, although more than 300 small colleges across America closed their doors forever during that period, Bloomfield became the first and only college to survive chapter XI reorganization. While setting the standard for surviving economic hard times, we were also the first college in New Jersey to implement a new idea called e-mail with the help of the NJ Institute of Technology. The ability of Bloomfield College to remodel itself into an educational institution that met the needs of the community, while understanding and addressing the power of adult learning, providing access to knowledge and employment for minority students, and realizing early on the potential for electronic communication as an aid in education were some of the lasting lessons I took away with me from my eighteen years as its president. And, more of a testament to all of those who worked so diligently with me to fulfill this mission, I was selected by the Exxon Education Foundation as one of the “100 most effective college/university presidents in the nation” in 1976.
At that time I also worked with the Association of Governing Boards as a consultant in Board training and development. We were just discovering that boards, both private and public, needed proper training in order to successfully carry out their myriad responsibilities. Since that time I have maintained an active role in developing programs for non-profit board training, most recently at the University of South Florida, St Petersburg, and the Renaissance Performing Arts Theater in Mansfield, Ohio
In 1978 I became the president of the Myron Stratton Home Foundation in Colorado Springs. The Myron Stratton was a private foundation dedicated to serving the needs of emotionally challenged students and seniors. Within two years we established the first electronic network, linking all of the case managers and social workers in the region. I learned early the ability of an institution to empower other institutions through the use of electronic networks.
From there I went to a new learning experience; serving as a private development consultant for skiing institutions. I assisted in the move of the Colorado Ski Museum in Vail and then became the principal development consultant for the 1990 International Handicapped Skiing Championships at Winter Park. This was the first year this event waas held in the U.S. I witnessed first-hand the invincibility and enthusiasm of those disabled persons who celebrate life and enjoy it to the fullest. It was also my introduction to the world of major sponsorships for athletic events.
Then it was on to the University of Colorado. As the Vice President of the University of Colorado Foundation I learned the power of giving financially to transform human lives. Those who gave most generously found their lives transformed in ways they were not expecting. We raised more than $200 Million dollars in the University’s first capital campaign in a century. Financial resources, channeled properly, can make great ideas a reality . Again, it was a lesson in institutional change, provided by donors, with a little educated assistance from the board.
Eckerd College and the Academy of Senior Professionals was the next leg of my journey. I was asked to breathe new life into an institution founded to encourage intergenerational education between undergraduate students and “retired” professionals. On the the surface this was a good idea but it had become mired in administrative barriers, faculty protectionism and institutional politics. Ten years were spent in remodeling the old president’s home into a state-of-the-art facility for internet communication and online learning. We were the most highly technically wired building on the campus. It was at this point that the possibilities of online learning opened for me. After consultations in California and work with various nonprofit groups I became a strong advocate of "blended learning" as the next and best major step for higher education. I know enough abut higher learning institutions to realize that this change will occur only with incentives from above and pressure from students below. This new career (by opportunity rather than design) has provided me with a wide range of experiences which now can be focused on those institutions that provide for the health and well being of our communities – non profit corporations.
Allshouse & Associates offers consulting services in four broad areas:
Non Profit Board Leadership Development:
All areas of Board management, orientation and training, and operation
Strategic Planning:
Special emphasis is put on planning for the changing economic and
demographic realities of the decade ahead
Volunteer Program Development:
How to make volunteer programs work
Distance Learning for life:
How to make distance learning work, both within and without the walls of
the school
Can Allshouse & Associates provide the resources and expertise to meet your needs? That question will be answered through a unique assessment, at no cost to the client. We will help you analyze your situation and then design a consultation tailored to meet your needs. We engage only when there is a high probability for mutual success.
