Michelle L. Collins, PhD

Michelle provides a variety of professional services related to employee and leadership assessments and development. She delivers one-on-one and group leadership development programs and frequently partners with internal HR consultants to provide technical guidance on various assessment and employee development projects. Michelle works with a variety of industries, including high tech, retail, consumer products, transportation, and government to help them maximize their human resources and leadership capabilities.

Prior to starting her consulting practice, Michelle served as Director of Executive Development at a large financial services company. There she managed the annual succession planning process and coordinated internal and external development programs for 250 senior executives. Internally, Michelle consulted on employee selection and development projects with American Airlines where she also coordinated various employee research projects. She worked at an organizational psychology-consulting firm, Personnel Decisions International (PDI), where she conducted management assessments and coaching. During her graduate training, Michelle worked in city government and taught at the university level. In her city government position, she designed and delivered tests and assessment center exercises for police, fire, and other municipal positions.

Michelle holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial / Organizational Psychology from Tulane University and a B.S. in Psychology from Howard University. She is currently serving on the Society for Industrial / Organizational Psychology’s Minority Teaching Institute Committee and serves as a reviewer for the Society’s annual conference. She was Program Chair for the International Personnel Management Assessment Council’s 2002 conference. She has presented several papers and workshops both in academic and business settings and co-authored a publication on education and training in a human resources journal, Public Personnel Management. Michelle has completed the Center for Creative Leadership's Tools for Developing Successful Executives. Her book, The Thin Book of 360 Feedback: A Manager's Guide, is designed as a guidebook for managers to accompany any multi-rater process.

Julie K. Richie, M.B.A.

Julie has 12 years of experience in organization communication roles. She is the co-author, along with Michelle L. Collins, of two monthly leadership development newsletters: Leadership Her Way and Connecting the Generations: Finding Common Ground at Work.

Julie’s experience includes an in-house position as communications director for the American Cancer Society’s Fort Worth office, responsible for recruiting, training and mobilizing 30 communications volunteers to successfully publicize the organization’s messages to the media and other key groups.

She has also provided communications expertise to a variety of corporations and non-profit organizations including writing and editing the internal employee magazine for Lubbock-based United Supermarkets and writing the North Texas Food Bank’s newsletter. She was formerly a political consultant providing opposition research and reports to political candidates and corporate clients for Shipley & Associates, an Austin-based public relations and consulting firm.

As a journalist, Julie’s experience includes three years as an editor of Dallas Family magazine. Her
articles have also appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Family, North Dallas People and
FamilyFun magazine.

Julie has a B.A. in political science from Brown University and an M.B.A from Texas Tech University,
including coursework in human resource management, organizational behavior and management, leadership skills, and several statistical methods courses. She has also completed graduate work in journalism at the University of Texas.