Cheri Torres, Ph.D. Cheri's passion is helping people learn to create miracles in their relationships, organizations, and communities by engaging in conversations worth having. She specializes in leadership and team development, emphasizing the art of productive and meaningful engagement. Leaders working with her learn to create the kind of relational dynamics that ignite the full potential of their teams and organization, resulting in high performance, innovation, and goal achievement. She also partners with communities and organizations for whole systems change and strategic planning, bringing all stakeholders together for planning, design and collaborative action. She has worked across all sectors: corporate, government, education, and social profit/NGOs, supporting their capacity for learning and innovation, shared leadership, teamwork and collective impact. She has trained thousands of trainers and teachers in the use and practice of Experiential Learning, Appreciative Inquiry, and other strength-based processes. In addition to North America, she has worked in India, Mexico, Canada, South America, and Europe. In 2009, Cheri founded Collaborative by Design, reflecting her commitment to collaborate with clients and other consulting groups for positive change. She currently is a founding partner or Associate with a number of such groups, including NextMove, Corvo Consulting Group, Innovation Partners International, Insight Shift, the Taos Institute, the Center for Appreciative Inquiry, and UNITE WNC. Cheri holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with a specialization in Collaborative Learning from the University of Tennessee. She also holds an MBA, a Masters in Transpersonal Psychology, Level 2 certification in Cultural Transformation Tools/Barrett Values Centre, and Level II certification in Spiral Dynamics Integral. She has authored or co-authored numerous books and articles including The Appreciative Facilitator: Accelerated Learning Practices and Dynamic Relationships: Unleashing the Power of Appreciative Inquiry in Daily Living. Her latest book, Conversations Worth Having: Using Appreciative Inquiry to Fuel Productive and Meaningful Engagement will be published by Berrett Koehler late spring 2018. She co-designed and patented Mobile Team Challenge, an award-winning, portable low ropes course. She lives in Asheville, NC with her husband, Michael, their two dogs, Logan and Annabelle, and two cats, Ziggy and Lucy. Email: ctorres@innovationpartners.com
