Fall 2013

HDCS Student Participates in Provost’s Undergraduate Research Program

After encouraging students through the support of futures studies for 30 years, Dr. Peter Bishop is now an active faculty retiree. His legacy has touched the lives of countless students and his enthusiasm was a source of encouragement to his colleagues.

Pactor Named a Recipient for the 2014 ABC-13 Women of Distinction

Eleven Houston area women were chosen as 2014 ABC-13 Women of Distinction for their tireless volunteer and community accomplishments. Retailing and Consumer Science Advisory Board President Roz Pactor, and RCS alumni, was one of the women chosen to receive an award.

The ABC-13 Women of D i s t i n c t i o n , presented by

M e r c e d e s - B e n z Dealers of Greater Houston, will be honored at the Carnevale di Venizia Winter ball on January 25, 2014 at the Hilton Americas Hotel. The women will be formally presented and honored at the gala, which benefits the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America.

Bishop Retires

Dr. Peter Bishop

Dr. Renu Khator, Tori Spriggins, and Dr. Tomika Greer

On Wednesday, October 2, 2013 following the President’s Fall Address, President Khator and current and former members of the University of Houston System (UHS) Board of Regents attended a Student Success Showcase at O’Quinn Great Hall in the Athletics/Alumni Center on campus. The event showcased mentored research and co-curricular activities taking place at the University of Houston (UH) through research poster presentations.

Senior undergraduate Human Development and Consumer Sciences (HDCS) student, Tori Spriggins, presented a research poster at the event on her study analyzing the transition from university to work and attitudes towards work-life balance among recent female college graduates. This study was conducted under the direction of Human Resource Development Visiting Assistant Professor Dr. Tomika Greer. Spriggins was selected to represent the College of Technology at this event and was joined by 12 other students, each from one of the colleges on campus.

Spriggins conducted this research as a participant in the Provost’s Undergraduate Research Scholarship (PURS) program in spring 2013, and previously presented her work at the UH Spring Academic Showcase event in April 2013.

Across the globe, culture and branding are merging together through retail. Collegiate DECA students welcomed Dr. Paola Bertola who gave a presentation titled: Post-Global: From Brand Identity to Brand Authenticity. She spoke on how cultural roots are emerging in importance to a company’s brand identity. One of the points Bertola touched on was how consumers really want authenticity. Several examples, with accompanying pictures, were given using various design concepts from different regions of Germany, West France, and South Spain. Particular emphasis was placed on hightlighing how design and color are different by region.

Bertola is an architect with a Ph.D. in Industrial Design from Politecni-co di Milano University, where she is currently an associate professor

of industrial design at the School of Design. Additionally, she has been a scholastic re-searcher at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. Bertola’s academic contributions include being a part of the scientific board of Alta Scuola Politec-nica, coordinating The FIT@Polimi Program at the School of Design, director of the mas-ter Fashion Manage-ment - Brand & Product Innovation at Milano Fashion Institute, and serving as a member of the Scientific commitee of Fashion Practice. Bertola was awarded the Compasso d’Oro Award for Research in 2011. Her research and didactical activities are focused on fashion de-sign research and fash-ion design process plan-ning.

Target Experts Help Students Improve Their Resumes

ExHRD Alum Speaks to Collegiate DECA Students

Retailing & Consumer Science

Milan Industrial Design Professor Shares Cultural Insight with DECA Students

Thy Mai and Samantha Mexicano, both from Target, stopped by the HDCS 439: Internship in Human Development and Consumer Science course during the semester. The purpose of their visit was to share tips with current students on improving their resume in preparation for employment in the retail industry. Mexicano is a recent graduate of the Retailing and Consumer Science program.

For more information on RCS courses, please visit http://www.uh.edu/technology/.

Scholarship Recipients Honored at Star AwardsMembers of the Houston area

retail community gathered together at River Oaks Country Club for the “A Salute to Retail” featuring the Fifth Merchandising Star Awards. Over 250 people participated in the event that recognizes those who make contributions to the retail and merchandising industry, which

also benefits the students of the Department of Human Development and Consumer Science’s (HDCS) Retailing and Consumer Science program. This program prepares the University of Houston’s College of Technology undergraduates for careers in retail.

“This event provides educational outreach and benefits our students,” said Dr. Shirley Ezell, associate professor of HDCS. “All of the proceeds from the event go into our permanent endowment that provides scholarships for retailing and consumer sciences students to complete their

undergraduate degrees or to attend graduate school. The event provides an incredible network for our students and showcases those leaders who represent the very best in our industry.”

Awards were presented to honored members for their exceptional contributions to the profession during a luncheon

ceremony held Wednesday, October 16, 2013. This year’s honorees included CultureMap, Silver Eagle Distributors, and Tootsies. The Emerging Star Student Scholarship Awards were presented to RCS majors Khalid Al-Kalla, Kelsey Noble, Andrea Rodriguez, and Martha Villegas. Each student honoree was introduced by a short video about their careers. Dominique Sachse, UH alumna and news anchor for KPRC Channel 2, emceed the event, which was chaired by Soraya McClelland, with Honorary Chairman Dancie Perugini Ware.

In 2004, the Merchandising

Star Award Endowment was established to provide funds for RCS undergraduate and graduate scholarships, continuing education programs, program and student enrichment, and the expansion of the first online merchandising degree in the nation. Fashion designer Victor Costa and philanthropist Rose

Cullen, both UH alumni, shared the first MSA. At the time the endowment was established only an RCS undergraduate degree existed. Through program growth and support, this fall marks the first semester of enrollment of graduate students for the Master of Science in Global Retailing program at UH. The graduate program uniquely prepares innovative, agile retail marketers to successfully propel their careers and emerge as leaders of businesses throughout the global marketplace.

Dr. Marcella Norwood, Dr. Paola Bertola, and Dr. Chiara Colombi

Thy Mai Stephanie Mexicano

RCS graduate Kahlid Al-Kalla and HDCS staff member Patrick Suensom

Dr. Shirley Ezell and Dr. Marcella Norwood

Vinay Sanapala, recent graduate of the Executive Masters in Human Resource Development program, spoke to University of Houston Collegiate DECA students about “ What is Your Theory of Change?” He provided students with insight on the importance of communication, organizational development and business planning. Sanapala also touched on navigating the challenges of organizational change management.

L to R: DECA officers Jason Kim, Jasmine Berry, Vinay Sanapala, Samantha Guzman, and Crystal Wade

RCS FOCUSRetailing & Consumer Science

HRD Graduate Student Pandit Completes Thesis Paper on Mentoring in Organizations

The fall 2013 semester kicks off another promising year for the University of Houston’s Executive Human Resource Development (ExHRD) master’s program. This year marks the second year the executive option has been offered through the College of Technology. Students enrolled in the current cohort come from a wide range of employers in the immediate Houston area including Memorial Hermann, Matrix Metals LLC, Applus RTD, UH Bauer, Wells Fargo Bank, Bechtel, Wood Group Mustang Inc., and the City of Rosenberg.

Following the success of the program’s first year, classes continue to be held at the Sugar Land campus in both traditional and hybrid formats. Students will remain in the program during the spring term, participate in a cross-cultural, international component in Sao Paulo, Brazil during the summer mini session, and complete their course of study in summer 2014. For more information about the ExHRD program, please visit www.uh.edu/executivehrd.

The UH Executive HRD Program & the City of Sugar Land announced two speaking engagements in which Robert O. Brinkerhoff, Ed.D. will discuss training evaluation with area professionals and students. Dr. Brinkerhoff will converse on a variety of related topics with a focus on leveraging learning investments for sustained business impact, ROI, and value.

Attendees can expect to:• Discover a strategy and

practical tools to transform your organization’s Learning and development function from “order taker” to true and valued business partner.

• Use an “Impact Map” to clearly and convincingly communicate the business linkage and value of training

initiatives to senior leaders to win their buy-in and support.

• Use practical tools to engage managers so that they enthusiastically take accountability for helping their employees to use new skills on the job.

• Increase competitive advantage by building a learning organization that consistently accelerates the execution of key business strategies – out-learning to out-perform competitors.

• Discover how to assure that “soft skills” management and leadership development programs consistently deliver critically needed “hard” re-sults.

On December 4, 2013, Dr.

Brinkerhoff will speak at the following events:

• 11a.m. – 1 p.m. at the Sugar Land Marriott at Town Square – HRD Professionals Meeting (attendees to include ExHRD Brown Bag participants and City of Sugar Land business constituents)

• 6-9 p.m. at UH-Sugar Land campus – Executive HRD students and alumni (UH Sugar Land)

For additional information about these events, please contact Bonnie Rogers (bjrogers@central.uh.edu) or Dr. Consuelo Waight (clwaight@central.uh.edu).

Internationally Recognized Expert in Evaluation and Training Effectiveness to Visit UH Sugar Land

Executive HRD Program Welcomes a Second Cohort in August

Back, L to R: Tiwana Robinson, Shana Funkhouser, Mario Espinosa, Dr. Holly Hutchins, Dr. Consuelo Waight, Vinay Sanapala, David Sweeten

Front, L to R: Program Coordinator Bonnie Rogers, Farah Lawrence, Shipra Kashap, Nesrin Bunkhelia, Toni Forrest

Not pictured are Julie Harper Van Dusen and Nitya

Over 20 senior-level undergraduate students are currently working in internships across the Houston area with companies including Baker Hughes, Weatherford, FMC Technologies, Sunoco, Houston Community College, and the University of Houston. These students are gaining first-hand knowledge about Human Resource Development (HRD) as they work towards the completion of their undergraduate degrees.

All undergraduate HRD students are required to enroll in HRD 4396 – Internship in HRD and complete an internship during their senior year. The course is offered every fall and spring semester. If you have questions about HRD 4396, please contact Dr. Tomika Greer (twgreer@uh.edu), the course instructor.

Undergraduate HRD Students Benefit from Internship Experiences

During the summer of 2013, Mayura Pandit successfully defended her Master’s thesis study, entitled “Mentoring as an instructional approach in a graduate organization development course”. Pandit’s research was guided by Human Resource Development Associate Professor Dr. Consuelo Waight who also served as the thesis committee chair.

When reflecting on her thesis experience, Pandit remarked, “I would like to mention my sincere thanks to Dr. Waight for her guidance, motivation and support. I am also thankful to Dr. Tomika Greer and Dr. Holly Hutchins for consistent inspiration, feedback and inputs. This experience gave me a new insight for research in HRD and I used these skills when I was doing my internship with Enbridge Energy.”

Mayura Pandit

Students completing a team building exercise created by Comedy Sports.

Establishing class goals during fall orientation.

HRD FOCUSHuman Resource Development

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Executive HRD Program Celebrates First Graduating Cohort

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HRD Undergrad Student SpotlightArianne Sierra is

a Senior in the HRD undergraduate program. She is currently enrolled in the HRD internship class (HRD 4396) and is interning at Baker Hughes.

Like every other college student, Human Resource and Development (HRD) undergraduate student Arianne Sierra was beyond excited when she was about to start her final semester. There was light at the end of the tunnel, which was graduation. After the excitement settled, however, she started to feel anxious and nervous.

After you graduate, what is next is typically asked of graduates? It is a common notion they are supposed to be in an ideal job, doing what they spent years learning in the classroom. “At the same time, I knew that one of my final classes was HRD 4396 that required me to have an appropriate internship that was specific to HRD and allowed me to work on a project I

could present at the end of the semester,” Sierra said. “I began to feel concerned about finding an internship that would fit my school schedule, meet the

criteria for the class and, at the same time, would replace my full time job I already had. I immediately contacted classmates from the past semester I knew were already in internships and started to find out about the different resources UH offers to students to help them find internships and full-time positions after graduating.”

One of the first actions Sierra took was to sign up at the career center on campus to

receive updates and emails about different job openings in Houston. Users can check the career services website and email daily to see any job postings that fit what they are looking for. “Once I saw the opening for

an internship at Baker Hughes, I immediately jumped on it. I did not wait even five minutes to complete the application and submit my resume. I knew that there would be many people in the same position I was, and did not want to risk the posting closing before I applied,” Sierra said.

“I got hired on with Baker Hughes as a Resident Instructional Design Project Manager (IDMP). This position is a full time internship that allows me to work directly with other IDMPs and learn the

system and processes of being an instructional designer,” Sierra said. “In my position, I collaborate with subject matter experts to analyze course content, identify course objectives, and develop material to create trainings. Also, I create content & graphics for instructor led and web based training courses using Bloom’s Taxonomy and the ADDIE model.” Sierra is able to make the connection between the materials learned in classes to what is done at Baker Hughes.

“If I could give any advice for other undergraduates who are looking for internships it would be to take full advantage of the resources that UH offers,” Sierra said. “Use the career center to receive emails and use the TechConnect website to upload resumes to different employers. I would also encourage students to attend the different career fairs throughout the semester.”

Arianne Sierra

Internship Leads to Full Time Position with Shell

Alex Stiles

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENTHUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Alex Stiles is in her last semester of the HRD graduate program. Her interests include leadership development, adult learning, and the experiences of expatriates. She is a graduate of Louisiana State University.

When Stiles first met Dr. Tomika Greer, Visiting Assistant Professor and Program Manager for the Human Resource Development Program, for lunch to discuss her graduate assistantship over the summer in 2012, she told her she wanted to be interning with a major oil company the following summer. “This past summer I interned with Shell Oil Company in the Upstream Americas Learning and Organizational Effectiveness organization,” Stiles said. “Within two weeks of my internship ending, I accepted a full-time offer of employment for January 2014.”

Stiles will be the first to admit, the time between voicing her goal and signing a full-time offer letter was incredibly challenging. One of the first things she learned was that a HRD-focused internship with major oil companies did not exist. “However, I wholeheartedly believed if I just met the right person I could achieve my goal. I am a firm believer in the power of networking, and my story confirms its impact,” Stiles said.

While at Louisiana State University, Stiles discovered

the world of HRD and started networking to learn more about the field. She also discovered these professionals were happy to speak with her. The connection to Shell began with reaching out to a learning manager her college mentor had once met. “I reached out to him each time my resume took on a new experience, but I

always kept our conversation to advice, the learning moments I experienced, and my next steps,” Stiles said. “I inquired about the company, but I never asked for an opportunity. Instead, I used the tactic of showing him I deserved it through my dedication and desire to learn. It was over 18 months before I was offered an interview for a brand new summer internship opportunity.”

The internship experience taught Stiles networking is just as important in the workplace. She was given seven assignments that contributed to the major internship project. These assignments included interfacing with over 20 stakeholders in five different countries. “I conducted over 30 networking interviews with various employees across different departments and attended eight established networking events,” Stiles said. “The actual work I completed was done both effectively and efficiently because of the relationships I built and guidance I sought. Networking not only secured my dream internship opportunity, but it proved I was a positive investment for full-time hire.”

“If I could give any advice for other undergraduates who are looking for internships it would be to take full advantage of the resources that UH offers.”

Our first fundraising event for this semester was a success! SSHRD hosted a carwash at Barry’s Pizza on Saturday, Sep-tember 7th, 2013. This semester, SSHRD has implemented a new membership point system. It’s easy to earn points just by participating in SSHRD’s activi-ties. Please visit the SSHRD website for more information about upcoming events! https://sites.google.com/site/sshrduh/. We would like to thank each and everyone who have taken the time to partici-pate in our events! The officer team can’t wait to see every-one at our upcoming events. Don’t forget to like us on Face-book and follow us on Twitter! If you have any questions, com-ments or concerns, email us at sshrd.uh@gmail.com.

SSHRD Fall Updates

Students at the carwash fundraiser.

Upcoming events:

ADA Heart Walk with Cougars for KidsWhen: Saturday, November 23, 2013Where: Minute Maid Park & Northshore Park Houston Food Bank with UH MVPWhen: Saturday, November 30, 2013Where: 535 Portwall St. Houston, TX 77029

Learn more about HRD jobs through the SSHRD job

postings and the ASTD job board.

• Dr. Tomika Greer published “Maximize the Internship Experience for Employers and Students” in the May 2013 issue of T+D Magazine.

• Dr. Tomika Greer published “Facilitating Successful Re-Entries in the United States: Training and Development for Women Returners” in the July 2013 issue of New Horizons in Adult Education

and Human Resource Development.• Dr. Holly Hutchins published two articles in the

International Journal of Selection & Assessment, including: “Reporting more than learned in training? Social desirability and trainees’ needs as interactive predictors of unrelated knowledge” and “Can the LTSI predict transfer performance? Testing intent to transfer as a proximal transfer of training outcome”.

• Dr. Holly Hutchins published two articles in New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, including: “Reflections on Developing Student Authors: From Class Paper to Journal Publication” and “Media Analysis as

Critical Reflexology in Exploring Adult Learning Theories”.

• Dr. Holly Hutchins published a book chapter regarding best practices in training transfer.

• Dr. Holly Hutchins was invited to speak on transfer of learning from disasters at the Learning Disaster Health Workshop sponsored by the National

Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health in Washington, DC on September 17.

• Dr. Holly Hutchins was invited to speak to Applied Performance and Technology doctoral students and faculty at her alma mater – University of North Texas – on “Becoming a Courageous Researcher” on October 11.

• Dr. Torrence Sparkman presented “Change Design, & Lead: The New Direction of Strategic HRD Initiatives” to the Houston Chapter of the National Association of African-Americans in Human Resources in June 2013.

HRD Faculty Publications and Presentations

Dr. Tomika Greer Dr. Holly Hutchins Dr. Torrence Sparkman

Industrial Design Key for Soni’s SuccessVijeta Soni is a graduate of

the M.S. HRD program. Since receiving her degree, she has relocated to India and has found success in instructional design.

In the last couple of years Human Resource Development alumni Vijeta Soni started an online content designing and development company. The company has used freelancers from various domains to work on online course development for a variety of clients. Currently, the company offers instructional design, content writing, graphic designing, flash and HTML5 for interactivities, and engaging simulations for nursing and hos-pital staff. The current business model appears to be working very well as the clients are fixed and the skill resource bank is also completed.

Soni has also recently entered back into the industry in a senior manager position with Reliance Industries (RIL) Corporate L&D division. RIL is one of the most

prestigious companies in India, operating in oil & gas, petro-chemicals, retail, telecom, and health care sectors. “This L&D

department has a lot of scope for eLearning,” Soni said. “Since that’s an area I have already worked on so much, I am solely driving my energies into imple-menting corporate social learn-ing culture.”

Through working in a niche area of the social learning Soni has found it to be a rich experi-

ence and more interesting than the traditional and e-learning ar-eas. “In this company of around 40,000 employees, it’s quite a challenge as there’s a strong “push” learning culture, which we need to change to “pull”, Soni notes. “In my first month I have a dedicated SharePoint team along with some IDs, with whom we are driving some pilot studies to bring in awareness, respect, and value for collaborative learning methods among Lead-ers, Managers, and operational executives.” She also hopes to be able to bring social learning in a blended form (in-person learn-ing communities and technol-ogy driven collaboration) and concentrate on two major areas namely collaboration for inno-vation and informal employee engagement.

Vijeta Soni

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENTHUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

HRD Faculty Contributes to National Science Foundation ADVANCE Grant

Dr. Holly Hutchins is serving as the Co-PI on the NSF ADVANCE grant proposal that seeks to increase and advance the number of women STEM faculty members.

Her specific role is to foster efforts to increase STEM women (and especially women of color) faculty into administrative leadership positions. To find out more about

the ADVANCE initiative at UH, visit: http://www.egr.uh.edu/research/advance.

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Berthelsen Kicks Off Student Society of Human Resource Development Event

The SSHRD Fall 2013 kick-off event was held Thursday, August 29th with special guest, UH alumna, Alice May Berthelsen. As a current employee of Aggreko, she provided great insights and advice in the HRD field to members.

The future studies program was founded in1974 and Dr. Bishop has contributed tremendously to the success of the program since 1983. In the Strategic Foresight certificate program students learn about disruptive change and how to work towards the creation of transformational change in order to influence the future of their organizations, companies and communities. In the Futures Studies in Commerce master’s program, students emphasize systemic and transformational change focused on achieving long-term goals.

Influenced by Dr. Bishop’s academic contributions, several graduates from the program have moved on to pursue careers in non-profit enterprises and future-related research firms. Others have founded organizations across the U.S. and the world such as the Accelerates Studies Foundation in California, New Moon Research in Atlanta and Future Studies Center in Brazil.

In the college’s efforts to sustain his passion for

learning, teaching and building futures studies, he will teach a smaller selection of courses part-time, manage the certificate program and represent the University and the program. Hoping that all students will learn how to anticipate and influence the future, Dr. Bishop foresees one or more courses being included in the core curriculum. He is collaborating with other foresight programs around the world to define a common core of what the College of Technology teaches to further improve and guide others would desire to start new programs.

During his retirement party held in September, he shared kind words or encouragement with his colleagues. “Be grateful for the legacy that you are building and I only hope that someday you will feel the warmth and gratitude and the good feelings when people have touched your life.” The College congratulates and celebrates the evidence of hard work and welcomes the start of new beginnings and anticipated contributions.

Renowned Strategic Foresight Expert Peter Bishop Announces Retirement

Two graduate students from the Foresight program, Heather Schlegel and Jim Breaux, were two of the three winners of the 2013 Association of Professional Futurists (AFP) Student Recognition Program in the category of individual graduate students. Through the efforts of students like these, the program has resumed an excellent track record in winning this category after it finished in third place the previous year. This year there was a great set of entries from students and it was difficult to choose who would represent the program in the

competition. The competition has participants from 26 universities in 21 different countries. Foresight Program Coordinator Dr. Peter Bishop exclaimed at the results

of the competition, “Another great year for UH!”

Schlegel’s project was titled “The Human Problem.” “When I sat down to think about the big questions or problems in the world I could not find a big

problem worthy of attention,” Schlegel discovered. “So I went on a quick search to find what other people thought were the

big burning questions of our age. Problems like pollution, limited resources, various crises, global warming and rising population. These are truly problems we must face. But why were they problems in the first place. How did they become problems?” She noted that at the time of writing, her “usual optimism was absent,” and decided to try “Appreciative Inquiry.” From there, the paper emerged and as Schlegel puts it, “she is no hooked on the Appreciative Inquiry method.”

The other winner from the program was Jim Breaux.

Schlegel and Breaux Win Association of Professional Futurists Student Recognition Awards

Continued...

I acknowledge that I feel like the guy who succeeded Steve Jobs – anyone remember who that was? Exactly! The good news is that I’ve been here for nine years working alongside Dr. Peter Bishop. I intend to build on the foundation Peter and other faculty over the years have constructed.

When I think about what the program is all about and where it could go, the first thing that strikes me is how important the work is that we are doing here. The world needs more foresight, and it’s our job to help provide that. We need more trained professionals to help us spread foresight. So, thank you, students (and alums), for joining us in this important work!

In my mind, the big vision is that foresight is a disseminated practice in widespread use.

The program vision is the UH Foresight is the premier training ground for professional futurists. Our graduates are recognized for their unrelenting focus on helping clients solve problems and work toward their preferred futures.

For students, from day one we want you to be thinking about how you are going to use your educational experience in foresight. Be thinking about what works for you. What are you drawn

to? A method? A tool? A particular thinker? An organization? Do you want to be consulting futurist? An insider or organizational futurist?

Or a “futurizer,” where foresight is secondary to your profession, but you work to spread the foresight message? Learn what works for you. Each of you brings different skills, capabilities, and needs to the table, so it’s important to customize what you learn to what suits you going forward.

We want to build an experience for you that extends beyond just the classroom. This fall, for instance, we are participating in an online game. We are having a futures classic book club meeting at my house on an October Saturday morning. We have an annual

spring gathering of students, alumni, and friends and this is a great time for our virtual students to visit. We participate in the Association of Professional Futurists (AFP) gathering each spring and the World Future Society (WFS) assembly in the summer and we would like to do more.

We are looking to build up our research capability to provide students an opportunity to get hands-on project experience. There is no better way to prepare for project work in the future than to practice in the present. There are also opportunities to do interesting research on your own. Besides the master’s project, there are independent study options, and many students have used their class projects as a foundation for building thought leadership on their topic. We encourage our students to speak and publish. Our students routinely speak at the APF and WFS conferences. Our students have regularly won awards for their written projects for the APF Student Recognition Program.

So, for those of you thinking about it, come join us! For those already here, thanks for your time! Remember, we’ve got work to do, and it’s important!

Heather Schlegel

A Vision for the Houston Foresight Program and Students Andy Hines, Program Coordinator

Breaux’s project was titled “Weather-Related Disaster Recovery.” The topic of strategic recovery from disaster actually inspired him to undertake the Master’s in Science in Foresight. Breaux believes foresight

can be applied around the time of disruption to set the direction of a community, individual, or organization on the path to a preferred future; preferably before, but certainly after. “This piece was a lot of fun to put together

and came together easily as I populated the framework,” Breaux said. “I really appreciate the opportunity to compete for the APF student recognition award and am honored to be selected.”

Continued...

Jim Breaux

“In my mind, the big vision is that foresight is a disseminated

practice in widespread use.”

FORESIGHT FOCUS FORESIGHT

UH Faculty, Staff, and Students Shine at the Fifth Merchandising Star Awards

HDCS faculty Dr. Katy Greenwoon, Dr. Barbara Stewart, and Dr. Carole

Goodson

RCS program students

Undergraduate RCS students

RCS Advisory Board Members Joe Williams and Kim Jordan

HDCS graduate students

HDCS staff member Jamie Thomas and graduate student Noureen Asif

Grim Wins APF Most Significant Futures Works Award for Model

Terry Grim

Endowment Opportunities

Contribute to our permanent endowment, which sup-ports student scholarships and program enrichment. To find out how you can help, contact Dr. Shirley Ezell at

sezell@uh.edu. Your contribution entitles you to a tax de-duction and provides long term support for HDCS and

student scholarships.

Human Development & Consumer Sciences | Isabel C. Cameron Building | University of Houston | Houston, Texas 77204-6020 | 713-743-4110 | www.tech.uh.edu/HDCS

Outlook is published by the Human Development and Consumer Science Department as a means of

informing the HDCS community about departmental and campus news.

HDCS Office 713.743.4110

http://www.uh.edu/technology/

Dr. Marcela Norwood Department Chair

Target’s sponsored

table with RCS Advisory Board members and

guests

RCS program students

Forecasting • World Futures • System Thinking • Social Change

DEFINE YOUR FUTURE

Imagine the Possibilities

Be a FuturistEarn a Master of Science in Foresight

FORESIGHT

Congratulations are in order to Foresight Adjunct Faculty Terry Grim for winning the 2013 Associa-tion of Professional Futurists (AFP) Most Significant Futures Works Award for her work in developing the Foresight Maturity Model. Grim has been teaching an introduc-tory class in the program for the last several years. The program appreciates her skill and expertise in launching students on their jour-ney into the program. Grim has also been active as a consultant on the outside working with the Foresight Alliance. The program is always looking to bring stu-dents a blend of academic and real-world experience, and Grim has been doing that through her teaching in the classroom.

Grim began her work on the Foresight Maturity Model several years ago. She helped develop a Strategy Maturity Model during her time on staff with IBM’s Strat-egy Group. When she retired from IBM and went to work for the for-mer Social Technologies, she fig-ured it was time to take what she learned in developing the Strat-egy Maturity Model and applying it to foresight.

Another connection to the Hous-ton Foresight program is that Grim based the “activities” involved in doing foresight work on the six activities of the program’s frame-work: Framing, Scanning, Fore-casting, Visioning, Planning, Act-ing (which she re-characterized as “Leading). The idea of the FMM

is to m e a -s u r e h o w w e l l , or at w h a t l e v e l of ca-pability, the activities are being carried out.

The model identifies five de-grees of competence in various practices within each of the six activities. The tool can be used by organizations to assess their degree of foresight “maturity” us-ing a survey took that Grim devel-oped. For more information visit the FMM page.