About
About US
A trained facilitator, teacher, and coach committed to teams working through complexity
YOU’re facing
Problems you’re not sure how to solve: communication issues, bureaucratic inefficiencies, or problems you might not know how to identify!
WE BELIEVE
Every team can be effective, productive, and even happier in their workplace when they use the communication and organizational skills we share with you.
ToGether, WE CAN
Review what’s working and what could be better. We’ll improve your team’s systems in an interactive and inclusive manner so everyone can be their best selves.
About Deb Gurke
Deb’s passion is helping leaders and teams navigate complexity so that their efforts result in real change. At the core of this work is appreciating the conversations in which people engage and the extent to which those conversations help build trust, a necessary component of change efforts.
Deb has over 25 years of experience in public education in Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin including service on the Stillwater, Minnesota Board of Education where she began to wonder why it was so hard to change an organization. As a result of her board service, she returned to school and completed a Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Wisconsin – Madison where she studied school organizations and rhetoric, specifically the role of community engagement in policy decisions. She then worked with school boards in the state of Wisconsin, helping them understand their role in leading their school districts in a time of increasing state and federal intervention, an increasingly rapid pace of change, and, for many communities, dwindling public support.
At Milwaukee Public Schools she led a team of researchers, creating a department that served the central office and district schools. That team created processes to evaluate low performing schools, implemented a new school climate survey, including a process that principals could use to evaluate the data from that survey, and worked with vendors to develop a method for evaluating contracts. As Deb led these efforts, she taught her team important facilitation skills they now use in their own work.
Just for fun, she loves biking, walking along Lake Mendota, the Chicago Cubs, and Bruce Springsteen.
