Brett Simpson has worked as a team and leadership consultant and experiential educator for over 25 years. He helped start an executive training program at Bloomsburg University known as LEEP (Leadership and Executive Education Program). Prior to that he served as the Executive Director of Quest and Quest Professional Training, a long-standing leadership development program at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. Quest uses experiential and outdoor education to develop self-reliance and leadership skills in student, non-profit, and business leaders, and serve the greater community throughout the Mid-Atlantic.
Brett has been the primary program designer and facilitator for a wide range of clients, from student and community groups to non-profit organizations and corporate leaders. With his diverse background, he is able to work effectively with a wide spectrum of people in a variety of contexts, from classrooms and boardrooms to the backcountry.
Brett has traveled, climbed, paddled, bicycled and backpacked extensively throughout the United States and Canada. He has led trips in Peru, Mexico, Ethiopia, Costa Rica and Ecuador, reveling in opportunities to share landscapes, rich culture and diverse outdoor activities with clients.
Brett has an undergraduate degree in Leadership and a Master’s degree in Education with an emphasis on Technology, Curriculum Design and Instruction. He is a certified Wilderness Medicine instructor with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), and a professional photographer. Brett believes strongly in the extraordinary power of experiential education to impel individuals into experiences where they gain insight about themselves and develop broadly applicable problem-solving skills.
b.simpson@advance-knowledge.com
Justin Noll has over 30 years of experience in leadership, operations, consulting, training, teaching, and teambuilding. He has had diverse leadership experiences which include 5 years as an officer in the US Navy, executive positions in pharmaceutical manufacturing, leadership program development as a consultant, teaching at a university, and as VP of R&D and Supply Chain for a durable plastics manufacturing company.
As one of the two original founders of Advance Knowledge Consulting LLC, Justin has developed and delivered highly experiential, customized training programs ranging from team building and leadership skills to continuous improvement and strategic planning. As co-developer of the Ricochet Team Challenge ™, a corporate team-building event, he helped to make Advance Knowledge Consulting the preferred teambuilding partner of Camelback Mountain Resort (in the Poconos).
Justin has a passion for personal and organizational growth. Early in his career at Merck, he was a regular facilitator for the Principle Centered Leadership program, which was based on S. Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This weeklong personal development and leadership training was given to all employees, and sparked Justin’s drive to help to develop people and position them for growth. He continued with this work through the rest of his career, developing programs ranging from a novel Manufacturing Engineer Development Program to experiential training on conflict resolution, feedback, and team building.
As an engineer, his love of continuous improvement found the perfect tools when he was introduced to the Improvement Kata, a continuous improvement methodology based on the concepts outlined in Toyota Kata by Mike Rother. This teachable pattern for working scientifically to pursue improvement goals in complex systems has a structured approach to simultaneously making process improvements while coaching employees to develop their improvement capabilities. This in turn helps create a long-term improvement culture at the organization.
Justin is an assistant coach for Special Olympics NC in equestrian and pickleball, and participates in all sorts of outdoor activities including mountain biking, snowboarding, windsurfing, kayaking, surfing, wakeboarding, and an occasional triathlon.
Justin has earned a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering Degree from Villanova University and an MBA from Bloomsburg University. He currently resides in NC and travels throughout the US to deliver customized training and teambuilding programs.
justin@JDNollStrategies.com
Brad Winer began his leadership career as an officer in the US Navy. He has worked in diverse positions from Educator to Venture Capitalist, Philanthropist to Operations Analyst, Project Manager to Financial Planning & Analysis Executive.
Brad is a teamwork, communications and collaboration evangelist. He strongly believes in breaking down barriers and working across departmental boundaries to help businesses operate more effectively. He has spearheaded team-building, social and philanthropic initiatives throughout his professional career, always with the aim of building understanding and unity in the workplace and enthusiasm for the strategic mission of the company.
Brad is a true global citizen. In addition to his numerous overseas deployments on a US Navy Destroyer, he has traveled to over 90 countries and has visited all 50 United States. Brad has lived and worked in Asia, Europe, and South America. He is equally passionate about sharing the life lessons he has learned on the road as those from the workplace.
Brad is a New York State DEC Licensed Outdoor Guide with professional qualifications in Wilderness First Aid and Avalanche Safety. He is passionate about the outdoors and the insights to be gained from wilderness experiences. Brad has led hiking and climbing trips in Nepal, Patagonia, Iceland, Ecuador, Colombia, and the Alps, as well as, the Pacific Northwest, Desert Southwest, and Northeast United States.
Brad earned an Economics degree at the University of Michigan, after being awarded a Navy Reserve Officers Training Corps full academic scholarship.