Next Level Leadership Series

Chris Brown is a highly respected Olympic rugby coach who has achieved remarkable international results. Originally from New Zealand, he spent his early coaching years helping numerous African teams find a way to win on the world stage. In 2014, he moved to the United States, where he has twice served as an Olympic coach for Team USA. One of Chris's most significant coaching achievements was leading the US Women's Rugby Team from fifth to first in the world during his first 12 months in charge, earning him World Rugby's "Coach of the Series" award.

Lesli Rotenberg is the founder and president of Unlock Inspiration, a leadership development and executive coaching service that helps CEOs develop patterns that transform them into more present, authentic, and impactful leaders. Lesli was trained in an original leadership development approach created by Punit Aggarwal, the visionary behind Founder Bay, based on insights from 10,000+ coaching conversations and experiences, including in his role as Head of Entrepreneur Development at Google.

Lesli’s experience on both sides of the board room table gives her a unique perspective on the challenges that leaders face. As a director of public company and non-profit boards, Lesli guides CEOs and leadership teams to sharpen their strategy, strengthen their brand equity, and transform their business models to meet rapidly changing market and audience needs. In her role as an executive, Lesli led teams who built the reputations of some of the most iconic and respected media brands today including PBS, PBS KIDS, Discovery Channel and Animal Planet.

After 30 years in broadcasting, Amy Burkett still loves the business of connecting through media. She’s thrilled to lead the renaissance of WTVI PBS Charlotte, a viewer supported service of Central Piedmont Community College, as general manager since June 2013. Before that she spent 14 years at WLVT PBS39 in Bethlehem, PA as executive vice president. She began her career in commercial television working at network affiliates as an anchor/reporter for nine years.

Over the last 18 years Amy’s studied the art of leadership and received her John Maxwell certification as a trainer, speaker and coach in 2012. New York Times bestselling author John Maxwell has written more leadership books than anyone.

She’s lead teams to four national PBS awards, 37 Emmy nominations, six Mid-Atlantic regional Emmys, two Mid-South regional Emmys, six Pennsylvania Association of Broadcaster’s Awards, five Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas awards and one regional Edward R. Murrow Award.

Amy is originally from Ohio and holds a bachelor’s of science degree in broadcast journalism from Bowling Green State University.

Milton Clipper is the former president of Public Broadcasting Atlanta. His career in management spans over 40 years in the media industry. He began his career with Post-Newsweek (The Washington Post, WTOP-TV, and WJXT-TV). After close to twenty years, Clipper left to run his own successful Washington, DC based advertising agency, serving a number of national clients. He was later persuaded to return to the industry on the public media side, overseeing membership, marketing, and creative services for WHMM (now WHUT), the PBS member station at Howard University.

Clipper has been invited throughout the world as an opinion leader, participating on many national and international panels, and has had several published papers. He has also sat on many boards, including Integrity CDC, the Atlas Performing Arts Center, Cultural Tourism DC, the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Oglethorpe University, Atlanta College of Art, Consumer Credit Counseling Services, Junior Achievement, Public Radio International, the Association of Public Television Stations, and was past chair of the Integrated Media Association

In addition to his work with NETA Consulting, Clipper is also the founder of Clipper and Company, a firm providing training and consultation in DEI.

Jacob started Victory Strategies with his life savings to pursue his belief in the American Dream. Victory Strategies is a leadership development, training, and coaching firm whose primary purpose is to help leaders accelerate their leadership and performance through embracing the possible. He began by assembling a world-class team of professionals from the most elite communities in the world. These leadership practitioners include Navy SEALs, Fortune 500 Executives, Olympic Athletes/Coaches, TOPGUN Fighter Pilots, and High-Performing Entrepreneurs. Through other formal and informal capacities, Jacob provides strategic advisory to several businesses and organizations throughout the world.

Matt Weinshel is a retired Army helicopter aviator with 26 years of service, attaining the rank of Colonel. He led large, complex, geographically dispersed organizations during multiple combat tours and in peacetime as a conventional and special operations aviator. He is rated in 7 different rotary wing aircraft. He successfully commanded at the Troop, Squadron, Group, and Brigade levels. Matt operated worldwide, including Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Afghanistan, and Central America. Additionally, Matt led executive efforts with the US Army Special Operations Command in appropriately resourcing Army Special Operations Aviation.

Chris is a retired Air Force 2-Star General with 30+ years of high context experience leading organizations and developing teams across the globe. He culminated his distinguished military career as the Commander of the U.S. Air Force’s personnel center, responsible for running programs covering the entire life cycle of human resources for military and civilian employees with worldwide operations impacting nearly two million total force Airmen, retirees, and family members.

Erica Curry Van Ee, MPA is the Founder and CEO of Urban Curry Consulting LLC, where she inspires, empowers and equips leaders to change their world. Erica has spent the past two decades improving the effectiveness of leaders, organizations and communities through services that include leadership coaching and facilitation on strategy, planning, design, stakeholder engagement, organization and program development, talent alignment and impact evaluation. Erica facilitates workshops on a variety of management topics including purpose-filled leadership, creating and sustaining high performing teams, strategic doing, adaptive leadership, multigenerational differences in the workplace, and increasing individual, team and organizational effectiveness. Erica has custom designed and facilitated multiple learning experiences, including a 6-week talent development series for millennial women entitled Leading Edge, which was commissioned by the Center for Community Leadership, an initiative of the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. She serves as practitioner faculty in the School of Public, Nonprofit and Health Administration for the College of Community and Public Service at Grand Valley State University where she teaches a 5 week accelerated course in Leadership Dynamics for returning adult students. She has also taught Strategic Management and Organizational Theory for the graduate school.

Erica’s clients have included consulting engagements with the Achievement Gap Initiative (AGI) at Harvard University, John G Gardner Center for Youth Development at Stanford University, Wallace Foundation, Doug and Maria DeVos Foundation, Grand Rapids Community Foundation, Metro Health Hospital Foundation, Frey Foundation, Heart of West Michigan United Way, Kent County, Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative (ELNC), Grand Rapids Initiative for Leaders (GRIL), First Steps Kent, West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology (WMCAT), Our Communities Children, K-Connect, Partners Worldwide, Michigan Medical Group Management Association, Michigan Association of Health Underwriters, National Association of Health Underwriters, Jubilee Centers International and Leadership Barry County.

Erica holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and theatre from Eastern Michigan University, and graduated magna cum laude with a master's degree in public and nonprofit administration from Grand Valley State University, and holds certifications in Extended DISC, Conflict Management, Intercultural Development Inventory, Creating and Sustaining High Performing Teams and Restorative

Shawn is a retired Air Force 1-Star General with 30 years of experience, education, and expertise leading organizations and developing teams in high-stakes and high-demand environments across the globe. He culminated his distinguished military career as the Director, Air Force Manpower, Organizations, and Resources where he was responsible for leading the management and oversight of the Air Force’s manpower enterprise encompassing more than 694,000 Total Force personnel and the programming of more than $64 billion in annual funding for the manpower portion of the Air Force’s budget. He also set standards and policy for strategic manpower sourcing, performance management, organizational structure, and manpower data systems.

As a facilitator, coach, consultant, and adviser, Todd helps teams and organizations understand how to build awareness, create convergence, and take quick action together in complex environments. Combining his graduate work in psychology, interest in network science and ecology, and experience in assisting small and large organizations through major transformations, Todd thrives in bridging disciplines and dimensions.

Todd launched Canopy Gap in 2009, inspired by his passion for cooperation, collaboration, and living systems. As a member of Content Evolution, Todd is part of the founding team for SenseMapping, helping make the workplace more fully human. With wisdom guide Marti Spiegelman, he co-hosts the podcast and leadership program Leading from Being.

Todd is also a certified trainer in Respectful Confrontation, and Ecosystem Director for The Weston Network. Todd serves on the boards of Wisdom Projects, the Fierce Civility Project, and Project Realize.

Eric Hyyppa is the President of the National Educational Telecommunications Association. Prior to joining NETA, Eric served for 11 years as Director and General Manager of MontanaPBS in Bozeman, Montana. He has a background in Information Technology, including a BS in Computer Science from Montana State University. He is a PBS veteran, with over 25 years in public broadcasting and extensive experience in television production, including work for every major network and many independent companies. He is a former member of the Society of Motion Picture Television Engineers and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.

Eric is past chair of the board of directors of the National Educational Telecommunications Association, past chair of the board of trustees of America’s Public Television Stations, past chair of public television’s Affinity Group Coalition, and past co-chair of the Organization of State Broadcasting Executives. He has also served on the board of directors of PBS as well as the board of directors for the Montana Broadcasters Association.

Eric resides in Columbia, South Carolina with his wife Alexis and daughter Annika.

As Vice President, Education for NETA, Timothy leads NETA’s team to strengthen and amplify Public Media’s education mission. His team supports Professional Development, Education Services, NETA Peer Learning Communities, NETA Awards, and the NETA Conference. Prior to NETA, he was the Director of Development and Marketing with WGVU Public Media where he led the Development & Business Development team as well as Marketing, Outreach, Art, and Education areas.

He was with WGVU for twelve years, two as an Underwriting Sales Representative and the past ten years as Director of Development and Marketing.

Timothy is a proud Air Force Veteran, having served from 1990 – 1998 working with the 439th Military Airlift Wing and the 127th Air Wing as a PERSCO Team Member and the 110th Fighter Group as a Weapons Loader on A-10 Aircraft and has been deployed domestically and overseas in support of several Air Force operations.