Dr. Andrew Johnston, Melanie Adams, Carla Worthey & Susan G. Williams

Teaches at Belmont U Center for Executive Education

Dr. Andrew Johnston

Dr. Andrew Johnston is a sought after teacher, coach, and consultant whose personal style and practical approach distinguish his work in corporate, academic, and non-profit contexts. Clients connect easily and deeply with him as he helps them increase their potential and inhabit it fully. Dr. Johnston is known for preparing leaders for real world challenges and opportunities. His engagements are focused on results, and he equips clients with new insights and strategies they can put to work immediately.

Dr. Johnston connects meaningfully with clients because he knows the charms and challenges of leadership himself. Twenty-five years of surviving and inspiring transformation as a senior-level leader have tested and tempered his own practice, and left him committed to empowering and encouraging others who want to lead and live well.

This heart for leaders is coupled with a head for leadership. Dr. Johnston knows how to move others and make the most of them. He draws from extensive academic preparation in Interpersonal Communication, Counseling Psychology, and Leadership as well as diverse experiences as an executive, psychologist, professor, NCAA coach, and counselor to create unusually powerful experiences for his clients. In them, they discover new skills, new energy, and new vision for the future.

Dr. Johnston is the husband of a wonderful woman that reminds him leadership is about genuine collaboration and occasionally taking out the trash, and the father of two children who remind him that leadership is a high (and frequently humorous) calling not for the faint-of-heart. Equally comfortable on stage, in a classroom, or over a cup of coffee, Dr. Johnston calls leaders to a higher place, and leaves them feeling more capable and more hopeful in the process.

Melanie Lashlee Adams

Melanie works as the Executive Developer with the Center for Executive Education at Belmont University. She writes and teaches material that focuses on effective communication as the cornerstone of success in leadership and management roles. Melanie teaches courses such as Personal and Organizational Communication, Conflict Resolution, Coaching and Development for Optimal Performance, and Strategic Alignment, as well as many others. Melanie’s professional research interests include topics like emotional intelligence, managing the generations, change management, strategic organizational communication, transformational leadership and persuasion in leadership.

Melanie has worked for BellSouth Business both as a Project Team Manager as well as an Instructor and Curriculum Developer. She worked as an instructor for BellSouth University and as a member of the regional executive team of Tennessee and Kentucky as the training and development specialist. Melanie also was one of the first graduates of the Leadership Excellence program within her organization.

Melanie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Management from Tusculum College and a Master’s degree in Organizational Communication from Murray State University.

Melanie resides in Nashville with her four-year-old daughter and husband and is actively engaged in her community.

Carla Worthey

LEADERSHIIP DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONAL
Carla joined HCA in November, 2010 as the Director of Executive Development working with both the AVP of Executive Development and the VP of Talent Management.

Carla has over 14 years of experience in sales and sales leadership, ten of which have been dedicated to the healthcare, Pharmaceutical and Biotech arenas. She spear-headed the Leadership Development Department at Teva Pharmaceuticals, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical/biotech companies. Her responsibilities included developing and facilitating leadership and professional development programs to leaders of the sales, marketing and
medical-liaison departments. Responsible for ensuring quality leadership training across the US, she designed and facilitated leadership focused programs for new hire orientation, change management, presentation skills, team dynamics, goal-setting, and leadership skills.

For maximized sustainability and ROI, she created and facilitated Train-the-Trainer events with senior leadership, mentoring programs, and emerging/HIPO programs. She has also executed needs and benchmarking analysis, as well as assessment center design and execution.

EXPERIIENCED BUSIINESS RESULTS EXPERT:
In addition to the above, Carla has successful leadership experience as a former Regional Sales Manager and as a Hospital Account Executive with multi-billion dollar healthcare companies.

During her tenure in these roles, she was active on many appointed advisory councils including optimization and integration efforts, strategy building and implementation, data system review and design, process improvement, and high-level collaborative initiatives with senior leadership cross-functionally. She has international business experience an appointee to an Executive Leadership Council with rotations to Canada and Holland and former sales consulting experience in South America and Western Europe.

Susan G. Williams

Dr. Susan Williams is a professor of management in the Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business. Additionally, she serves as a curriculum designer and faculty member for the Center for Executive Education at Belmont University. Her teaching interests include negotiation, decision making, continuous improvement, and strategic thinking. Dr. Williams came to Belmont in 1989 and has served the university in several capacities, most recently as Vice President of Administration and Planning before returning to the classroom full-time in 2001.

After receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Georgia, Susan taught in the University of Georgia system and at East Tennessee State University. She was a business owner and entrepreneur in Nashville for several years before she came to Belmont.

Dr. Williams is an active public speaker and consultant on topics related to management. Representative clients include The Darden Group, Disney, AAA, The United Methodist Church, Aon, Genesco, Tractor Supply and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She completed a three-year appointment as a judge for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, a Secretary of Commerce appointment. Active in national organizations, Dr. Williams is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma and Phi Eta Sigma professional honor societies. She is on the ETSU Foundation Board of Directors, the Better Business Bureau Board of Directors, and volunteers her time for a variety of local non-profit organizations. She is a Tennessee Rule 31 mediator. Williams has served the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence in various capacities since its inception in 1993; she now serves on the Panel of Judges.

In her teaching tenure at Belmont University, Williams has been named Most Inspirational Professor by twelve Massey Graduate School of Business graduating classes.