Profiles in Leadership

Mary Gauthier is known as one of the best songwriters of her generation. Originally from New Orleans and currently based in Nashville, Gauthier has battled back from hard knocks and bad habits. It wasn't until she was in her mid-30s that she started her career in music - once she got started, songs poured out that told the story of her life as a drunk and addict, a chef and restaurant owner, an androgynous lesbian, and an adoptee who spent the first year of her life in an orphanage. Her songs have been recorded by dozens of artists, including Jimmy Buffett, Blake Shelton, and Tim McGraw, and have appeared extensively in film and television, most recently on Yellowstone and ABC’s Nashville.If you travel in Nashville's singer-songwriter circles, literary circles, or progressive activist circles, you've probably witnessed Mary Gauthier bring a room to tears. She’s a unique, intrinsically valuable musical voice with a razor-sharp eye for detail and commitment to unsentimental self-reflection. Her most recent album, Dark Enough To See The Stars, has received rave reviews from The Associated Press, No Depression, Americana Highways, and more.

Tom Tonkin is the CEO and Founder of The Conservatory Group, an organization that provides high touch services to business executives that want to improve themselves, their team, and their environment.
 

Tom spent a major part of his career at Oracle Corporation. He was the Senior Director of the Sales Performance Group in Oracle’s Global Sales Academy. 

Tom's industry background includes Healthcare, Insurance, and Telecommunications, with a focus on organizational behaviors. He holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership from Regent University (Virginia Beach, VA) and a Master of Science in Organizational Leadership, with honors, with a focus on Leadership and Management from Regis University (Denver, CO). He has also received multiple business certifications and is a leadership expert.  

Sybil Ackerman-Munson is a Philanthropy professional with over two decades of experience working with donors to establish best funding practices that will help them to avoid costly mistakes and instead make a true and impactful difference in the world.

She has helped donors give away over $45 million in large and small donations throughout the course of her career.

Sybil has worked with almost every type of charitable funder from smaller family foundations and public charities to individual donors. She has an active and prosperous career working with philanthropists and is eager to share her constantly evolving and up to date strategies that are fresh and insightful.

Glenn Kasman is a retired healthcare executive, having served as President of the East Region of MultiCare Health System in the Puget Sound area, a provider of comprehensive inpatient and outpatient services. Glenn’s portfolio included hospital, clinic, physician, and health system operations as well as community relations, strategic planning and business development transactions. He began his career as a physical therapist and co-authored text materials on kinesiological surface electromyography and musculoskeletal pain, and presented extensively on clinical topics in national and international settings. Glenn was the recipient of the 2000 Physical Therapist of the Year Award from the Washington State Physical Therapy Association. He administered Level 1 trauma and CARF-accredited inpatient rehabilitation programs as well as numerous outpatient physical medicine and rehabilitation services and clinics, and was active in reimbursement advocacy and professional association leadership.

Mr. Bates spent over 19 years with ATI Physical Therapy, starting in the original clinic as a Physical Therapist and progressing to COO and eventually CEO. Bates’ leadership was instrumental and a driving force as ATI scaled from the original clinic to over 800 locations at the time of his exit from the business.

Most recently, Mr. Bates has served as a board member for several businesses including Southern Vet Partners (a Shore Capital Partners animal hospital platform. Bates joined the board in 2014 when SVP had 2 locations and has scaled to over 300), and Salt Dental Collective, a thriving dental support organization. Bates has recently joined Golden Bear Therapy Partners as Lead Independent Board Director.  Additionally, Bates is the founder of RESET Telluride, a luxury wellness retreat concept (ResetTelluride.com).

Vivian James Rigney is President and CEO of Inside Us LLC, an executive coaching consultancy, operating throughout five continents. He has helped implement leadership development initiatives for some of the world’s leading companies and their executive teams. The quest for personal success can often be a lonely journey. As an executive coach, he is known for building strong rapport with people and asking tough and incisive questions, with an uncanny ability to help them reveal and become their best version of themselves. A graduate of École Nationale Des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, he is a renowned speaker and expert on mindset and behavior, whose talks and presentations have inspired audiences globally. A native of Ireland, he has lived in the U.K., Germany, South Africa, France, Finland and currently lives in New York City.

Rachel Balkovec grew up in Omaha, Nebraska.

As a student at Skutt Catholic High School in Omaha, Balkovec played softball, soccer, and basketball. She initially attended Creighton University, where she was a catcher on the Creighton Bluejays softball team, but transferred to the University of New Mexico, where she also played catcher for the New Mexico Lobos.  She graduated from New Mexico in 2009 with a bachelor's degree in exercise science.  She then earned her master's degree from Louisiana State University in kinesiology.   In 2018, she enrolled in Vrije University in the Netherlands to study human movement sciences, earning her second master's degree.

Balkovec began her career in 2012 as a temporary contract strength and conditioning coach for the St. Louis Cardinals' Johnson City, Tennessee, minor-league affiliate.   In that role, she won the Appalachian League's award for strength coach of the year.  In 2014, she assumed a full-time role as the Johnson City affiliate's strength and conditioning coordinator, the first time a woman had held that role in baseball.

In 2016, Balkovec was hired by the Houston Astros to be their Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator.  She learned Spanish for the position, so she could better communicate with players.   She was the first woman in that role in Major League Baseball.   In 2018, she was promoted to be the Class AA Corpus Christi Hooks' strength and conditioning coach.

After moving to the Netherlands to pursue a second master's degree at Vrije University, Balkovec worked for the Dutch baseball and softball programs as an assistant hitting coach.   After graduating, she returned to the United States to work at a fellowship at Driveline Baseball, researching hitters' eye tracking and pitchers' hip movement.

In November 2019, Balkovec was announced as the New York Yankees' newest hitting coach, to start in spring training 2020, again the first woman to hold such a position full-time.   She also interviewed for a position as a quality control coach with the San Francisco Giants in fall 2019, but decided to take the Yankees' role.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 Minor League Baseball season, she coached in the Australian Baseball League. She was part of the coaching staff of the 2021 All-Star Futures Game.

On January 11, 2022, the Yankees announced that Balkovec will manage the Low-A Tampa Tarpons in 2022, making her the first woman to manage in affiliated baseball.

Carl DeRosa lives in Flagstaff Arizona with his wife Marlene, where he is currently serving as a Program Director for a developing physical therapy educational program at Rasmussen University.  The have 3 wonderful children and are blessed with 4 grandchildren.  Although he has been in physical therapy education for nearly 40 years, he has also been fortunate to  serve in other professional roles and business ventures including building a physical therapy private practice, serving as chief executive officer for an orthopedic surgeon practice, owning and managing a health club and wellness center, serving as a member of the Northern Arizona Business Alliance - an influential group of 40 community focused business leaders, and collaborative  research successes with colleagues resulting in findings and observations being shared in journals and numerous national and international conference. 

Marlene and Carl started their company, DeRosa Physical Therapy in the early 1980’s.  While it originally began as an orthopedic and sports practice, it soon grew in several innovative areas, namely cardiac conditioning, wellness, cancer rehab, lifestyle management and physical therapy care  across the lifespan.  One of Marlene and Carl’s most proud accomplishments was contributing to the building of the Summit Center, an innovative collaborative effort between orthopedic surgeons and physical therapists which housed the first ambulatory surgery center in Arizona.

Carl was a founding faculty for the Northern Arizona University Physical Therapy Program and served as its Program Director for 18 years.  Upon retiring from Northern Arizona University he assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer of the Summit Center managing the largest group of orthopedic physicians in northern Arizona including two surgery centers.  Most recently, Carl’s interest in true competency based education has taken him to Rasmussen University where he is currently working with faculty colleagues to develop one of the first competency based education programs in physical therapy education.  Carl has been honored to receive several professional recognitions, most notably Maley Lecturer, the Lucy Blair Service Award, the Robert Dicus Award, and being selected as a Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association.

Scott Drake is the Founder and Executive Director at JumpCoach, a social enterprise on a mission to make best-in-class leadership training available to everyone who needs it.

Scott’s journey into leadership was long, painful, and he made every mistake in the book. It took him 10 years to thrive as a leader and not feel like an imposter.

When he became a leader of leaders, he saw next-generation leaders making the same mistakes and having the same struggles. Selfishly, he couldn’t spend 10 years watching new leaders wreck his teams while they figured out how to lead, so he began searching for a faster way to teach leadership. That search turned into a five-year research project and the innovations that are now JumpCoach.

Prior to JumpCoach, Scott was Vice President of Technology for medical education disrupter ScholarRx, and his 25-year career includes stops at Microsoft in Redmond, Washington and start-ups in Silicon Valley.

Kelly loves what she does, and she gets paid for it.  She empowers others to discover their best wellness through physical therapy.  Currently she is a staff physical therapist at TAI Cedar Hills Physical Therapy and formerly the Chairman of the Board, President, Shareholder/Partner and Director of Cedar Hills Physical Therapy for Therapeutic Associates.  Her Physical Therapy degree is from Pacific University and is augmented by Certification in Orthopedic Manual Therapy (also former OCS).  Kelly is an excellent general orthopedic PT with specialty programs in TMD, Barefoot to Orthotics, and using the breath to help improve health and performance.  She has breath-work roots in yoga and mindfulness with certifications from Better Physiology and The Oxygen Advantage. She is a collaborator, trainer, and coach for Breathe Your Truth.  Kelly was an All- American Softball player and is now a very grateful Wife, Mother and Friend.