Vision/Mission

      (Flash Version of Vision)

      Leadership

• Kelly Castor, Co-Founder, is a Director and President of Partners for Strong Communities. (Full Bio)
• James Vaughan, Co-Founder, is Chairman of the Board of Directors. (Full Bio)
• Amy Jaffe Barzach is a Director and certified LifeDesign facilitator. (Full Bio)
• Maggie Castor, Entrepreneur, is Director of Programs. (Full Bio)
• John Ferguson is a Director and certified LifeDesign facilitator. (Full Bio)
• Timothy Williams is a Director.

Full Bios

After years of owning, operating and helping other businesses identify, clarify and achieve outstanding results, Kelly is now bringing those same skills to the non-profit world as Co-founder and President of Partners for Strong Communities. Focusing his energy towards "work that matters," in addition to increasing the bottom-line, is now where his passion resides.

Building vibrant, sustainable communities is a cause that resides deep within him. Focusing on the main areas of local foods, renewable energy and healthy, local economies is where he is utilizing his years of business experience to build and mobilize a committed group of people and partners towards this end.

Kelly has nearly 20 years of Executive Leadership experience ranging from building high-performance sales teams to managing multi-million dollar organizations. Most notably, Kelly was a founding partner of NII Communications, a Competitive Local Exchange Company (better known as a phone company!) which grew from inception to over $20 million in annualized revenue in 3 short years.

In October of 2001, Kelly founded Practical Lessons, a management consulting firm. He is the Author of The No-Nonsense Guide to Management Effectiveness and numerous training and seminar programs.

Kelly has been responsible for the design, implementation and management of several sales organizations in the telecommunications and publishing industries. His acute awareness of what it takes to train, motivate and manage organizations has led him to develop a methodology which has a proven track-record of success.

Kelly is an accomplished speaker and utilizes his up-bringing in a small farming community in rural Indiana to bring a no-nonsense, down-to-earth style of speaking and training to all his work. He has years of experience on the "business frontlines." This, coupled with his understanding of "how and why people are the way they are," gives him a unique perspective into the "art of leadership."

Kelly brings all his experience to bear with Partners for Strong Communities with an eye towards running the organization more like a social business rather than a typical non-profit. Please feel free to contact Kelly directly to learn more about our programs and/or how you can be involved in building vibrant, sustainable communities.

I have an abiding interest in how people learn, make decisions and manage their lives. The seeds of my interest in LifeDesign go back to my own decision-making process in choosing a career. I have made at least 5 distinct career changes.

I began college with the idea of becoming an accountant. Math was an easy subject for me, but after only two semesters, I felt it wasn't a field that was going to hold my interest. I decided to study for the ministry and pursued a degree in philosophy and religion. During my senior year, I took my first course in Psychology and was captivated by the possibility of learning more about why we do the things we do.

I had already accepted a fellowship at Yale Divinity School so I went to Yale for a semester before deciding to leave the ministerial track and pursue an advanced degree in Psychology. That was a hard decision for me to make, and I was very fortunate to have an excellent faculty advisor who helped me think it through and make the right decision for me. I then took a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology and a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology.

I taught Organizational Psychology for 8 years in the Graduate Schools of Business at the Univ. of Pittsburgh and the Univ. of Rochester. I was an Associate Professor with tenure in 1970 when I decided to leave the Univ. of Rochester and go into consulting fulltime. I still remember the shocked reaction I got from friends and colleagues. They couldn't believe I would leave such a secure position to enter a profession where I would be on my own with no guaranteed income. This event and the reactions of others crystallized my interest in life planning and how we make significant life decisions.

Peggy (my wife) and I began immediately to create and run LifeDesign workshops. In 1972, while running a LifeDesign workshop for couples, we got clear on our desire to live in a warm climate near the water and decided to move to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. In the ensuing years, Peggy and I have run LifeDesign workshops for groups as diverse as the National Council of Churches and the National Defense University. We have counseled hundreds of people in the LifeDesign process and used it consistently in our own lives.

After working with this process for over 35 years, I am more energized than ever about the prospects of using LifeDesign to help people live full lives of their own choosing. Most people never come close to realizing their full potential. This is partly due to the almost unlimited capability that every person possesses, but it's also partly caused by the reluctance of many to pursue their dreams. Too many people accept limits put on them by others.

We are living in challenging times. About 45% of the 6.5 million Americans who joined the jobless rolls in this downturn lost their positions permanently. Many are being forced to seek new jobs in unrelated fields, and all have an opportunity to rethink what they're going to do with the rest of their lives. Add to this number those who now realize the retirement they thought they were working toward isn't going to be financially possible and you have a very large number of Americans rethinking where they are in their lives.

LifeDesign can help in this rethinking process, and we're committed to making it available in communities across America.

Amy has enjoyed success as a marketing executive in the for-profit world and as a founder/leader in the non-profit sector. She is a prime example of the human ability to turn tragedy into triumph.

When faced with the death of her 9-month-old son Jonathan, she channeled her grief into a living memorial by marshaling an army of volunteers to create one of the first universally accessible playgrounds in the country, Jonathan's Dream. The national interest this generated inspired Amy to lead a passionate team of parents and professionals to establish Boundless Playgrounds in 1997. During Amy's 10-year tenure as its founding executive director, Boundless Playgrounds raised awareness of the need for and benefits of inclusive playgrounds generating interest from people in every state, helped communities develop 135 inclusive playgrounds in 25 states, successfully implemented three state initiatives, and raised millions of dollars for this cause including $10,000,000 in challenge grants that directly helped more than 50 communities develop their own inclusive playgrounds.

In October, 2008 Amy turned the reigns over to a new CEO and launched Powerful Inspiration, a new venture dedicated to inspiring people to imagine and work towards a world where everyone matters and everyone can make a difference.

Maggie has over twenty years experience as an entrepreneur in the Food and Supplemental industries. Over the past nine years, Maggie founded two sports nutrition manufacturing companies and had a pivotal leadership role as their Chief of Operations and Chief Executive Officer.

She has applied her marketing talents, business prowess and technical/scientific background to create a highly successful career within the food and supplemental industries. Maggie has a track record of success in every aspect of these company's operations, including raising working capital, manufacturing, packaging, product development, sales and marketing. In 2008, Maggie led the negotiation team that resulted in the sale of one of the company's brands that she co-founded to a Canadian firm.

Maggie received her Bachelor's degree in Nutrition and Psychology from the University of Arizona in 1999 where she was a member of the University of Arizona's Triathlon Team, placing third at the National Collegiate Championships. Over the past twenty five years, Maggie has served as a volunteer, coach, and fundraiser to various local civic and church organizations including the Girls Scouts and local church groups.

In 2009, Maggie co-founded Pellegrino Farm, a vegetable farm located outside of Raleigh, N.C. and is also working with local non-profits and church groups in an effort to provide hunger-relief and nutrition education within the state.

After a 20+ year career in information technology during which he held senior business management and people leadership roles with AT&T, NCR, and the Royal Bank of Scotland, John returned to the U.K. in 1995 and started his own consulting firm, Development & Motivation Programmes.

Since then he has gained extensive international experience facilitating workshops throughout Europe, the U.S., Canada, the Middle East and the Philippines. Having worked with individuals and organizations from virtually every business sector, he is equally effective working one-to-one or with groups of 5-500 people. John is currently a senior consultant with Pritchett, LP, a leading change management consulting firm in Dallas, TX.

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