Healthy Congregations, Inc.

Keynote Speakers

For nearly twenty-three years, Dr. Robert Creech served as senior pastor of the University Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, a congregation of approximately 3,000 members located near the Johnson Space Center. In the early 1990s he became a student of Bowen Family Systems Theory, engaging study and coaching with Victoria Harrison and the Center for the Study of Natural Systems and the Family (CSNSF). Later as a member of the Board of Directors of CSNSF, he helped to launch Defining Leaders, a program for training clergy in Bowen Theory. In 2002 he coauthored The Leader's Journey: Accepting the Call to Personal and Congregational Transformation and in 2008 contributed a chapter on "Jesus and Differentiation of Self" to Roberta Gilbert's The Cornerstone Concept: In Leadership, In Life. In August 2009, Dr. Creech joined the faculty of Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, Texas, as Professor of Christian Ministries and Director of Pastoral Ministries, where he teaches courses in The Life and Work of the Pastor, Strategic Planning for Churches and Ministries, Leadership in Christian Ministry, and Church Administration. He also directs the seminary's theological field education program.

Walter Howard Smith, Jr's career focuses on the use of Bowen family systems theory to understand the functioning of families, organizations, and social groups. In the past twenty years, Dr. Smith has focused on conflict and violence to understand how relationship shifts and responses to stress lead to child abuse, domestic violence, and conflict. He specializes in ways of implementing complex ideas and intervention strategies in community and professional settings. Dr. Smith is the Executive Director of Family Resources. Family Resources is a private non-profit corporation that focuses on child abuse prevention and treatment, and serves more than 20,000 children, teens, and adults in the county that surrounds Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Smith is a licensed psychologist with a private practice that specializes in treating children, couples, and families. He is the founding member of the Western Pennsylvania Family Center, an education resource center for lay and professional persons interested in family therapy and family studies.

Ms. Wiseman is a business consultant whose work in organizational development (productivity improvement, training, coaching, and work redesign) springs from her primary interest in understanding human behavior and adaptation at work. The foundation of her work is Bowen Family Systems Theory and its application to workplace decisions. Her client work for government agencies, family firms, foundations and offices, corporations, and non-profit organizations has taken her to churches, emerging technology businesses, prisons, law firms, medical practices, financial service firms, farms, multi-site manufacturing facilities, and newspapers. Along the way, she has gained appreciation for the variety of challenges people so often encounter. Her perspective reflects inquisitiveness, respect for people's ability to adapt creatively, and a unique appreciation for the many hidden stories that emerge from the workplace. Her perspective is one of a "business anthropologist." Kathy received her undergraduate degree in sociology/anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from George Washington University. She is faculty member at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family (previously the Georgetown Family Center). She is adjunct faculty at the George Washington University School of Business. She is an author, lecturer, contributor to professional journals, and serves on the boards on numerous professional organizations. She has recreated stories from the workplace thru video and audio tapes. She is currently president of the Family Firm Institute Research and Education Foundation and has served as president of the Family Firm Institute, a 1200 member organization composed of business consultants, lawyers, and accountants who serve family businesses. She is founder and president of Working Systems, Inc., a 30-year old firm located in Washington, DC.