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Tom Balles, M.Ac., L.Ac.(UK), Dipl.Ac.(NCCAOM), teaches in all of Tai Sophia Institute’s master’s degree programs as well as in the Institute’s Transformative Leadership, Health Coaching, and Wellness Coaching graduate certificate programs and has been a practicing acupuncturist since 1985. Mr. Balles facilitates one-on-one and group business workshops in team building, communication skills, improving work habits, conflict resolution, and leadership development. He is the author of Dancing with the Ten Thousand Things: Ways to Become a Powerful Healing Presence and “Cultivating Healing Presence ,” a guide.
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Co-founder and Chancellor Emeritus of Tai Sophia Institute, and a practitioner of traditional acupuncture since 1973, Dr. Connelly received her master's qualification from the College of Traditional Acupuncture (UK) in 1979. She earned a doctorate in crosscultural medicine from Union Graduate School in 1975, a master's degree from New York University School of Education in 1970, and her bachelor's degree from Le Moyne College in 1967. An international lecturer (she lectures regularly in Italy and Germany), Connelly is the author of Traditional Acupuncture: The Law of the Five Elements (1975), All Sickness is Homesickness (1986), Medicine Words: Language of Love for the Treatment Room of Life (2009), and with Katherine Hancock Porter, Alive and Awake: Wisdom for Kids (2003). She is the mother of Blaize, Jade, and Caeli, as well as grandmother to Tamar, Lennox, Rianna, Roman, and Maxim.
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Bob Devlin, M.A., is president of Transformation Strategies, Inc., a Washington DC Leadership Consultancy with a global reach. He serves as executive consultant, strategic thinking partner, and coach to leaders and senior teams as they learn to lead more boldly and implement change. Bob's clients say he builds extraordinary relationships that lead to breakthrough conversations and create new ways of interacting and doing business. He is the creator of Leadership in Action and the Alignment and Action Process, which are leadership development and change methodologies used in business and government. As director and senior faculty member of the Georgetown University Organization Development Program for seven years, he trained and coached hundreds of leaders and consultants in the complex dynamics of systems change. He currently works nationally and internationally with clients such as global publisher Pearson PLC, global financial services firm SWIFT, Gettysburg College, national associations, the US Army, and government agencies including the Department of Agriculture, Federal Drug and Food Administration, and Department of Homeland Security. He holds a B.A. in International Studies and an M.A. in Human Resource Development from George Washington University, with advanced study in Organization Development.
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Robert Duggan, M.A., M.Ac.(UK), Dipl.Ac.(NCCAOM), Co-Founder and President Emeritus of Tai Sophia Institute, has practiced traditional acupuncture since 1973. He holds a master’s degree in human relations and community studies from New York University as well as a master’s in moral theology from St. Joseph’s Seminary, and received his master’s certification in acupuncture from the College of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture (UK). A national leader in the development of the acupuncture profession and the emerging healing arts community, he has served as a commissioner of the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, on the board of trustees of the Horizon Foundation (a community wellness foundation in Howard County, Maryland, which in 2008 honored him with its annual Leadership Award), and a panelist at meetings sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine. In February 2009, Duggan testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and in November 2009, he was among 20 leading thinkers, innovators, artists, philosophers, and entertainers selected to present at the first TEDx MidAtlantic Conference. Mr. Duggan lectures throughout the United States and abroad, and is author of Common Sense for the Healing Arts (2003).
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Susan Duggan, M.Ac., a graduate of Skidmore College with a specialization in Health and Human Services, has practiced bodywork since 1986 and taught at the Potomac Massage Therapy Institute in Washington, DC. She holds a Master of Acupuncture degree from the Traditional Acupuncture Institute (now Tai Sophia Institute) and teaches classes on the arts of living and dying. Prior to her studies of acupuncture and bodywork she coordinated educational programs at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Susan is an alumna of the Academy for the Love of Learning.
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John G. Sullivan, Ph.D., J.C.D., is the principal designer of Tai Sophia's Master of Arts in Transformative Leadership and Social Change program (formerly Master of Arts in Applied Healing Arts) and a long-time participant in the work of Tai Sophia. Dr. Sullivan is Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Philosophy Emeritus and Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Elon University in North Carolina. He holds two earned doctorates: a J.C.D. (canon law) from Lateran University in Rome (1966) and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1985). Dr. Sullivan is the author of four books: To Come to Life More Fully, Living Large: Transformative Work at the Intersection of Ethics and Spirituality, The Spiral of Seasons: Welcoming the Gifts of Later Life and The Fourfold Path to Wholeness: A Compass for the Heart. His abiding interest is the place where philosophy, psychology, and spirituality - East, West, and beyond - intersect and mutually enhance one another. He is currently working on issues of spirituality and later life. See his essays.
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Transformative Practice Group Leaders
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Robert Gordon, M.S.O.D., M.A., M.S. (candidate), is an organizational consultant specializing in professional education, organization development, and leadership development. Bob also provides counseling and life, career, and leadership coaching at the Imago Center of Washington DC and the Pastoral Counseling and Consultation Centers of Greater Washington. Bob has over 25 years of experience in the field of professional education, training, and organization development. He led the leadership development programs for three federal agencies and designed the first corporate university for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. During his time in the federal government, Bob was honored with five Secretary of Labor Exceptional Achievement Awards for designing and delivering professional instruction and consulting initiatives that achieved measurable improvements in organizational effectiveness and quality. His “Breaking Barriers to Achievement” program, which he launched at the U.S. Department of Commerce, was a featured presentation at the American Society of Training and Development. Bob holds a Master of Science degree in Organization Development (M.S.O.D.) from American University in partnership with the NTL Institute of Applied Behavioral Science. He is also a graduate of Tai Sophia’s Master of Arts program in Applied Healing Arts, where he was given the Herbert C. Brown Community Service Award. Bob completes his Master of Science degree in counseling from Loyola University Maryland in December 2011. Bob has been a student, practitioner, and teacher of world wisdom traditions for over 30 years, several as a monastic. He is a member of the National Career Development Association, the Mid-Atlantic Association for Imago Relationship Therapists, Spiritual Directors International, and the International Association for Spirit at Work.
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Nancy Takahashi, M.Ac., ., has served in the human services and community health fields and counseled in outpatient and college settings for over 16 years. She received a master’s degree in Acupuncture from the Tai Sophia Institute; practices in Ashton, MD; and teaches in the Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine and Transformative Leadership and Social Change Programs.
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Jill Weinknecht Wardell, M.A.., is a coach, facilitator, and founder of Partnership Works Coaching and Consulting. Specializing in relationship coaching, her life’s work is creating transformative and sustainable partnerships in personal and professional life. Ms. Wardell is a graduate of The Newfield Network, an ICF accredited coach training school and has created and facilitated numerous educational and coaching workshops and public events. She is a graduate of Tai Sophia Institute's Transformative Leadership and Social Change program and is a Transformative Practice Group leader. For her day job, she is part of a two-person team at UMBC that facilitates Training and Organization Development and runs the campus Wellness Initiative for faculty, staff, and students. Her latest work project is an 8-week Meditation Boot Camp, a mindfulness and change-management class aimed at teaching the embodiment of mindfulness to increase one's capacity to respond peacefully and skillfully to curve balls in life. A devoted wife to Tom and mother to Alexander, she is expanding her brood in January 2012 and looks forward to welcoming baby Scarlett.
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