Howard followed an unusual path in becoming a nationally known business coach, consultant and trainer.  After having participated actively in civil rights and social change work, and beginning his career as a teacher and educational administrator, he began studying management and organizational development in order to become a better manager himself.  He spent several years working on internal staff development at a large Washington DC area hospital before moving into the consulting world in 1985. Howard functioned as a sole proprietor for four years before starting Cook Ross with his then partner Dottie Cook in September, 1989. Cook Ross, Inc. has since become one of the nation’s leading diversity training and consulting companies and a nationally recognized expert on diversity, leadership, and organizational change.

As Founder and Chief Learning Officer of Cook Ross, Inc., Howard helps businesses and organizations tap into the power of their employees to improve their organization.  These organizations include educational institutions, non-profit organizations, unions, the media and Fortune 500 companies.

Howard has successfully led large-scale organizational culture change efforts in leadership development, managing diversity, and cultural integration in professional services corporations, Fortune 500 companies, and retail, healthcare, pharmaceutical, media, and government institutions.

In perhaps his most high-profile case, Howard was hired by the Atlanta Braves to help them manage the aftermath of the infamous John Rocker incident, working directly with the Braves’ major and minor league players, training managers and coaches to be more diversity-sensitive, and establishing an ongoing diversity plan.  Howard has counseled numerous other organizations in “diversity emergency” situations and lawsuits.

Among his successes, Howard provided executive coaching, team development and a model for a new corporate culture for Staples. His work with the office supply superstore resulted in a plan for how employees should work together, standards of competency for every employee, and service guidelines based on both customer and employee assessment. He also created the transformational leadership programs A Journey Into the Soul of Leadership and The Leadership Academy.

Howard has also facilitated board development sessions for many organizations, including Hurley Health System, Leadership Washington, the Washington Hotel Association, Atlantic Health Systems, Whole Foods Market, INROADS of Greater Washington, and the Board of Trade.

Howard is past chairman of Leadership Washington and a former director of the Greater Washington Board of Trade.  A former teacher, he volunteers on the boards of organizations that create opportunities for youth leadership, including Operation Understanding DC, Lydia’s House, Greater DC Cares, the National Council for Community and Justice (NCCJ), and INROADS of Greater Washington.  He was recently named the 2007-2008 Visiting Professor of Diversity for Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Howard can be heard on NPR the first Monday of every month at noon, as a regular guest on the Kojo Nnamdi Show.
           

Leslie Traub, President of Cook Ross, Inc., brings more than 20 years of experience in diversity and change management consulting, facilitation, training, and development to Cook Ross.  She has introduced new concepts, behaviors, structures and systems, to virtually every organization for which she has worked. 

Leslie is trained in facilitation, instructional design, organization change, social science research, statistics and evaluation.  She spent the first ten years of her career consulting to national primary health care programs in West Africa, conducting operations research on service delivery and national program evaluations.  She has translated this experience into her corporate, association, and not-for-profit consulting practice.

Upon return, she launched a successful, independent consultancy, and then headed management development for the American National Red Cross Biomedical Services, where she lived and learned first hand organizational change for a multi-billion dollar industry.  This learning has served her well in her practice as organizational change and development consultant across a multitude of industries.

Leslie's current practice includes partnering with a wide-variety of industry leaders in managing organizational change, leveraging the diversity both within an organization and in the potential markets served, and in coaching all levels of managers and leaders to meet and exceed organizational goals with more grace, ease and vibrancy.  She has a particular interest in working with women in organizations in helping to bring women's perspective into the workplace.

Leslie is a fellow in Change Management from Johns Hopkins University, and holds a Masters in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from Tulane University, a B.A. in economics and history from Wheaton College in Massachusetts, and a Certificate in Training and Development from the University of Maryland.