Authorities in the areas of education, human relations, business, and ecumenism who serve on theSafe to Relate Advisory Team help to establish the direction of programs and services. The insights, guidance, and recommendations they offer provide critical support for the organization’s mission to help people and groups improve cross-cultural relationships.

Brian Wm. Niles has established a national reputation as an Internet marketer and is the leading authority on interactive recruiting and marketing in higher education. He regularly appears as a speaker and workshop leader at conferences around the country. Prior to co-founding TargetX and becoming its CEO in 1998, Brian served for 15 years in college admissions and enrollment management positions and as a marketing and enrollment management consultant for colleges and universities in the U.S.

Dr. Dorothy Talbert-Hersi has had over twenty-seven years of experience in higher education as an administrator and faculty member and has a very diverse background, having worked in a large urban research university; a rural community college; and four year liberal arts institutions in both rural and suburban locations. She has taught on both the undergraduate and graduate levels and has management and educational administrative experience in increasingly responsible positions; including, Department Chairperson; Center Coordinator; Director of Academic Support; Director of Retention; Director of the Wilmington campus site of Delaware State University and most recently; Assistant Vice President of Student and Academic Support Services. She currently works with Teresa Farnum and Associates, a Higher Education consultant firm, assisting colleges and universities with increasing their enrollment and retention rates.

She has served as a consultant for multiculturalism and diversity in the Maryland and Washington, D.C. Public School Systems and has delivered motivational speeches and made professional presentations on a wide range of educational topics, including diversity and multiculturalism; mentoring; leadership; customer service training; implementing best practices and strategies in higher education, and the implementation of University retention and support programs.

Her degrees are from Howard University in Washington, D.C. and include a Ph.D. in Organizational Communications (Management) (1991); an Advanced Certificate of Graduate Studies in Student Development in Higher Education Administration (1982) and an Advanced Certificate of Graduate Studies in Reading Diagnosis and Administration (1984); an M.Ed in Guidance and Counseling (1977) and a B.A. (cum Laude) in English and Secondary Education (1975). She currently lives in Bear, Delaware.

Samuel Jaideep Rendall brings to Culture Prep a wealth of cross cultural experience in both the international business arena and the entrepreneurial sector. He spent eight years traveling extensively around the world as an executive for Exide Corporation, where he served on the Board of Directors of the companies subsidiaries and joint ventures in the Middle East and Asia. In 1996 he received the Pennsylvania Governors Export Excellence Award for highest growth in the international market. As an entrepreneur for the next seven years Sam co-founded and grew Powertrend Corporation an international distribution company based in Pennsylvania, as well as Millennium Battery Manufacturing Co., a production unit in Florida. He has lectured and given seminars on subjects such as “Cultural factors and perceptions impacting business in international markets” and “Doing business in the Middle East”. Sam currently works with Globus Medical, a cutting edge spinal implant and non-fusion products company pioneering advances in motion preservation non-fusion treatments for spinal disorders. He makes his home in Jackson, MI where he enjoys writing poetry, collecting wine and flying non commercial airplanes. He is an avid outdoor and nature, and fitness enthusiast.

Jennifer L. Heins-Daum has spoken locally and nationally on cultural tolerance combined with proactivity. As an Advisor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout Multicultural Student Services, she is thrilled to empower students towards self-efficacy continually learning from them daily and can’t believe she’s getting paid to rabble-rouse in diversification issues!

In her spare time, Jennifer runs her own e-commerce business, is working towards her Doctorate and, most importantly, is re-discovering and re-emphasizing the roots of cultural pride raising her son, G. What a great life!!!

Ben Vogel currently serves as principal of Appleton East High School, a comprehensive high school of approximately 1600 students in Appleton, Wisconsin. He also serves as principal of Appleton eSchool, an online 9-12 charter high school. Ben is a Ph.D. candidate at UW-Madison Wisconsin, working on his dissertation that focuses on an instrument, entitled the Online Program Perceiver Instrument (OPPI). This instrument is meant to assist online schools in self-assessing specific key elements necessary for student success to occur in an online environment. Ben resides in Appleton, Wisconsin with his wife Lesley and their seven children, all under the age of eight years old.

Kirstin Chavez was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but spent her formative years growing up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where she cultivated friends from more than 40 nationalities among local populations and the international community living there. Since that time, Kirstin continued her musical training and studies, completing her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, and is now a renowned opera and concert singer, performing on stages around the world. In this way, she is able to continue her tradition of building cross-cultural friendships, with the aid of the ‘Universal Language:’ music.

A list of these companies and individual biographical profiles are available upon request.