LERN Consultants are on the road more than 200 days a year visiting and helping LERN members around the world.
Senior Consultant Dr. Rita Martinez-Purson brings more than 30 years of continuing education executive 
expertise. Her work includes launching two successful start-up continuing education units, the most recent at the University of Arizona, as well as bringing renewal, growth and vibrancy to established organizations. She has served as a Dean of Continuing Education in both university – University of New Mexico – and community college – Santa Fe Community College – settings and is a skilled facilitator, trainer, planner and project manager.
Dr. Martinez-Purson provide the following to continuing educaton units:
- Strategic planning
- Program reviews
- Continuing education and credit relationship strategies
- Strategic organizational development: planned and scaled development for any stage of growth – from start-up operations to reengineering of existing programs
- Program portfolio planning and development
- Succession planning and management
- Staffing plan development and managementLogistics of professional development and human resource management
- Executive coaching
- Professional communication strategies
- Facilitation skills for planning, meetings and organizational development
- Trust and relationship-building strategies
- Working effectively with central administration
- Public relations and partnerships to leverage growth and support
- Developing the customized contract training effort
- Delivering customer-focused quality in programs and services for all age groups
- Diversity planning, training and management
Check out this video tip sheet from Dr. Martinez-Purson on why strong leadership is vital to becoming a strong lifelong learning program:
If you are interested in consulting support from Dr. Martinez-Purson or any other LERN consultant, you should
contact LERN’s Greg Marsello at marsello@lern.org who can help you determine the best match for your continuing education unit.