A Bit about Stephen's experiences;

Stephen Oliver is an experienced human resources professional with a background in human resources management, training and organizational development, and academic teaching.

Stephen has worked as a human resources generalist and an organzational development and training professional for large health care organizations both in Philadelphia and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas.

In those roles he has been involved in a broad base of human resources functions including employee recruitment, selection, and retention, employee relations and compliance, management and staff training and development, compensation and benefits, and human resources administrative issues.

As a training and organizational development manager, Stephen was involved in running the Corporate University for a wide variety of hospital employees in a large hospital system. He was in charge of managing a Leadership Development Program for clinical and non-clinical employees.

In this leadership development program, he worked in all phases of the program from start-up to evaluation. He worked with senior leaders to design and develop the process for leader development. As a senior faculty member in the program, he taught the various modules and activities utilizing adult learning theories, principles, and activities to successfully engage and train the managers of the hospital. He also worked to assess the effectiveness of the program and the changes in behaviors from leaders who went through the program. Lastly, he worked on evaluating the program to see its effectiveness and areas for change and development.

In his role as a corporate trainer, he facilitated many training and development programs for both clinical and non-clinical individuals. Stephen taught both management and front-line staff members. Some of the topics he facilitated were as customer service, conflict resolution, team building, communication skills, train-the-trainer, diversity in the workplace, presentation skills, coaching skills for managers, stepping-up to supervisor,
and many more programs.

The courses assisted in both self-development for individual participants and in team and organizational development to help improve the communication skills and team working among employees with in the organizations to assist in meeting the organizations goals and to ultimately serve the customer.

In his role in an organizational development specialist capacity, he assisted leaders in completing needs analysis and assessment to look at performance gaps and communications gaps on teams. After analysis, he then worked to translate these gaps into team building and communication interventions, as well as department retreats, and hospital wide-leadership and human resources activities to improve performance and communication.

He has also coached managers on strategic organizational and operational issues, as well as with their personal leadership issues. He helped them utilize the skills, models, and content they learned in the leadership program as well as giving them other adult learning tools, methodologies, and resources for improvement.

As an academic teacher he has taught in a variety of colleges and universities in the Philadelphia area. He has taught in the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Villanova University, The Fox School of Business at Temple University and Widener University. He has taught both undergraduate and graduate students in a variety of Human Resources Management, Diversity in the Workplace, and Business Communications courses.

He currently teaches in the Wharton Programs for Working Professionasl (WPWP) in the Wharton School of Busienss at the University of Pennsylvania.

Click here to visit WPWP:

http://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu/wpwp/prog-becp.cfm

He also facilitates the Professional Human Resources Certification (PHR/SPHR) for the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) through Villanova University. He does this both in the class room and on- line in an E-learning capacity.

Click here to visit the Villanova University/SHRM - PHR/SPHR courses:

http://www.villanovau.com

Stephen’s competencies include but are not limited to; needs assessment, adult learning theories, platform skills, training & teaching skills, instructional design and development, leadership development, e-learning & distance education, diversity, change management, organizational development intervention skills, and human resource management skills.

He is passionate about his work and facilitating the adult learning process. His experiences in health care organizations and hospitals have added great value to the organization in improving communication and team work among staff members to serve the patients, parents, and family members.

He works effectively while utilizing consultation skills and listening to the clients needs to translate these needs into proactive human resources and learning solutions. He is a team player who is flexible to accomplish client, business unit, and organizational goals.

Stephen Oliver Teaching Philosophy - Student-Centered

"I am student-centered in my teaching philosophy. I try my best to be student-centered and do my utmost to help the student learn.  I hold the student accountable and responsible for his or her learning, but I utilize and implement student-centered learning principles and practices in my teaching.

My goal is to help the student get where he/she needs to be in his/her learning journey through active and involved methodologies for learning. Additionally, I utilize active learning techniques in the classroom, whereby I engage the student, create active learning exercises and examples to help the student to figure out their own learning outcomes.

My role is that of the facilitator for student learning and not one who just lectures. Lastly, I am flexible in my interactions with students, especially the adult student. Given the complexities of their busy lives and the competing priors that they have. I believe that if you work with the student and give him or her flexibility in their attempts to learn, you will get so much more from them and help them achieve their learning goals."

Stephen Oliver Education:

Stephen obtained his Bachleor's degree (B.A.) in English from West Virginia University and received his Master’s degree (M.A.) in Human Resources Development at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.

Stephen studied on-line through the University of Wisconsin - Madison to pursue a certification in distance education in 2004 to 2006.

He is currently pursuing his Doctorate in Education (Ed.D.) at the University of Pennsylvania.

http://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu/clo.cfm

Stephen is a current national and local member of both the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) and the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).

Click here to visit SHRM:

http://www.shrm.org/

Click here to visit ASTD:

http://www.astd.org/ASTD

Social Networking

Linked in - www.linkedin.com

LearningTown! - www.learningtown.com

 Myspace - www.myspace.com