Partners
Dr. William L. Sparks
Will Sparks is the Dennis Thompson Chair & Professor of Leadership at the
McColl School of Business at Queens University of Charlotte, where he also
serves as the Director of the Office of Leadership Initiatives. He is a Visiting
Professor of International Management with Franklin University in Lugano,
Switzerland. In 2008, he founded the McColl School’s M.S. in Organization
Development (MSOD) Program and served as Director until 2013. He received
the Fuqua Distinguished Educator Award for excellence in teaching at Queens in
2003 and 2005 and was awarded the inaugural McColl School Leadership in
Teaching Award in 2009.
While on sabbatical from Queens in 2015-2016 he served as Global Vice
President of Talent with EnPro Industries, a $2B global manufacturing company
headquartered in Charlotte, NC. In this role he was responsible for corporate
leadership and talent management initiatives.
Will serves as the Managing Director for William L. Sparks & Associates,
LLC, a professional services firm founded in 1997 focused on leader and team
development, personal transformation and change management. He is serves as
a Partner with Peter Browning Partners, LLC, a consulting firm providing board
governance and executive coaching services to a variety of boards and senior
executives. He has consulted with a variety of international organizations in the
public and private sectors. He serves as a Director on the boards of the Dilworth
Center in Charlotte, NC, and The Project Appraisal Methodology (PAM) Institute
in Washington, DC.
Will has published numerous research papers and book chapters and has
appeared on several media outlets, including the CBS affiliate WBTV Channel 3,
News Carolina Channel 14, and on NPR. His TEDx Talk “The Power of Self
Awareness” was released in 2018. He is the author of “Actualized Leadership:
Meeting Your Shadow & Maximizing Your Potential” (2019, SHRM Publishing), which debuted as an Amazon #1 Best Seller is based on the “Actualized Leader
Profile,” a leadership assessment that he designed and validated and that has
been translated into nine languages. He is the co-author (with Peter Browning) of
the book “The Director’s Manual: A Framework for Board Governance” (2016,
Wiley).
He completed his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Development
under the direction of Dr. Jerry B. Harvey from The George Washington
University’s School of Business and Public Management, where his research
focused on group dynamics, organizational culture, and leadership.
Dr. John Repede
Dr. John Repede serves as a Partner in William L. Sparks & Associates where he leads the firms research, analytics and system development efforts.
In addition, he serves as a Professor of Management Science and Information Systems in the McColl School of Business and former Chair of the Information Systems Department at Queens University of Charlotte. Prior to his appointment at Queens University, he held academic positions at Eastern Kentucky University and then at UNC-Charlotte, where he introduced major changes in teaching methods and created educational software.
In addition to his teaching and research, he is an industry consultant and commercial software developer. John has extensive work experience in both the private and public sectors. He has held positions in municipal emergency services, retailing, health care, information technology and non-profit foundations.
John has contributed research and has made presentations at numerous national conferences. He has authored, co-authored and has been a contributing author to sixteen textbooks in Information Systems and Operations Management. He has published in the leading journals in the Operations Management field and has successfully written grants. He has served as a consultant and expert witness in civil and criminal computer-related cases, including expert testimony for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
He received an Associate of Arts degree in Liberal Arts and an Associate of Applied Science degree in Fire Science Technology from Harper College. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Management from the University of Illinois-Springfield, a Master of Business Administration degree in Management Information Systems from the University of Illinois-Urbana, and a Doctorate of Business Administration degree in Management Science from the University of Kentucky.
Dr. Repede is a member of the Charlotte Concert Band, an amateur ballroom dancer and a student of Yoga.
Erika Weed, M.B.A.
Erika currently serves as Partner and Senior Consultant with William L. Sparks & Associates, LLC. Erika is a professional executive coach and consultant in the Charlotte area. She founded her own consulting firm, Ascendry, in 2015, and has been focused on meeting the needs of her clients and their organizations. She is also a student at George Washington University pursuing a doctorate in Human and Organizational Learning, focusing on leader behavior and development. She has experience designing and implementing organizational development programs around the world, researching the effects of change in policy, procedure, and leadership of organizations and identifying areas for development and oversight to ensure smooth transitions. As a coach, Erika works with individual leaders to achieve a greater understanding of themselves and those they work closely with to more effectively meet long term goals.
Erika has worked with organizations around the country, including the Presbyterian Church (USA), Novant Healthcare, Carolinas Healthcare System, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, and Queens University of Charlotte.
She received a Bachelors of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications from Winthrop University and a Master of Business Administration from the McColl School of Business at Queens University.
Jane Williams, M.S.
Jane currently serves as Partner and Operations Manager with William L. Sparks & Associates, LLC. In this role she leads all of the operational aspects of the business while simultaneously serving clients in various consulting, facilitation and coaching roles. In addition, she currently serves as the Assistant Director of Leadership Initiatives in the McColl School of Business at Queens University of Charlotte.
Her work emphasizes leadership development for students, professionals, teams and organizations. She is certified in a variety of assessments including the Actualized Leadership Profile (ALP), the Group Culture Profile (GCP), ALP 360, Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI), WorkPlace and School Place Big Five, and the Values Profile.
Jane earned an A.A. in Liberal Arts from Peace College, B.S. in Sociology at North Carolina State University, and an M.S. in Organization Development, along with a graduate coaching certificate, from the McColl School of Business.
Dr. Elizabeth Repede, FNP-BC, AHN-BC, CMH
Dr. Elizabeth Repede is an educator, consultant, and clinician in integrative health and wellness. She is a board certified Family Nurse Practitioner with a focus on integrative health. She currently serves as the Nurse Practitioner for Health and Wellness at Comporium Communications in Rock Hill, SC where she provides on- site medical care, oversees the medical clinic, implements improvement processes, and is actively developing and implementing programs designed to maximize employee and corporate health.
Dr. Repede holds an adjunct faculty appointment in the McColl School of Business at Queens University of Charlotte. She has also held faculty appointments at the School of Nursing at Western Carolina University in Asheville, NC, Eastern Carolina University, Gardner Webb University and has been a faculty and consultant for the Birchtree Center for Healthcare Transformation based in Massachusetts.
In addition to teaching and consulting, Dr. Repede has presented numerous peer reviewed presentations at national conferences, has authored or co-authored over 14 publications in professional journals and book chapters, and serves as a reviewer for the Journal of Holistic Nursing. She travels extensively across the U.S. facilitating workshops on resilience, integrative health, and transformation and change in universities, major healthcare organizations, and retreat settings.
Dr. Repede has an extensive background in diverse healthcare settings as a clinician, manager, and educator. She has experience in hospitals, primary care, retail clinics, corporate wellness, and higher education. Her research interests include resilience, psychoneuroimmunology, and the interactions between human perception and healing.
She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from the University of Kentucky in 1987, Master’s Degree as a Family Nurse Practitioner from the University of South Carolina (1993), and her PhD in Nursing with a focus on the study of consciousness and healing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2009). In addition, she received her certification in Medical Hypnosis in 2003 from the American Psychological and Mental Health Association and a certificate as an AcuDetox practitioner from the National AcuDetox Association in 2007. Dr. Repede has extensive training in guided imagery, meditation, Emotional Freedom Technique, dream work, and energy medicine.
Dr. Repede enjoys reading, yoga, and travel.