Dr. Tony Kern

     Dr. Tony Kern is the CEO of Convergent Performance; a small, veteran owned “think tank” formed in 2004 and dedicated to reducing human error and improving performance in high risk environments such as aviation, military, healthcare and fire fighting. Tony is one of the world’s leading authorities on human performance, has lectured on the subjects of applied human factors and performance improvement for nearly two decades, and is the author of seven books on the subject. His books include Flight Discipline, Darker Shades of Blue, and Blue Threat: Why to Err is Inhuman. In his newest book, Going Pro: The Deliberate Practice of Professionalism, Tony has created a 21st century guide to “extreme professionalism” for individuals and organizations to reach “Level III” professionalism in any environment.
     Dr. Kern. Tony has deep operational roots as a Command Pilot and Flight Examiner in the B-1B bomber, as well as senior staff and leadership experience, including service as the Chair of the Air Force Human Factors Steering Group. Upon retirement from the Air Force in June of 2000, Dr. Kern served as the National Aviation Director for the U.S. Forest Service, where he directed the largest non-military government aviation program in the world in support of federal wildland fire suppression. He is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute and Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program.
     Dr. Kern has received multiple awards for his work and holds Masters Degrees in Public Administration and Military History, as well as a Doctorate in Higher Education specializing in human factors training design. He enjoys hunting, fishing and flying, currently lives and works in Colorado, and has made it his personal mission to help everyone he can reach their full human performance potential.

Barry Cooper

In August 2007, Barry Cooper became the Regional Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Great Lakes Region, which has responsibility for the FAA’s aviation-related work in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota. As Regional Administrator, Barry serves as the FAA’s primary representative and liaison regarding aviation issues and activities within the Great Lakes Region.

Prior to assuming his Regional Administrator position, Barry served as the FAA’s program manager and principal representative for the City of Chicago’s O’Hare Modernization Program, a multi-billion dollar airport development initiative that will increase capacity and reduce delays at our nation’s second busiest airport. In this position, Barry coordinated the FAA’s internal efforts to meet all commitments and milestones associated with the O’Hare modernization initiative, while also interfacing extensively with the FAA’s external customers, including the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, Congressional representatives, news media outlets, and civic groups.

Barry’s public service career began in 1976 as an FAA civil engineer performing design work on FAA facilities that support our nation’s air traffic control system. Most of Barry’s service has been in management positions within the FAA’s Great Lakes Region where he has had responsibilities for both technical and administrative program areas including National Airspace System infrastructure design and operation, airport design standards and operations safety, financial management, logistics support, and labor management relations.

Barry is a 1976 graduate of the University of Massachusetts, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering, and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Illinois. He and his wife Laura reside in suburban Chicago and have three children.

Story Musgrave

Story Musgrave was born on a dairy farm, and by age 3 wandered forests and floated homebuilt rafts on the rivers. He rode combines at 5, drove trucks and tractors at 10 and when alone in remote fields repaired them by 13. Before finishing school, he went to Korea with the U. S. Marines as an aircraft electrician and an engine mechanic. He flew with the Marines and over the next 55 years accumulated 18,000 hours in over 160 aircraft and as a parachutist has 800 freefalls.

He now has 7 graduate degrees in math, computers, chemistry, medicine, physiology, literature and psychology, and 20 honorary doctorates. He was a part-time trauma surgeon during his 30 year astronaut career.

As a NASA astronaut for over 30 years, he flew six spaceflights, performed the first shuttle spacewalk on Challenger’s first flight, piloted on an astronomy mission, conducted two classified DOD missions, was the lead spacewalker on the Hubble Telescope repair mission and on his last flight operated an electronic chip manufacturing satellite on Columbia.

Today he operates a palm farm, a production company in Sydney and a sculpture company. He is a landscape architect, a concept artist with Disney Imagineering, an innovator with Applied Minds Inc. and professor of design at Art Center College of Design.

Story also performs multimedia presentations on topics such as vision, leadership, motivation, safety, quality, innovation, creativity, design, simplicity, beauty, and ecology.

Doreen Welsh

Ninety Seconds To Impact!

If you had only 90 seconds to focus the survival skills of those around you, what would you do? This is the question Doreen asks, it’s the question she answers, it’s the story she tells—it’s the story that has audiences in tears one minute and laughing out loud the next.
Doreen takes participants on the emotional journey of that fateful day which became known as The Miracle on the Hudson. Doreen likes to say that had one person perished during that crash it would have been known as the US Airways Flight 1549 crash. Because of the heroic deeds of five crewmembers–who had never met until that day–it was a miracle!
In additional to being a captivating program, Doreen provides powerful points applicable to any audience, regardless of their occupation or background. Her program inspires audiences to develop their survival skills and manage their personal resources through proper training, skill development and risk management. She’ll help your audience see the necessity of maintaining their situational awareness, the importance of engaging in team participation and the necessity of continued training and refresher programs.
As Doreen likes to say, “What would you do if you only had "90 Seconds to (make an) Impact?"