Stephanie Ahles, MPA, CTF

Strategic Plan – Administered a stakeholder survey and facilitated a 3–5-year strategic plan for the Irving Department of Arts and Culture with more than 50 staff, council members, administration, board members, stakeholders, and community members on how the department could leverage tourism opportunities, engage and serve the community while ensuring financial, physical, and human sustainability. 

Comprehensive Community Engagement and Strategic Plan – Conducted 52 focus groups across five counties, an electronic survey and facilitated a five-week comprehensive strategic planning process to create one overarching strategic plan in the Big Sandy region of Kentucky.

Organizational Development – Facilitated a multi-year culture change initiative for the Ramsey County Emergency Communication Center, involving staff culture surveys, focus groups, and leadership engagement. Conducted assessments of personality dynamics and leadership styles, established organizational pillars of excellence, formed collaborative committees with staff and management, and provided leadership training in effective engagement strategies.

Statewide Strategic Plan – Facilitated a 3–5-year strategic plan with 100 individuals from varies state agencies, non-profits, and people with lived experience to address the opioid use crisis and save lives across the state of Missouri. 

Virtual Strategic Planning – Facilitated a three-year virtual strategic planning process for Asheville City Schools Foundation.

Comprehensive Community Engagement and Strategic Plan – Conducted 52 focus groups across five counties, administered an electronic survey, and facilitated a five-week comprehensive strategic planning process to develop a unified strategic plan for the Big Sandy region of Kentucky.

Statewide Opioid Strategic Plan – Facilitated a strategic planning initiative engaging approximately 100 stakeholders to unify and establish sustainable collaborative partnerships across local, state, and federal agencies. This effort leveraged resources and data to enhance equitable access to prevention, treatment, and recovery support services statewide, aiming to collectively save lives across Missouri

Project Team Retreat - Facilitated a project planning team retreat bringing together researchers, elders, and indigenous experts from across Canada for the Respectful Terminology Platform Project. This initiative aims to develop an inclusive online platform featuring dynamic, multilingual terminologies for Indigenous Peoples, places, heritage, traditions, knowledge, and cultures.

Strategic Plan Annual Update – Facilitated the annual update for Year Three of the University of the Fraser Valley Library's five-year strategic plan.

Board Retreat – Facilitated a board retreat for Doctors for America advocacy groups to establish a unified organizational vision, outline cross-collaboration strategic actions with defined timelines, outcomes, and accountability measures.

Personality Review and Annual Goal Planning – Facilitated an annual retreat for the City of Woodbury Streets Department to enhance understanding of personality preferences and collaboratively establish annual goals.

Personality Dynamics and Team Building - Administered Lumina Personality Assessment and facilitated team retreats for the City of Woodbury Public Safety and Administration Departments aimed at enhancing team dynamics, improving communication, and collaboratively establishing the values necessary for a high-performing team.

Personality Dynamics and Team Building - Administered Lumina Personality Assessment and facilitated a team retreat for City Council and Management to enhance team dynamics, improve communication, and collaboratively establish the values essential for fostering high-performing leadership across the city of Baytown.

Personality Dynamics and High-Performing Team - Administered the Lumina Personality Assessment and facilitated a team retreat for the St. James Parish Hospital Leadership Team. Established a shared understanding of the team's diverse personalities and collaboratively developed key elements essential for fostering a high-performing team culture.

Personality Dynamics and High-Performing Team - Administered the Lumina Personality Assessment and facilitated a team retreat for STRIDE. Established a shared understanding of the coaches' diverse personalities and collaboratively developed the pillars of a high-performing team culture.

Custom Cultural Awareness Training - Developed a customized cultural awareness training program for KAWERAC, Inc., aimed at enhancing cultural awareness, understanding identity challenges, and fostering respect while building bridges with the Alaskan Native Community.

Lumina Spark and Leader Assessments – Administered and completed individual coaching sessions for participants in the Missouri River Energy Services Leadership Academy on an annual basis.

Strategic Plan- Facilitated the development of a 3–5-year Strategic Plan for Partners Aligned Toward Health (PATH), ensuring alignment with the organization's mission, vision, and values. Emphasized financial and human sustainability, realistic staff and organizational capacity, and preparedness for the organization's inevitable evolution.

Action Plan with Implementation – Virtually facilitated the action plan launch for DEA Operation Engage with over 30 participants, including law enforcement and prevention specialists. Identified core commitments and established SMARTIES (specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic, timely, inclusive, equitable, and sustainable) goals with defined outcome measures.

Facilitation Training - Provided facilitation training in advanced methods to the elite Red Team for the United States Army.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Equity Coordinator Development – A three-year program with Madison Area Technical College to develop three cohorts of equity coordinators across campus.  Teaching facilitation skills, fostering critical conversations and embedding DEI assessments and awareness through the coordinators.  

Strategic Planning, request from Evidence Based Policy Committee - Facilitated a three-five-year strategic plan that identified key factors that are driving or influence evidence-based practices in Minnesota, outlined protective patterns and created strategies.

Hennepin-Ramsey Joint Facility Project, Programming Committee – Facilitated a series of sessions to develop program criteria between two county organizations to determine the types of clients a new joint treatment facility would serve.

Strategic Planning, Justice Involved Women’s task force – Facilitated a 3–5-year strategic plan to understand the impact incarceration has on women and girls and create strategies and a sustainable implementation plan for the task force.

Action Planning: Juvenile Probation – Facilitated a work group of juvenile probation staff and stakeholders to develop a plan to redesign probation’s Gun Offender program.  The gun offender program is one of the only programs of its type in Minnesota.  

Community Engagement, Hennepin County and Ramsey County.  Designed, coordinated, and facilitated a community engagement event regarding a joint correctional facility.  The public meeting included 150 attendees.

Trainer and Assessor: Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) – Trained more than 800 facilitators in ToP® Facilitation Methods, ToP® Strategic Planning, ToP® Approaches to Environmental Scanning, ToP Secrets of Implementation, ToP® Mastery Program (1 of 8 in the USA).  A Certified ToP® Facilitator and nationally recognized Mentor trainer and Certification Assessor 1 of 13 in the USA).

Capabilities assessment, Hennepin County Emergency Preparedness team – Completed an in-depth assessment of five capabilities, completed a gap analysis, an impact grid and created a calendar and 90-day implementation plans.

Organizational Alignment: Hennepin County Family Court Services – Provided facilitation assistance to create a process for incorporating children into the ADR (mediation, Ready Response or ENE) process and guidelines to be followed.

Outcome measures, Minnesota Statewide Outcomes Steering Committee Data Definition team – Provided facilitation assistance to identify outcome measures to target public safety across justice systems in Minnesota.

Leadership development and strategy planning; Hennepin County Juvenile Probation – Facilitated nine leadership meetings to create a position management plan for the organization.

Organizational assessment, adult probation suburban unit – Facilitated a series of focus groups to gather input from staff and stakeholders regarding the work completed in three suburban locations.  A total of 30 staff and 40 stakeholders participated.  

Lego Serious Play Visioning Session, Juvenile services executive leadership team – Created a vision for correctional out-of-home placement using the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology to enhance innovation and business performance.

Roundtable sessions, Family Court Services – Facilitated a series of round table discussion between three government entities; Family Court Services, Juvenile Bench and Health and Human Services Child Protection to identify areas and processes for working collaboratively across all areas.

Statewide Collaboration, Minnesota Correctional Program Checklist Collaboration – Developed and coordinated a statewide collaborative to assess how well programs adhere to the principles of evidence-based practices as it relates to corrections research.  Coordinated 14 in-house assessors and 60 statewide assessors.

Department policy development and action plan, paid internship program in DOCCR – Facilitated a series of sessions to develop criteria, strategies, and an action planning process to develop and implement a department wide paid internship program that was created and implemented within seven months.

Strategic Plan, City of Saint Louis Park – Facilitated a three to five-year strategic planning process between the Police Department and the community multicultural advisory committee (MAC) with a focus on community policing in diverse communities.

Strategic plan, Hennepin County Adult Correctional Facility – Created a three to five-year strategic plan for the adult workhouse.  Process included environmental scan of the criminal justice system, surveys and workshops with staff, stakeholder, and residence of the facility.  Strategies and work plans were created including one facilitated 90-day check-in.

Focus Conversation, Public Sector Work Program – Facilitated a conversation to understand the genesis, history, and future of the work program after being in place for ten years.

Action Planning, Camp Fire of America – Facilitated an action planning process on how to address staffing challenges to keep the camp open beyond a summer program.  The camp is now open for various events year around.

Charter development, Hennepin County Home School – worked with the case management IT group, MAIn user group, to develop a charter and process for continuing operations after the launch of a new case management system.

Leadership Training, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation – Provided a series of leadership and effective meeting training to several leadership teams, department committee chairs and initiative coordinators across the department.

Service analysis of contracted provider, Corizon Medical – Interviewed individuals using focus conversations to gather information about services delivered by the provider.  Analyzed the data, developed themes, and completed a report for administration.

Vision development, DOCCR leadership team – Facilitated a vision workshop to establish evidence-based practices in DOCCR and alignment to the departments overall vision.

Action planning, Hennepin County Facilitation Network – Facilitated an action plan including an environmental scan to recommit and grow the facilitation network in a one years’ time.

Focus groups, Juvenile Detention Center – Led a series of focus groups to hear feedback from staff and supervisors regarding employee survey results.  There were five sessions held with 50% of the staffing complement participating.  Feedback was compiled and presented to management and the division’s employee engagement committee for review and action.

Conflict resolution, Juvenile Probation and North Point Health and Wellness – Facilitated a series of conversations to identify the current disagreement and issues that were interfering with a working relationship, identified potential solutions and created an MOU with a formal mechanism for regular review.

Logic Model, Young Adult Housing & Supportive Services – Facilitated a participatory logic model process for 40 people from Hennepin County, University of Minnesota and 17 community organizations and foundations.

Operating Principles, Family Court Services – Facilitated a session with the family court services division and stakeholders to create mission, vision and value statements and created one-to-three-year goals for the division.

Mission statement, Organizational Change Management Division – Facilitated a session to create the mission for a newly created division. 

Request for proposal process, Hennepin County contracts division – Created a participatory process for RFP selection to include RFP review, scoring and selection process.  Facilitated over 10 RFP processing using the designed model.

Strategic Plan, Hennepin County Home School Focus Program – Facilitated a three to five-year strategic plan with 90-day check ins and annual updating sessions.  Followed this program for the first two years of the plan.  

Annual goal setting, DOCCR Strategic Directions Committees – Coordinated EBP committees for the department including Employee Engagement, Diversity and Inclusion, Workforce Development, Community Outreach.  Provided ongoing facilitation services including annual goal planning and action planning.

Custom Facilitation Training, Ramsey County – Create a ½ day custom training on using participatory methods for leaders across the organization.

Curriculum Development, Hennepin County Human Resources – Designed facilitation method modules to be delivered throughout a 12-week successful supervision program. 

Strategic Plan, Autism Works – Facilitated a two-year strategic plan.  Completed an environmental scan to include an electronic survey, interviews, and a facilitated session.  Combined all the data into a report that was used to inform the strategic plan.

Annual Goal Planning, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin – Facilitated a goal celebration and annual planning session for the Corporate HR division of the hospital.  The session had 40 participants to include staff and stakeholders.

Professional Development, City of Savage – Facilitated a workshop on ways to engage staff and encourage teamwork.  Identified areas of need with the management team and led conversations for the managers to identify solutions and suggestions for the identified concerns.

In-Service Training, Crow Wing County – Designed and facilitated an in-service training for the public safety division to identify ways to work together with four generations in the workplace. 

Strategic Plan, Golden Valley Community Foundation, Facilitated a three to five-year strategic plan with the working board.  

Strategic Plan, Homegrown Lacrosse Organization – Facilitated a three to five-year strategic plan to grow the four-staff organization.  Facilitated 90-day check ins and annual updates.  Organization hired two new staff within six months of the plan due to growth of the organization. 

Environmental Scan and Visioning, Homegrown Lacrosse Great Northern Lacrosse League -Identified the current reality of the program and created a unified vision with staff, coaches, officials, and stakeholders.

Strategic Plan, Homegrown Lacrosse MN CHILL program – Created a two to four-year strategic plan including a history review, completed plan with a calendar and 90-day implementing forms for all identified goals.

Custom Training and Coaching, National Rural Health Resource Center - Provided two custom virtual trainings (a bootcamp and a summit), provided several virtual labs and design coaching to Delta Region Community Health Systems Community Champions over the course of nine months.

DEI Cohort Training and mentoring, Madison Area Technical College – Established a three-year cohort program to develop Equity Coordinators at the college.  The program included training, practice, and design of fundamental facilitation techniques through a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens. 

Community Engagement, Illinois School Districts – Conducted multiple virtual community engagement sessions for each of four (4) school districts in Illinois.  Sessions included representation from parents, students, teachers, district staff, community members and health professionals.  Surveys were developed, distributed, data analyzed and themed by the facilitation team. The sessions identified recommendations for each of the districts to consider in their summer planning to open schools in the fall, after being moved to remote learning during a pandemic.

Custom Facilitation, City of Richfield City Council - Facilitated a workshop on “what does affordable housing mean to the city”.  Identified areas of focus to consider in the annual goal planning.

Strategic Planning, United Way of Baytown – Created a three-year comprehensive strategic plan, that included a historical review and survey feedback, with the United Way board, staff, and stakeholders.

Business Plan Development, Normandale Community College - Use participatory methods to create a master business plan following the canvas business model with the continuing education department.  Developed customer and buyer segments, value propositions and customer channels to build out the departments contracted services line of business.