Leadership
Meet Our Board Members

Darlene Boyd
Chair of the Board
Darlene Boyd Ed.D. has been the Director of the University of California Irvine’s Gifted Students Network for over twenty years. She received her Ed.D. from Temple University and completed postdoctoral work at Harvard University. Dr.Boyd’s research on a Stage Theory of Creative Productive Thinking, has received commendation in the US, Russia, Italy, Japan, South Africa and China. She has been asked to speak in these countries on several occasions. Dr. Boyd is a sought after speaker in the areas of creativity, creative problem solving, creative productive thinking and gifted studies.

Philomena Blees, J.D
President, Treasurer, Director
Philomena is president and CEO of EIRO, powering Peace Through Commerce, a strategic, global and educational non-profit organization and three-year partner of the Nobel Peace Prize Forum Oslo. EIRO is dedicated to creating a world where all people enjoy peace and prosperity using a multi-sector, consciousness model of peacebuilding called the Matrix of Peace Whole Systems Model. Philomena also serves as Trustee Emeritus of Conscious Capitalism, Inc., having been a founding member of its Board of Trustees and first Vice President and General Counsel. She also served as an attorney in the office of General Counsel at the Texas State Treasury. Philomena served as a legal partner in private practice in Honolulu, Hawaii, concentrating on tax, real property, and business law. Philomena has a long history in k-12 education having co-founded a for-profit school for gifted children in Austin, Texas and several educational foundations including the Eanes Education Foundation and the Eanes Talented and Gifted Association. In 2008, she co-founded the Austin chapter of the American Creativity Association. In 2019, she became president of the American Creativity Association globally.

William "Bud" Wurtz, Ph.D.
Vice President, Director
William “Bud” Wurtz, Ph.D., has been a change agent promoting organizational innovation and renewal by fostering personal and team creativity in Fortune 500 companies over a career that spans several decades. He has served three times as president of the American Creativity Association, expanding services and membership, such as convening its first international conference. In recent years Bud has refined this specialization in revitalizing professional and civic associations as a way of promoting constructive social change through member engagement in imagining new and better possibilities. He lives in Redmond, Washington.

Joyce Juntune
Board Member
Dr. Joyce Juntune is an Instructional Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University where she serves as the Program Coordinator of the Undergraduate Minor in Creative Studies and the online MEd program in Creativity and Cognition. Prior to coming to Texas A&M, Dr. Juntune was a classroom teacher and served as the Executive Director of both the National Association for Gifted Children and the American Creativity Association. She currently teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in educational psychology, child development, intelligence, and creativity. Her current research focus is on building academic success in ELL and high ability students from poverty.

Marilyn Schoeman
Board Member
Speaker, Thought leader, Game developer, Creativity catalyst, Author, GO! How to Think, Speak and ACT to Make Good Things Happen. Seattle, WA USA The Green Light® Goal: Create the greatest good, for the most people, in the best way, for the longest time.
BOFF-O!® Brain On Fast Forward – card game/app (Due 2020.)
Roberta Shoemaker Beal
Secretary, Director
Susan McCalmont
Board Member
Suzy Carroll-Thompson
Board Member
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