MARCIA MARTINEZ-HELFMANis President of Zia Business Partners, Inc., a full service human capital management consulting practice. Marcia has over twenty years experience in human resources and employment law in broad range of business settings, including financial services, telecommunications, technology, healthcare, manufacturing and non-profits. She has skillfully harnessed her legal training in her human resources leadership roles to become a trusted confidante and advisor to business executives and management teams in such diverse areas as workplace investigations, policy development, performance management, employee communications and diversity and inclusion strategies and programs.

Martinez-Helfman has also served on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania Fels Institute for Government, teaching human resources management at the graduate level, and on the faculty of the LaSalle University Non-Profit Center. In addition, she has served as a guest lecturer on employment law and human resources topics at numerous conferences and development seminars.

Marcia is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Woman of Distinction Award and Fannie Mae’s Chairman’s Award. She was also selected as a Fellow of Robert Wood Johnson’s Urban Health Initiative for her community service and leadership.  Martinez-Helfman has an extensive record of volunteer and community service, having served on various non-profit boards, including Congreso de Latinos Unidos, The Women’s Law Project, Volunteers for the Indigent Program and the Philadelphia Bar Foundation.  She served as President of the Hispanic Bar Association of Pennsylvania, and recently completed two terms as Board Chair for Finanta, a Philadelphia non-profit that provides lending and technical assistance in support of economic development of the American Street corridor of north Philadelphia.  In 2009 she was elected to serve on the Board of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, which was founded in 1787 by Dr. Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin and others and is dedicated to promoting a just, humane and constructive correctional system.  She now sits on that organization’s Governance Committee.  Marcia is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Human Resources Planning Society, and is Co-Chair of its 2010 Leadership Forum Committee.

Marcia received her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and her Masters degree in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. 

STEPHANIE A. KINDT is passionate about organizational effectiveness, developing high performing work environments and the utilization of social media technology as an organizational tool in today’s media rich environment.  Stephanie has over ten years of experience in organization development, including numerous initiatives in the corporate pharmaceutical setting both as a consultant and in house.  She serves on the faculty of the LaSalle Nonprofit Center, teaching Diversity in the Workplace, Negotiation, Problem Solving and Decision Making in addition to the basic Supervisory programs in the certificate program.  She is certified instructor for the Myers Briggs type indicator, the Time Design/Time Management System and was a certified in- house process facilitator at GlaxoSmithKline. 

Stephanie has a master’s degree in Industrial and Organizational psychology and a Juris Doctorate from Widener University Law School.  She is a licensed to practice law in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey and consults with both for profit and non-profit leaders and teams in the areas of organizational development, competency model initiatives, strategic planning processes, and human resources practice compliance. 

Stephanie is also  involved in Philadelphia neighborhood revitalization; she serves on the Board of Directors for the historic Overbrook Farms Club, as well as on the Overbrook Farms Open House committee. She acts as staff attorney for The Public Voice for Public Space, providing services pro bono to disadvantaged Philadelphia neighborhoods, individuals and associations fighting urban blight.   She has also served as counselor in the Philadelphia Mortgage Foreclosure court, assisting the indigent. She is a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association, and the Association of Corporate Counsel.  She has served on various boards, and is a founder and former board member of Independence Charter School.  She is also the mother of four, beautiful and gifted young men.

Alvina L. Williams-Peat has built her career around helping individuals succeed in their professional and personal lives. A career spanning over 20 years in the field of training and organizational development, Alvina also has a passion for Family and Parent Education.

As a corporate trainer and facilitator, Alvina’s primary focus is the design and delivery of learning interventions. Her experience includes, Team building, customer service, performance management, time management and interpersonal skills training.  In the area of leadership development Alvina uses a blend of coaching models, assessment and evaluation tools, to help her clients identify their strengths as well as areas that may hinder their success. Alvina has served as a guest lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania Fels Institute. Additionally, she has facilitated international symposiums for a leading national financial services company

Whether in the corporate world or in the home, Alvina understands the mindfulness, vision and compassion that are essential ingredients for successful leadership. As a Parenting Educator, Alvina applies her training and OD experience to her work with parents. Her passion for helping people succeed in their professional lives transfers into helping parents create successful relationships with their children and within their families. Through her innovative methods, Alvina is able to partner with parents to help them create healthy vibrant relationships with and within their families. Alvina works with a variety of parents, ranging from those who are challenged with balancing their homes and families, to parents that have a family – but no home. Among her clients in this arena are the Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation, Lansdale School of Business, and Philadelphia area welfare to work programs.

Alvina received her B.BA in Business Administration – Information Systems from Temple University. She is certified in Franklin Covey – Time Management Training, PeopleSmart Interpersonal Skills Training, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and Parenting Education. Alvina is also actively involved in several volunteer programs in Philadelphia and surrounding suburbs, and currently serves as co-chairperson for the Germantown Academy Parent’s Education Network and as treasurer of her family’s foundation, The Alvin & Alfreda Williams Sr. Foundation.

DAVID SORIN‘s true passion is working with entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial organizations, including law firms and healthcare related businesses and practices.  His purpose is to help them overcome obstacles to achieve their potential and improve their results.  Sorin works closely with individuals and organizations to bring about positive change through leadership development, emphasizing values, ethics and culture, seeking alignment between individuals and the organization and focusing on results.  He works with organizational leaders to engage their employees and their customers. He pushes his clients to remain innovative and entrepreneurial in spirit in order to find and maintain a competitive edge in the rapidly-changing competitive marketplace.

 David is also an attorney of thirty years and has been a business consultant to numerous companies, many in the special events industry.  His experiences as an attorney representing startups and small business, combined with his many years starting and operating his own businesses, have given him a unique perspective.  David has worked closely with numerous entrepreneurs, with whom he identifies strongly through his own entrepreneurial experiences.  He has continuously displayed competencies in the areas of strategic thinking and planning, critical thinking, conflict management, team building, project management, communication and presentation and sales and marketing.

Sorin is also a founder of the Managing Partner Development Institute, LLC, which provides a broad range of strategic and tactical guidance to current and prospective managing partners of small to mid-sized firms throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. 

Sorin’s seminars, The Road to Business Success, are geared toward entrepreneurs seeking to build the competencies necessary to function in an entrepreneurial environment, and his Entrepreneurial Obstacle Course™ is a unique tool he has developed to initiate strategic and innovative thinking in his clients to help them achieve greater success.

As a business consultant and attorney, he has recently worked extensively in Europe, China and Thailand, on a variety of projects.  He has worked with a medical web company developing CME content for Chinese professionals. David and his partners took English language CME content, got it approved by the Ministry of Health, and arranged for it to be translated and accessed via the internet.  The project was ultimately taken over by Chinese partners.  David continues to utilize his experiences to engage entrepreneurs in focusing on the important issues in their businesses.

David  is currently on the Advisory Board of the Sovereign Center for Leadership of Wilkes University; the Board of Directors of the Main Line Chamber of Commerce,  Co-Chair of its Government Affairs Committee and a member of its Leadership Main Line Committee; a member of the Chester County Board of the Southeastern PA Chapter of the Red Cross; Vice Chairman of the Board of SEPAC, a political action committee dedicated to electing pro-business candidates to office in Pennsylvania and a member of the Pennsylvania Health Lawyers Association; and a Senior Scholar in the Department of Health Policy of Thomas Jefferson University.

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