Dean Telaekah Brooks, J.D.
Telaekah Brooks began her career in economic development as a Executive Assistant to the Director of the DC Department of Housing and Community Development, an agency that was, at that time, responsible for both planning and implementing development projects for the District of Columbia. Upon leaving DHCD, Telaekah became the Marketing and Research Coordinator for the Washington, DC Marketing Center. In this position, she was responsible for demographic research, data collection, and resource access needed to attract businesses, like the International Spy Museum, to the District.
Telaekah left the Washington, DC Marketing Center to become the founding director of the Georgia Avenue Business Resource Center, a small business technical assistance provider. There, she created an innovative holistic approach to business development, access to capital, and resource dissemination while counseling clients and raising more than $920,000 in grant funding and contracts for the center. In August 2004, Telaekah became the first Executive Director of Southeastern University’s Center for Entrepreneurship, where she provided services, training, and education to small and medium- sized businesses, transformational adults, students, and underserved people in the DC metropolitan area.
In January 2006, Telaekah was promoted to Chair of the Business Management and Public Administration Department at Southeastern University. While in this position, she developed and launched the Center for Allied Health Education, located inside of a hospital setting in an underserved section of the District. In August 2008, Telaekah became Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs at Southeastern University. In that role she was responsible for improving the academic quality, student support services, rigor, and faculty of the University. She also served as the accreditation liaison officer (ALO) to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, a regional accrediting body.
In August 2009, Telaekah left Southeastern University to become the Dean of the School of Professional Studies at Trinity Washington University. She is now charged with building and improving academic programs, enrollment, and support services for adult students.
Telaekah graduated with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Sociology, with a specialty in Law, Criminology and Deviance from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctorate from the Howard University School of Law.
Associate Dean Dr. Kelley Wood
Dr. Kelley Wood is the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies in Trinity’s School of Professional Studies. Dr. Wood is also the Director of the MSA program and Interim Director of the MA in Communication program.
Kelley has a Master of Science in Organizations and Management from Antioch New England Graduate University, a Master of Arts in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University, and a Ph.D. in Human and Organizational Systems from Fielding Graduate University. Kelley primary career focus Prior to Academia has been as a General Manager in the retail and hospitality industries and as a business analyst and training specialist in the MIS field.
Kelley’s Dissertation Experiences of Transformative Learning in the Appreciative Inquiry Event was honored for successfully bridging two academic fields, Adult Learning and Organizational Development. In this research Dr. Wood proposed an extended model of Mezirow’s Transformative Learning. Kelley also discovered that organizational change through Appreciative Inquiry includes a positive and long-lasting change for some participants. Kelley’s dissertation was twice awarded honors for excellence in research by the School of Human and Organizational Development at Fielding Graduate University.
Most recently, Kelley was an adjunct faculty in the MBA program at Franklin Pierce University’s Lebanon NH campus. Kelley has also a business analyst and software training specialist for a global printing and imaging concern, Electronics for Imaging (EFI). Kelley teaches primarily Organizational Behavior, Organizational Development, Leadership, Conflict Management, Human Resources Management, Managerial Communication, and Marketing Management. Kelley has attended seminars with David Cooperrider, Frank Barrett, Charles Seashore, and Bill Torbert among others.
Kelley is an avid cyclist, amateur photographer, and a lapsed guitarist. Dr. Wood has been with Trinity since July 2007.
Ms. Ana Lopez, Executive Assistant to the Dean
Ms. Lopez comes to the School of Professional Studies from a career in management, sales, and academic administration with institutions such as Vassar College , The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY, and Barnes & Noble. Ana is multi-lingual (English, Spanish, and Russian) and has first hand experience in living abroad. As the Dean’s Executive Assistant Ana handles many responsibilities and is “Cheif in Charge of Answers.”
Ana reads international fiction, is a budding art historian, and enjoys Japanese woodcuts. Ana has been with Trinity since 2009.