Photo of David Sibbet 2013

David Sibbet
President and Founder

David has been an organizational consultant and information designer since 1977. He is the author of John Wiley & Sons’ three-volume Visual Leadership Series as well as many of The Grove’s leading-edge group-process tools and models for facilitation, team leadership and organizational transformation. David is a master facilitator of large-scale group processes, strategic visioning and creative, future-oriented symposia. He frequently lends his coaching and design expertise to Grove project teams. His practice is informed by eight years of public affairs leadership development through the Coro Northern California Center for Civic Leadership. He holds a master’s degree from Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and a B.A. in literature from Occidental College in Los Angeles.
Photo of Laurie Durnell

Laurie Durnell
Director of Consulting

Laurie is a senior consultant who has worked in organizational consulting, team development and management since 1993. A seasoned graphic facilitator and trainer, she has designed and delivered numerous programs incorporating Grove Storymaps™ and experience-based training for corporations and public-benefit organizations. Laurie has an M.B.A from Simmons Graduate School of Management, with an emphasis on organizational development, and a B.S. in natural resource conservation from the University of California, Berkeley.
Photo of Tomi Nagai-Rothe

Tomi Nagai-Rothe
Senior Consultant

Tomi is a senior consultant with fifteen years of experience in both private- and public-benefit organizations. She draws on group process, graphic facilitation and visual design skills in her consulting practice and teaches The Grove’s methodology to individuals and groups. Currently, she is developing culturally sensitive ways to let groups capture their own ideas and images. Tomi received a bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies and creative writing from Oberlin College, and she is an internationally certified instructor of Shintaido (a spiritual martial art form) at the second-degree black belt level. She joined The Grove Consultants International in 1988.
Photo of Rachel Smith

Rachel Smith
Director of Digital Facilitation Services

Rachel S. Smith is recognized for her expertise in making new technologies approachable through talks, trainings, and written materials and has authored instructional materials, guides, and monographs on the creative and technical aspects of teaching with technology. A specialist in project coordination and user-interface design, Rachel also develops ways to integrate technology into visual practice. Rachel holds a master’s degree in education with an emphasis on educational technology from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in art education from Florida State University. She is the author of Digital Visual Facilitation, a blog for visual practitioners.

Meet Our
Consulting Team

David Sibbet Laurie Durnell Tomi Nagai-Rothe Rachel Smith
Grove Staff
Grove Teams
Tiffany Forner, art director View Bio Hide Bio has been the creative lead on a variety of communication-design and product development projects in her fifteen years with The Grove. Tiffany has a bachelor’s degree in design from the University of California, Los Angeles. Megan Hinchliffe, chief administrative officer & asst. to David Sibbet View Hide brings more than sixteen years of administration experience to her role managing all facets of administration and accounting at The Grove. She has a bachelor’s degree in American studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz and holds a certificate in human resource management from San Francisco State University. Donna Lafayette, workshop manager View Bio Hide Bio has more than twenty years of customer-service experience in a number of industries. She attended art school in New York.
 Edward Palmer, IT/ISS coordinator View Bio Hide Bio has more than sixteen years of hands-on enterprise-support experience. He has an associate of the arts degree from Haskell Indian Nations University, and bachelor’s degrees in elementary Indian education and contemporary Native American studies from Humboldt State University. Bobby Pardini, director of design solutions View Bio Hide Bio manages The Grove’s design team and has worked on many communication-design and product-development projects. He has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, Columbia and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined The Grove Consultants International in 1990. Thomas Sibbet, director of client services View Bio Hide Bio brings more than twenty years of experience at The Grove to his role of making sure that prospective clients’ needs are met with appropriate and timely solutions. He received a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Humboldt State University. Jan Thomas, communications & special projects View Bio Hide Bio has held many communications roles as a program director, social worker, curriculum writer, developmental editor, media coordinator, and environmental educator. She has a master's degree in social work from the University of Illinois. Andrew Underwood, product fulfillment manager View Bio Hide Bio has worked at The Grove for two years. He received a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin University. Julia Sibbet, Marketing/PR Consultant View Bio Hide Bio Arrives to support the Grove in their marketing and PR efforts, with two decades of experience in the fields of: public AIDS health education, nonprofit PR, publishing, sales, advertising and marketing. An intrepid entrepreneur, she’s built and owned two businesses. Julia is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz with degrees in Modern Society & Social Thought and Community Studies.

Customer Service Team

Our customer service representatives are available by phone and email to help you find the right products to meet your needs, and to ensure you are making the most of your visual planning, team performance and facilitation tools from The Grove.

Consulting Team

Our consultants plan and facilitate collaborative processes and work with organizations to help them develop or align around a strategy or vision. Each is versed in The Grove’s highly effective graphic facilitation methodologies, and has experience working with organizations of diverse size and industry.

Design Team

Our skilled information and graphic designers collaborate with clients to develop compelling graphics that bring a group’s words and strategic visions to life in both print and digital media, from large-format infographics to presentation and meeting supports.

Workshop Team

Our workshop team plans, designs and delivers both standard and customized workshops to help our clients with strategic visioning, team building and a variety of other key organizational challenges.
© 1996–2008, The Grove Consultants International. Conditions of Use
Copyright Policy

The Grove’s models and templates are the intellectual property of The Grove Consultants International and are based on best practices drawn from more than thirty years of fieldwork. The Grove is committed to sharing its ideas, processes, and tools in order to foster collaboration, and while we strive to make these easily accessible, only authorized licensees may use our proprietary information and materials. Such licensees must acknowledge The Grove as their source by displaying a Grove copyright notice and may reproduce such proprietary information only with our express written permission.

Any unauthorized reproduction or use of our copyrighted material without The Grove’s express written permission is a violation of U.S. copyright law.

If you wish to use our copyrighted material, we are happy to assist you with a purchase or discussion of an appropriate licensing arrangement. Please call us at 1.800.49.GROVE or (415) 561-2500, or e-mail us at products@grove.com. We are happy to help you collaborate with us.

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