Jane Shirley
STRATEGIC PARTNER / SENIOR CHANGE ARCHITECT
Denver, CO
(c) (720) 353-6438
KEY STRENGTHS:
- Public education
- Leadership development
- Team dynamics
- Organizational transformation
Jane at Work:
Jane Shirley is a collaborative, inclusive and visionary leader who thrives in complex, fast paced environments. She helps individuals and groups first untangle complexity and then design a strategy that accelerates progress toward aspirational goals. As a facilitator, consultant and coach, her approach is strengths-based and her tools and processes are agile engaging, effective and efficient.
WORK HISTORY: Jane has more than twenty-five years of experience in business, education and the arts. She has led the design of new schools and built successful turnaround teams using her expertise in facilitation and design process. She has a master’s degree in education with extensive post-graduate work in systems thinking and structural consulting. Her K-12 education experience includes teaching, school leadership and district leadership. Most recently, she served as CEO for an education non-profit where she designed an advanced level program centered on teaching principals and district leaders the artistic and analytical skills needed to envision, lead and manage transformational change.
INDUSTRY PREFERENCES: Education, Non-Profit and Creative Industries.
More About Jane:
PERSONAL: While teaching middle school, Jane signed up for an improv workshop hoping to pick up some strategies for a drama class she had been assigned to teach. Along with some good ideas, she got an invitation to join the performing company where she met Dave who is now her husband and business partner.
Jane and Dave are the creative team that founded Rattlebrain Theater Co. and opened a cabaret theater in the historic D&F Clock Tower, bringing a new brand of comedy to Denver. Together they have written and produced several critically acclaimed shows that have played locally and around the country. They have one son who is currently in film school in Colorado and who sometimes gets roped into playing one of the characters in their short films. As a family, they most enjoy skiing, scuba diving, exploring new cities and hanging out by a fire pit on summer evenings with their pup Marley.
A FAVORITE QUOTE: “Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.” -Gilda Radner