Meet Dr. Laura Hills, Our President
Dr. Laura Hills, formerly Laura Kirschenbaum, Laura Sachs, and Laura Sachs Hills, has lived in New York, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, but contends that you can't take the Jersey out of the girl -- nor should you want to. She has accomplished many things over a distinguished 30-year career but defines herself first and foremost as an educator.
Dr. Hills uses a variety of modalities to teach adult learners how to advance their careers, increase their skills, and find greater fulfillment in their work. She has educated thousands of career professionals through face-to-face instruction, seminars and workshops, one-on-one coaching and training, teleconferences, and the many learning products that she has developed, including her popular books, monographs, articles, and learning templates.
Dr. Hills is the author of four successful books: Lasting Female Educational Leadership: Leadership Legacies of Women Leaders (Springer, 2013), How to Recruit, Motivate, and Manage a Winning Staff: A Medical Practice How-To Guidebook (Greenbranch, 2004), The Professional Practice Problem Solver (Prentice-Hall, 1991), and Do-It-Yourself Marketing for the Professional Practice (Prentice-Hall, 1986). She has authored hundreds of journal articles and notably, has been a staff development columnist for The Journal of Practice Management since 1998. Her article topics include communications, leadership, team building, human resources, marketing, management, emotional intelligence, ethics, workplace etiquette, and professionalism. Dr. Hills is also the author of Blue Pencil Career Success Monographs™, including Climbing Out of a Rut: Four Steps and 101 Secrets to Supercharging Your Career and Finding Greater Fulfillment and Reward in What You Do Every Day and They’ll Eat Out of Your Hand If You Know What to Feed Them: The 30 Essential Communication Skills that Give Highly Successful Career Professionals Their Edge. These are available for purchase on the Blue Pencil Institute website.
Dr. Hills has been a popular public speaker for professional associations and conferences and is well known for her lively and experiential seminars and workshops. She has significant teaching and educational leadership experience as a former college professor and academic administrator at Virginia International University where she taught both academic English and English as a Second Language and served as an academic department chair. She continues her affiliation with Virginia International University as its Research Fellow for Academic Development. Dr. Hills has also taught a variety of Workforce Development and Continuing Education courses at Northern Virginia Community College. Dr. Hills has grounded all of her work in a rigorous academic foundation in learning theory, pedagogy, learning assessment, and curriculum design. She holds a Doctor of Arts in Higher Education from George Mason University where she focused her scholarly work on leadership studies. She is a distinguished scholar and was awarded the George Mason University Higher Education Outstanding Doctoral Student Award and Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award. Dr. Hills also earned a Master of Arts in English and graduate certificates in College Teaching and in the Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages from George Mason University. She completed her Bachelor of Arts cum laude at her beloved Rutgers University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and won the freshman prize for outstanding English language skills.
Dr. Hills is committed to community service and has been the pianist and music specialist at Fairfax Nursing Center and the Gardens at Fair Oaks in Fairfax, Virginia since January of 2001, where she conducts weekly music appreciation programs for seniors focusing on classic Broadway and jazz standards. She is the 2012-2013 president of the Rotary Club of Fairfax and received her club’s Rotary Service Above Self Award in 2011. She also serves on the City of Fairfax Commission on the Arts. Dr. Hills lives in Fairfax, Virginia, is married to Cornell Hills, and loves being a mother to her daughters, Meredith and Victoria, and to her stepdaughter, Alicia.
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Phone: 703-691-8468
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Read our interview with Dr. Laura Hills
Learn more about Dr. Laura Hills’ programs