John Tolbert, President, Black American Chamber of Commerce

Dr. Gwendolyn and the CLATAK Consulting team demonstrated exceptional leadership at our 2nd annual retreat for The Black American Chamber of Commerce. With the invaluable assistance of CLATAK Consulting, we successfully achieved our meeting objectives. The CLATAK team provided professional insights that will greatly contribute to our ongoing pursuit of success for the Black and BIPOC Business Communities.

Intuitive. Insightful. Impactful.

I met Dr. Gwendolyn Avington during a meeting of the Oregon Association of minority entrepreneurs. I invited many of the small businesses who were present to reach out to me for upcoming opportunities with the firm that I was currently working with. Of that group, only Dr. Avington reached out and boy am I glad that she did. Shortly after making a connection, I engage Dr. Avington for executive coaching. Over the next year and a half Dr. Avington patiently walked me through lessons focused on leadership development that were specific and tailored to my personal style, and that took into consideration the next step I desired to take in my career. Additionally, she assisted me with creating professional development plans for my direct reports as well as in contributing to the strategic vision for my team that specifically catered to my organizations, mission, vision, and values. 

Recently I had the opportunity to experience an exercise with CLATAK Consulting and I was impressed! The premise was a murder mystery that my group of strangers would ponder and then try to solve with only being given limited clues. It started with an easy to use method, a QR code, that linked to a high quality video giving the team a comprehensive view of the "scene of the crime." This was easy to use in a crowded environment and I appreciated the thoughtfulness of it. While the whole exercise was fun, I didn't initially realize was the connections we were all making as we went on this journey together. This is an exercise I wish I had experienced in my previous corporate days as it was a very solid team building experience, but I am excited to engaged CLATAK Consulting in the future as my own company grows. Thanks for the experience!" 

"It was a treat to meet Dr. Avington and her team in-person at the Greet & Grow event. CLATAK Consulting was the only business who had an activity for guests to participate. I feel that doing business with CLATAK Consulting would be attentive, strategic, and valuable for any organization." 

"We hired Dr. Avington and the team at CLATAK Consulting for our annual leadership retreat. We are a 100% volunteer run organization. This means all of our leaders juggle full time careers and personal lives that come before their volunteer duties. The CLATAK team took the time to research and understand the areas for opportunity that are unique to our leaders and members. The content was well thought out and engaging. I highly recommend CLATAK to help organizations identify areas for improvement and keep their leaders engaged."  

"Dr. Avington listens and communicates well. I had the pleasure of working with her in a recent workshop and she always made sure everyone had a chance to voice their opinions. She also worked hard to make sure our presentation was seamless."