Paul has two areas of focus. The first is contextual education. That is, how do you give people the ability to shift their thinking, broaden their point of view, and change the way they fundamentally relate to current issues and each other. The second is process skills. How do you set up conversations in a way that works for everyone involved?

Paul's expertise is designing and delivering programs that are tailored to fit an organization's particular circumstances and concerns. The programs include work on communications, relationships, projects, coaching and building powerful groups.

Current projects include coaching manufacturing teams, supporting cultural change within a university, managing a year- long training program for organizational consultants, changing working relationships within groups, and developing programs on diversity, process skills and leadership.

Paul has worked in Brazil, Canada, and Moscow and has done training for young African political leaders. He has a very comfortable yet demanding style that works with all kinds of people from the shop floor to the most senior levels of management.

Paul is a chemical engineer with an MBA. He has 12 years of manufacturing experience and ten years corporate consulting. The last eight years have been devoted to designing and leading programs to enhance individual and group performance and organizational effectiveness.

While at Oregon State, Evans has served in a variety of roles, including journalism teacher, first communications director for the Sea Grant College program, editor of the Oregon Stater alumni magazine, director of University Publications, director of the Oregon State University Press, director of Extension Communications, and department head for Agricultural Communications. He is executive producer of Oregon Invests!, one of the nation's first research and education accountability systems. For the past decade, he has served as a senior administrator in the College of Agricultural Sciences and principal investigator for a W.K. Kellogg Foundationfunded project called InterACTION!

The University-wide InterACTION! project from 1993 to 2002 helped prepare Oregon State for its education and research roles in the 21st century. The thrust of the project was capacity building through training that emphasized communication skills and the development of effective professional relationships. More than 2,000 faculty, staff, students, and other stakeholders voluntarily enrolled in and completed the two-day, foundation training called "Conversational Skills." Many went on to advanced training to further develop their skills at meeting design, project management, and related activities.

At the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, Evans works in collaboration with Paul Axtell and Cindy Officer of Contextual Program Designs. Axtell and Officer were key trainers for the InterACTION! project.

Evans' education was at Reed College in Portland; Oregon State University; and Stanford University. He is a member of Agricultural Communicators in Education; the Society of Professional Journalists; Epsilon Sigma Phi, Cooperative Extension professionals' organization; and Gamma Sigma Delta, national agricultural honorary. Before joining Oregon State University, Evans was a desk editor for The Associated Press, and public information officer, headquarters of the U.S. Air Force Strategic Air Command.

Cindy's expertise and passion centers on coaching. She created a coaching resource for the employees of Deere that has gained widespread recognition for being innovative and highly supportive of women and minorities. Cindy created a similar cadre of coaches at Oregon State University.