Who We Are...
Our Principal Consultants and Founders
Ruth E. Turpin
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James W. Sanders
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A Few Words on What We Are About
We are a team of performance improvement specialists. Drawing upon our combined business and professional experience of over 60 years, we work in partnership with our clients to analyze their workplace performance needs and to design customized solutions. Dr. Ruth Turpin applies her analytical, design, writing, and facilitation skills to address the learning and process improvement aspects of our projects. Jim Sanders applies organizational leadership, process management, and technology skills to provide general consulting and state-of-the-art tools for the projects.
Ruth E. Turpin, Ph.D., Founder, Chief Executive Officer
Education
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Ph.D., Design and Evaluation of Educational Programs,
Stanford University - 1982 - M.A., Anthropology, Stanford University - 1978
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Over 60 additional graduate units in curriculum, cultural studies,
and linguistics, in the U.S., South America, and Europe - B.A., Spanish, University of Iowa
Business and Professional Experience
Dr. Turpin has coached senior and middle management teams
through projects focused on:
- Process improvement using process mapping
- Process improvement through activity-based-management
- Establishment of process measurement systems
- Design of performance-based learning programs
In 1985 she founded Ruth E. Turpin & Associates in Los Altos, California
Ruth focused her formal educational and Instructional Systems Design experience upon the problems of professional and personal growth in the worlds of business and large organizations.
Ruth developed and managed programs for United Air Lines Flight Training Systems.
- designed and developed sophisticated multimedia training for type-conversion of commercial pilots
- managed and developed a new Quality Assurance program for the C5 flight crew training
In the "Key Manager Program" Development at American Graduate School of International Management (AGSIM),
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Ruth designed and conducted custom courses for senior managers from non-English-speaking countries:
Improvement of Management and Communication Skills
Business Writing
As a team leader in flight crew training for Courseware, Inc.,
- Ruth led the Weapons Team subject-matter experts development for the P3C anti-submarine aircraft.
Performing independent research for U.S. Naval Personnel Research and Development Center,
- Ruth wrote her doctoral dissertation on the effects of certain psychological traits, classroom climate, and general ability upon achievement in a class of Saudi Arabian Naval trainees
Professional Associations (current)
International Society of Performance Improvement:
- Past President, Silicon Valley Chapter
- Authored monthly column applying TQ to training and development
American Society for Training and Development:
- Co-founder and co-chair of TQM Special Interest Group
- Elected representative to a national council on Instructional Technology
James W. Sanders, Co-founder, Chief Technical Officer
Education
Jim received engineering and computer science degrees from the Universities of Wisconsin and Minnesota in 1965 and 1973.
Business and Professional Experience
Jim Sanders' career has spanned the evolution of computer-based secure financial transactions technology. From the base of his electrical engineering and computer science education, continuing through his significant contributions to computer systems and networking applications, he has provided leadership, expertise, and innovation to address business issues, technical challenges, and people problems.
Regarded by many of his peers as "the best systems development manager I know," Jim has focused his attention on the intersection of the human requirements and the technical possibilities in business. He credits creativity, "ego-less" teamwork and committed coaching as tools that helped him achieve that reputation.
Over the course of his professional career, Jim has designed and built important secure fail-safe network applications for The Federal Reserve System, NYSE Trading Solutions, DuPont Corporation, Wells-Fargo Bank, Arizona Department of Public Safety, and many proprietary financial services organizations. All of these projects required innovative solutions to meet rigorous reliability requirements. In the later stages of his career, Jim contributed to several of the Internet Engineering Task Forces and IEEE committees working to achieve greater security and reliability in public and private networks. He also served as a corporate delegate to the Financial Services Technical Consortium, the major consulting body of the Banking and Financial Services Industry.
Jim's extensive experience with high-technology organizations, start-ups, major corporations, and government agencies is a significant asset to Steppingstones Designs.
Professional Associations
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy
- Policymakers working on security issues need ready access to the best scientific facts and thinking.
American Bar Association - Associate Member (ABA)
- Section on Science and Technology
- Electronic Commerce Payments Committee
- Considering how issues of security, authentication, privacy, etc. affect the legal framework for Electronic Financial Services
- Health Care Section
- eHealth Privacy & Security Interest Group
- Health Information Privacy and Security, Electronic Transactions and Telehealth