Dr. Toby Peters has been involved with the mission of Global Brigades since its inception at Marquette University. He served as an advisor to the group of students that journeyed to Honduras for the first medical brigades. He has traveled to Honduras and Nicaragua on numerous occasions participating in medical, public health, and water brigades. Additionally, he has assisted his wife, Dr. Mary Kay Ellis, an ophthalmologist, staff vision stations with the medical brigades in Honduras for the last two years.
During his career in higher education at Marquette and Syracuse Universities he served the students and institution in the areas of administrative and student services, student affairs, academic affairs, and auxiliary services. Toby’s leadership background in administrative, consulting, and faculty roles provide him a unique blend of experiences that he enjoys bringing to and sharing in a learning environment. He received a Doctorate in Educational Policy and Leadership from Marquette University and a MBA and a BS degree from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
As a faculty member at Marquette University he designed and taught Organizational Behavior courses featuring a blended learning management system. He focused on many of the areas of organizational behavior and development including; challenges for managers, motivation at work, learning and performance management, stress and well-being, communication, work teams and groups, leadership and followership, conflict and negotiations, organizational culture, and managing change.
Toby served as the Associate Senior Vice President at Marquette University. Under his auspices, he had the responsibility of leading hundreds of employees ranging from entry level to senior executives. He managed high level projects including serving as liaison with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation during the six-year reconstruction of the Marquette Interchange that bordered on three sides of the university. He also served as the co-chair during the university’s assessment of institutional effectiveness that led to a successful reaffirmation of accreditation. Through these experiences, Toby managed conflict, communications, negotiations, and strategic planning, all while promoting a strong and cohesive team.
Toby also has expertise in emergency management planning having led response teams and managed the planning and execution of the exercises. He was also charged with identifying means to maximize resources to provide better service through efficiency, productivity, and quality improvements. He implemented process improvement assessments through Value Stream Mapping and Lean Management principles.
He has consulted on a variety of topics including: assessment, strategic planning, construction, organization structure and review. In addition, he has presented and published on topics including transformational and servant leadership, retention, development, assessment, volunteerism, cultural competence, construction, renovation, unrelated business income taxes (UBIT), unfair competition, and Ignatian pedagogy and spirituality.
In 2014 he earned the honor of Loaned Executive of the Year for United Way of Greater Milwaukee for his assistance and service with the annual community fundraising campaign. In Milwaukee, he is a board member for InTandem, a local theater production organization. He was a board member with Variety Children’s Charity of Wisconsin and a regular volunteer at the United Community Center serving the Latino population of Milwaukee.
Toby is now a faculty member at the Federal Executive Institute within the Center for Leadership Development for the federal government.