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Making and nurturing connections in the community is central to iBossWell’s approach to business development. As it turns out, community connections also played a key role in adding consultants Terry Trafton and Brooke Jarchow to the IBW team.
Terry met IBW CEO Wayne Powell through Centurions and involvement in the Kansas City Chamber. Brooke came to IBW from the client side. She was introduced to Denise McNerney and Lynne Brown through her work with Clay County Public Health Center.
Terry holds a master’s in counseling and psychology and is a licensed and certified counselor. He has an extensive background in health care leadership including work as CEO of a private hospital and of a nonprofit behavioral health organization. “I love the work of being a strategist and especially thinking about where strategy intersects with organizational development and leadership. I naturally have a growth mindset, so I’m energized by the idea of helping people and organizations figure out how to be better, how to work together better, and how to optimize the work they do to get the deepest impact.” Terry began his own consulting practice in 2016 and worked with a number of nonprofit organizations over the years. “I really enjoy working with those smaller, what I call scrappy nonprofits, helping them get focused to set them up for success. That’s one of the things that drew me to IBW: the idea of working with a company dedicated to for-purpose entities really hit home for me.”
Brooke went to Emporia State University with the intention of going to medical school, but a class on Social Medicine changed everything. “I fell in love with public health and wound up getting my master’s in public health at KU.” Brooke’s work as a Continuous Improvement
Specialist and Community Health Program Manager at Clay County Public Health Center involved her in the Northland Health Alliance’s (NHA) Community Health Assessment and Community Health Improvement Plan. She was ready for a career change and her experience working with IBW on those projects provided a new direction. “I watched Denise and Lynne facilitate these projects and said to myself, ‘I want to do what they’re doing. I want to drive thoughtful conversation that helps organizations get to heart of their purpose.’ I saw IBW help NHA and the health department build consensus about what they could do to improve the health of the community, and then work with them to lay out a clear path for making it happen. I thought, ‘That’s it, that’s my path.’”
The excitement of “the pivot” and the “ah ha moment” are things Terry and Brooke say they enjoy most about consulting. “I love the pivot,” Terry said. “Every client is different, every engagement is different, so you have to think on your feet and adapt quickly—sometimes in real time—when a new idea or point raised in a conversation literally changes everything. It’s exciting to be at the center of that, to be there to help an organization make sense of it all and move forward.” For Brooke, every client engagement has come with at least one eye-opening moment. “I’ve learned something new, met someone who was really impressive, or been knocked out by the passion and impact of the work these organizations are doing in every single project. It just reinforces why I want to do this work and why I’m so excited to be in a position that helps people get to the next place, the next level of success.”
Life and all its experiences inform who we are as people—and who we are as consultants—so just for fun, we asked Terry and Brooke about the first concerts they attended. For Terry, it was The Fixx, an early 80’s new wave rock band. “The show was part of the Worlds of Fun Summer Concert Series. I was 15, wanting to look cool, and my mom made me take my little sister.” Brooke’s first concert was Hanson, famous for the hit MMMBop that exploded across America’s airwaves in the summer of 1997. “I’m pretty sure it was a free concert in a parking lot somewhere and my mom took me.”