James Songster
Combining his career as a professional Magician, with his expertise as a Disney instructor on the subject of Emerging Leadership, ideally positions James Songster as a legendary “double threat”.
For the better part of 30 years James trained Walt Disney World Cast Members and was a recipient of the prestigious Disney Legacy Award, one of the highest recognition honors presented by the Walt Disney Co. His career, and established expertise, in the delivery of education programs on the subject of emerging leadership training have made him highly sought after by universities, colleges and organizations looking to improve the skills of their own emerging leaders.
Barbara Blake, retired from The Walt Disney Company (2020) as the leader for educational programming at The Walt Disney World Resort. Her 42-year career was mainly in educational management or facilitation. This included design, facilitation and training of programming for youth (K-12, and college-level) and in professional development for educators. Projects for Disney included working for Walt Disney Imagineering on the start-up of a new, innovative public school at the Disney-designed town of Celebration and serving on a task force design team that created educational and recreational programs for the Disney Cruise Line.
In addition, Barbara also facilitated training programs for the larger WDW Sales and Services department.
A commitment to continuing education, skills training and professional development has taken Sue Schank from public school classrooms, to over 27 years as a Disney leader.
As a Training and Development Leader with both Park Operations and Disney’s Education Team, her primary focus was on creating an intensive training program for facilitators, and a unique performance coaching process to ensure continued growth and consistent quality.
She also developed content for multiple aspects of leadership skills, team work techniques, creativity, organizational culture, and specific-focus staff development topics, which were delivered to executive leadership teams and Cast Members, both across Walt Disney World property and internationally.
