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After seven years of holding its seminars off-campus, WSU's Center for Management Development is offering its training seminars back on campus once again.

Pat McLeod

The CMD started holding its daytime professional training seminars in the Marcus Welcome Center in November and will continue to do so through December, until its new training room is finished in the basement of the nearby Woodman Alumni Center. The CMD expects to start using the new facility with its first seminar scheduled for 2007 on Jan. 23.

For the past seven years, the CMD had been holding its programming elsewhere in Wichita, after moving out of the old Marcus Education Center, which was torn down to make room for the new Marcus Welcome Center.

Playing a key role in offering input on the new training facility was Pat McLeod, who was appointed director of the CMD this past summer.

McLeod has been with the CMD for 14 years, the past year having been spent as interim director after eight years as associate director. She replaces Susan Cherches, who retired from WSU last year after 13 years as CMD director.

"Pat has had an excellent career as an associate director and interim director and has shown tremendous initiative in sales," said Barton School dean John Beehler about McLeod's appointment.

The center had already shown tremendous growth over the past decade, offering seven certification programs and becoming a model for similar business training centers at other academic institutions.

As CMD director, McLeod oversees seven full- and part-time staff who help the CMD hold 90 to 100 daytime public programs and 250 to 300 on-site training programs each year.

But McLeod has more in store for the CMD. This past summer the center received certification as a registered education provider for the Project Management Institute, a globally recognized management training and certification program.

The new location back on campus and the new certification program have McLeod excited about her position.

"This kind of training usually happens on the East and West coasts," explained McLeod. "We’re now the only provider in this region."

With this certification, the CMD will begin scheduling two-day training programs in technical skills, business modeling, budgeting and risk management at various locations in the region, including Dallas and Oklahoma City.

It'll be a way for the CMD to offer this vital training to managers in the region, but in a far more affordable way, the CMD's advisory board has indicated.

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