Ismet Mamnoon
Ismet Mamnoon is a graduate from the International Center for Studies in Creativity at Buffalo State where she received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence, the President’s Medal for Outstanding Graduate Student at Buffalo State and the Firestien Family Creative Achievement award for her work in the field of Creative thinking and facilitation.
As a change catalyst, Ismet believes in empowering clients with the ability to use creative thinking in order to help them use their own expertise to address challenges within their field of work and their personal lives. Ismet has facilitated, trained and presented to large and small groups from many different areas of expertise across the globe. Her expertise is in translating creativity into a useable skill set for individuals from diverse backgrounds and to make it applicable across many domains. She is passionate about nurturing a generation of creative thinkers and works with children, parents and educators all over the world to make that possible.
Ismet was one of the founders and directors of the Beyonder Academy which launched the first ever creativity program for local and international middle and high school students at Buffalo State. She has also authored several books and products related to her work in the field of creativity.
In her spare time Ismet creates fish hats and is a passionate martial artist and trains with her daughters in Buffalo New York.
Erica Swiatek
Erica Swiatek is a high energy, passionate, facilitator, consultant and trainer. She has worked in the Learning & Development field since 2000. Her experience includes:
- Designing and delivering instructor-led courses
- Training and facilitating creative problem solving
- Team building
- Leadership Skills
- Change Management
- Technical Training
- Designing tools, activities and games
Erica graduated from Buffalo State in 2012 but loved it so much she became an adjunct faculty there. She teaches creative problem solving classes at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Erica uses her creative problem solving knowledge to help teams clarify their challenges, generate ideas and build a plan of action. The results of these sessions have included implementing solutions that have improved training, quality scores, team dynamics, prepared staff for the busiest time of the year and reshaped the design of a Customer Service program.
She enjoys encouraging and teaching playfulness and creativity as life skills. She also believes in using her education and work background to make a difference in her community. One project that exemplifies this involved designing a training program that helps at risk youth turn their lives around. Participants of this program have learned to solve their own challenges in new ways and gain job specific skills. Her work in this area has proven to be very successful and was referred to as one of the most successful programs the Pinnacle Resource Inc. (a project management group for the Latino Coalition) has ever seen.
Erica also enjoys traveling and exploring new things. She enjoys music and spent many years working at Hard Rock Café in Niagara Falls because she could get paid to have fun and listen to music. Erica is also actively involved in fund-raising and other activities that support charities throughout the community, such as Niagara Falls City Missions and Ronald McDonald House. In addition, she and her son helped to rebuild homes in Gulf Port, Mississippi and Tuscaloosa Alabama.
