Jay Colker
Dr. Jay Colker’s interest in Adlerian philosophy spans over 43 years. His cousin Janet Terner, who wrote the biography of Rudolf Dreikurs along with Bill Pew, introduced Jay to Individual Psychology. In the early 1970’s, Jay studied with many Adlerians including Hal and Norma Lou McAbee, Bill McKelvie, Achi Yotam, Leo Gold, Kurt Adler, and Nicholas Ionedes, among others. Jay extensively trained in open forum family counseling for two years with Manfred Sonstegard and volunteered at the Family Education Center of Greater Washington including leading parent training classes and training parent educators. Jay earned his MA in Counseling Psychology at the Alfred Adler Institute in Chicago and extensively studied with senior Adlerians including Harold Mosak, Bernard Shulman, Bob Powers, and Bronia Grunwald, among others. Jay co-lead psychotherapy groups with Bronia and taught the course in Adlerian Family Counseling when she became ill. Jay led Adler School’s Family Education Center for four years offering monthly open forum demonstrations to groups of over 200 attendees. He was an Adjunct Faculty Member at the Adler School of Professional Psychology, now Adler University for 7 years. Jay recently retired from his role as the Director of the Center for Adlerian Practice and Scholarship at Adler University, but is currently an associate professor teaching Adlerian courses among others.
Jay has had two distinct phases of his career: 20 years of clinical work and managing clinical facilities and 21 years of organizational development work as a consultant and as a senior human resources executive in a multi-billion dollar corporation. As a clinician, Jay worked in a private counseling practice first full time and then part time, as well as in various agency settings including responsibility as the clinical coordinator for a heroin addiction’s treatment facility. For seven years, Jay was Director of Grant Hospital’s Chemical Dependence Program and the Clinical Training Program for Addiction’s Counselors. Jay also was an advocate for change Statewide as Vice Chairman and then Chairman of the Illinois Hospital Addiction Treatment Administrator’s Forum. One area of passion for Jay has been family education. Jay presented hundreds of talks in the community to parent groups over the years.
In addition to his Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology, Jay also obtained an MBA and a Doctor of Management Degree in Organizational Leadership. As a management consultant for seven years in the 1990’s, Jay worked with Fortune 500 corporations including ComEd and McDonalds, and smaller for-profit and not-for-profit concerns. He adapted the open forum model to work with managers to enhance coaching and leadership skills. For 11 years, Jay was the Chief Learning Officer for ShoreBank, the largest and oldest community development bank in the U.S. Jay was responsible for employee training, leadership development, and enhancing performance within all lines of business. Jay facilitated a strategy that led to recognition by Workforce Chicago as best in class in learning and development. Two years later, ShoreBank was honored with the Right Workplace Award for its positive people practices. Jay has also consulted internationally and was instrumental in introducing customer service skills to institutions in the Republic of Georgia and Azerbaijan, and has also consulted in Mongolia, Armenia, Israel, and India. Presently Jay maintains a management coaching and consulting practice using Adlerian principles, among others. He is the founder of Crowdsourced Coaching (www.crowdsourcedcoaching.com) which engages leaders in collaborative discussions to enhance performance and development. He also is a Business Advisory Group member for The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning.