Paul McMickleDirector of Mentorship
Paul McMickle – Director of Mentorship
While there are many books on mentoring and mentorship, Paul relies on his personal mentoring experience of the past 50 years.
In the 70’s, upon discharge from the military (U.S. Army Special Forces, where among his primary duties was training and mentoring indigenous South Vietnamese soldiers and villagers), he became a Scout Master with Boy Scouts of America, providing Mentorship for young Scouts (ages 11-14) and Explorers (ages 15-18). He later became a Commissioner with Boy Scouts of America where his primary duty was to mentor new and existing Scout Masters.
In the 80’s, He started his own coaching and consulting firm, where his clients were corporate executives and other senior managers, (including political office holders and candidates) focusing on integrity, leadership and management qualities, and the power of listening. He also worked with at-risk youth, some of whom were Incarcerated in the Juvenile Detention Center of Cook County, IL and the Juvenile Correctional Facility at Cook County Jail. He also was in charge of mentoring and training for the Chicago and Dallas Youth at Risk Programs, each of which entailed a ten-day wilderness challenge course plus a one-year follow-up of weekly in-person mentoring sessions.
In the 90’s, he managed a “Cross-age Peer Tutoring Program for 10 poorly performing Chicago Public High Schools, where he mentored the students in being mentors for each other. Schools that had high absenteeism, low test scores and high violence incidents all made drastic improvements as a result of participating in that after-school program. (Mentoring included principals, teachers and parents.)
In the 2000’s, (to date), he ran for and was elected to Chicago Public Schools Local School Council and served 2 terms. He also served for 7 years on the Board of Directors for The Alliance of Hope, a not-for-profit organization for people who were survivors of suicide loss. ( WWW.ALLIANCEOFHOPE.ORG )
