Senior Consultant, Organization Guidance Group

Michael Nizankiewicz , a skilled and experienced facilitator, coach and leader of the Independent Sector, has over thirty-four years of executive leadership and organization development experience.

Michael J. Nizankiewicz, PhD, CAE is Senior Consultant for Organization Guidance Group (OGG) based in the metro Washington, DC area. Prior to joining OGG, he was Executive Vice President and CEO of the National Association of Mortgage Brokers. He was also the President and CEO of the Lupus Foundation of America, spent 19 years in progressive senior management positions for the American Heart Association; seven years with the Muscular Dystrophy Association and began his career with a New England public relations and marketing firm.

While in these organizations he has: consulted with association leaders throughout the U.S. on leadership and organization change issues; facilitated scores of training workshops; created a first-in-the-world interactive cardiovascular education center; won national awards for creative community education projects, and received multiple awards for outstanding service to many communities including the Key to the City of Manchester, NH.

All of the organizations he has led grew in impressive measures under his stewardship.

One of the key reasons for his successful career has been a passion for identifying and emulating core leadership competencies.

A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Dr. Nizankiewicz received his Ph.D. in Business Management from LaSalle University, his Masters of Arts degree in Voluntary Agency Management from Central Michigan University, and his Bachelor of Arts degree from Assumption College.

He has served on the boards of such organizations as United Way, the Saint Vincent de Paul Society, and the National Health Council.

SERVICES

Comprehensive Organization Planning Services including:

Mission Statements

Vision Statements

Strategic Planning

Annual Action Planning

Setting Individual Performance Standards

Performance Appraisal Systems

Project Evaluation

Interim Organization Leadership

Search Consultant and Recruiter

Training Program Design

Organization Change Management

SPECIALTY AREAS

Team Building

Effective Communication Skills

Leadership / Management Development

Community Organization Training and Implementation

Fund Development: Assessment / Planning / Implementation / Evaluation

CONTACT:
Michael J. Nizankiewicz, PhD, CAE
Senior Consultant
11616 Bedfordshire Ave., Potomac, MD 20854
office: 301-294-6266
cell: 301-943-3363
fax: 301-963-6768
email: mikeniz@aol.com

Studies of Writers and Artists

Reports published in Smooth Sailing on talks by Kay Redfield Jamison at symposiums co-sponsored by DRADA.

John Keats

Virginia Woolf

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald

Robert Louis Stevenson

Kay Redfield Jamison is the author of It can be ordered from DRADA at a reduced price.

ON SCHIZOAFFECTIVE DISORDER, THE Q & A COLUMN, answer to a question about symptoms and diagnosis, by Melvin McGinnis, M.D.,1 Smooth Sailing, Spring 1996, pp. 8,9.

The term schizoaffective disorder refers to an uninterrupted period of illness during which the patient is diagnosed with a major mood disorder (mania, depression, or mixed affective state) while simultaneously experiencing at least two of the characteristic psychotic symptoms for schizophrenia, such as delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, disorganized behavior. To qualify for this diagnosis, the patient must be found to have at least one of the above psychotic symptoms for at least two weeks in the absence of mood symptoms.

Patients are sometimes diagnosed as having schizoaffective disorder because they experience psychotic symptoms during an affective episode. For example, patients who are depressed may experience delusions, such as irrationally believing that they are to blame for events not related to them, or hallucinations, such as hearing voices telling them to harm themselves. Manic patients may experience grandiose delusions; they report a variety of psychotic experiences such as hearing voices telling them they're invincible or developing religious or technical insights inconsistent with the cultural norms.

For the most part, psychotic experiences during an affective episode are "mood congruent," meaning that they are consistent with the underlying mood: depressed patients experience delusions or hallucinations of a depressive nature (focused on self-reproach or self-harm), while manic patients experience grandiose beliefs (that they hold the insights to Western society or are the greatest of the greatest). Less common in affective disorders are "mood-incongruent" psychotic experiences (either neutral or inconsistent with the prevailing mood) such as hearing voices commenting on one's actions. Patients who have only mood-congruent psychotic symptoms, and have those only during an affective episode, are not considered to have schizoaffective disorder. Also, 60 to 70 percent of all patients with schizophrenia have episodes of depression within a flareup of their schizophrenic illness. It is not uncommon to see these patients improperly diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.

The diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder should be made with caution. If psychotic symptoms in the absence of mood symptoms are not currently being observed, then documented evidence of them should be available. Misuse of this diagnostic category has resulted in considerable confusion among psychiatrists and patients. Often, one sees patients diagnosed as schizoaffective who show evidence of psychotic symptoms only during manic and/or depressive phases and not between episodes, a pattern that is most consistent with bipolar I disorder (classic manic-depressive illness) and not with schizoaffective disorder. The distinction is important, as the term "schizoaffective" implies a causal connection with schizophrenia as well as a more severe prognosis of chronic illness rather than the periodic illness of bipolar disorder.

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1 Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavior, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.