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One of the most important lessons Linda S.Wallace ever learned unfolded on a street in the Dallas, Tex. projects while she waited with neighborhood children for the school bus to arrive. An education reporter, Ms. Wallace had been assigned to ride with the fourth-to sixth-graders as they were bused from the housing projects to an affluent elementary school in North Dallas.
While she was chatting with the children a man who smelled of alcohol strolled up to her and made lewd comments. Ms. Wallace stood silently, her eyes lowered, as a young boy whispered, "Lady is that man bothering you?" "Yes," she replied."
The young boy walked over to the man and said something that Ms. Wallace could not hear. The man nodded, shook his head and walked away.
"That evening, as I thought about the kids, I realized it is wrong to write of these children's weaknesses yet ignore their strength," Ms. Wallace recalls. "It was a wake up call."
Library of Life Experiences
Today, as a management consultant and nationally known speaker, Ms. Wallace offers customized workshops to help executives and leaders develop the new competencies and skills required to build trust with diverse customers and emerging markets.
“In her gentle manner, she reaches into the core of our beliefs and helps us remove our blinders,” says Marilyn H. Cohen, formerly director of education and chief operating officer for the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia. “I’ve watched her use genuinely heartfelt compassion to make the toughest man enjoy melting, and her finely-tuned insight to help the weakest-seeming person find a proud voice. It doesn’t get any better.”
Her firm, Linda S. Wallace Communications, has a diverse clientele, including the U.S. Navy, the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia, Hearst Newspapers, the Office of the Philadelphia Sheriff, Community College of Philadelphia and the Cardiovascular Institute of Philadelphia.
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Create Safe Spaces for Learning
