About Us
Management as Tradecraft
TM
We founded Tractus Strategic Partners (TSP) in 2021 when we realized that an increasing number of organizations were asking for advice on recruiting, engaging, and developing their employees. Our philosophy - Management as Tradecraft™ - focuses on enabling organizational leaders to manage their people better. By prioritizing critical managerial skills, we assist leaders in aligning their workforce's capabilities with their organizational strategic needs.
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The Latin word tractus has several meanings - progress, course, drawing out, space - which all focus on movement. At Tractus Strategic Partners, we believe that movement should be strategic and include all organizational elements, especially its most valuable resource: its people.
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Our Vision: Organizations are successful and effective by prioritizing employee engagement, performance, and satisfaction.
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Our Mission: To help public and private-sector organizations excel by aligning hiring processes with human capital needs, enhancing talent development, and harmonizing succession planning with strategic goals.
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Our Guiding Principles:
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Integrity: We believe that ethics and honesty are the foundation of sound decisions.
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Empathy: We believe that employees are the heartbeat of every organization.
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Holistic Viewpoint: We believe that successful leaders consider the entire employee spectrum when pursuing their strategic goals.
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Individuality: We believe that each organization has a unique culture and strategic path that drives development of its talent pool.
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Excellence: We believe in delivering quality services to bolster long term organizational success.
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Balance: We believe that real success requires a balance between the theoretical and the practical, internal and external perspectives, and a general and custom approach..
Kimberly A. Carlson, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Co-Founder
Charity L. Boyette, MBA
Chief Operating Officer
Co-Founder
Jennifer C. Havens, MBA, PCC
Chief Services Officer
Meet The Team
Kimberly Carlson has worked with nonprofit and governmental organizations professionally and academically for over twenty years. Through this work, her primary focus is on community engagement as well as leadership and organizational and workforce development.
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Currently, Kimberly is the Director of Programs for the Principal Partnerships Office in Virginia Tech Advancement. The Principal Partnership Office acts as a type of skunkworks for blending individual and corporate fundraising and investments at the highest levels to support university and presidential priorities. Her role as Program Director oversees the coordination, integration, and completion of a wide range of activities to ensure successful completion of principal projects. Additionally, Kimberly continues to collaborate with her academic department at Virginia Tech as an Associate Professor of Practice in Management within the Pamplin College of Business, serving on PhD committees, finalizing current research, and teaching a class or two on the side.
Previously, she served as adjunct faculty for the Center for Public Administration and Policy and the Political Science Department, and as Assistant Director of Presidential Global Scholars, a semester-abroad program, and Fulbright Program Adviser in University Honors at Virginia Tech. Before joining academia, she worked for a variety of nonprofit organizations in Oklahoma City, OK and Pensacola, FL.
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She holds a B.S. in psychology and a B.A. in theatre from Virginia Tech, an MSW in clinical social work from Florida State University, and a Ph.D. in public administration and public affairs, with a focus on nonprofit and non-governmental management, from Virginia Tech.
Charity Boyette has more than two decades of experience in managing teams and programs, with a particular focus in managerial excellence, team engagement, and employee development.
Charity currently is a doctoral candidate in Public Administration at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where her research interests include organizational change, public-sector employee engagement, and management tradecraft. From 2009-2018, she was a commissioned Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State who served overseas tours in Nigeria, Poland, and Belgium, as well as assignments in Washington, DC, including two years as a special assistant to Secretary of State Kerry and as an instructor at the Foreign Service Institute. Prior to her federal service, Charity worked in leadership development, operations, and finance in the U.S. defense industry.
She holds an MBA, with a focus in strategic development, from the Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary and a B.S. in business administration from Averett University in Virginia.
Jennifer Havens is an accomplished entrepreneur, intrapreneur, thought partner, and trailblazer with a career spanning healthcare, biotech, manufacturing, and tech startups. She founded and led two businesses of her own, in addition to starting departmental functions within organizations.
Jennifer is a tenured Executive Coach, a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) and Mentor Coach through the International Coaching Federation, and an expert in leadership development, strategy development and execution, and business consulting. Her recent achievements include partnering with Executive Coaches to create Amazon.Coach, a group coaching program focused on Operations leaders at Amazon, and starting and leading the Institute for Leadership Effectiveness at Carilion Clinic.
At Carilion Clinic, Jennifer garnered national attention in the US healthcare industry for her innovative hybrid development processes combining executive coaching, group coaching, and deep dive leadership development. She brought together nursing, administrative, and physician leaders in mixed cohorts, resulting in measurable improvements in individual and team performance.
Jennifer holds a Masters degree in Business Administration and a Bachelors of Science in Marketing Management. She is also a Certified Return on Investment Professional, Six Sigma Greenbelt, and Professional Behaviors Analyst.