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, Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer
Co-Founder
Jennifer C. Riley, MBA, PCC
Chief Services Officer
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 organizational leadership, succession planning, board development, strategic planning, project management.
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Outside of Tractus, she serves Virginia Tech as Director of Volunteer Advisory Board Strategy in the university’s advancement division. In this role, she acts as an internal consultant to voluntary advisory boards to promote strategic alignment and collaboration. 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 when needed.
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 and organizational leadership, from Virginia Tech.
Charity Boyette has more than two decades of experience in managing teams and programs, with a particular focus in managerial excellence and team leadership, engagement, and development.
Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Practice in Management within the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech. From 2009-2018, she was a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State, serving overseas tours in Nigeria, Poland, and Belgium, as well as assignments in Washington, DC, including two years on Secretary of State Kerry’s travel team. Prior to her federal service, Charity worked in leadership development, operations, and finance in the U.S. defense industry.
She holds a Ph.D. with a focus on public-sector workforce engagement and development from the Center for Public Administration and Policy at Virginia Tech. She earned her MBA, with a focus in strategic development, from the Mason School of Business at the College of William & Mary and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Averett University in Virginia
Jennifer Riley 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 master’s degree in business administration and a B.S. in Marketing Management. She is also a Certified Return on Investment Professional, Six Sigma Greenbelt, and Professional Behaviors Analyst. She joined Tractus Strategic Partners in March 2023.