about us

“If you know what to do, how to act, and what to say – you’ll be Safer and Saner – where ever you work, what ever you do, whoever you’re with.”

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
TRAINING PROGRAMS

Edmond Otis

AACT Developer and Director of Training BS, MS, MFT
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Edmond Otis is internationally known for improving professional relationships and outcomes across a broad range of professional environments. His AACT-NOW programs provide cutting edge training and seminars to large and small businesses, public and private agencies, schools, government offices, libraries, industry and medical providers.

 

Edmond’s focus is specific – enhance resilience, and increase productivity,  efficiency, and creativity, and, as you reduce stress, reduce conflict, and reduce the risk of injury and violence by Making Workplaces Safer & Better Places to Be.

 

Edmond has a unique background. A licensed psychotherapist, author, and former senior lecturer at the University of California, Riverside, he was twice recipient of the University Distinguished Teaching award, holding positions across Humanities, and as Director of Martial Arts in Athletics. In 2023, he returned to living full-time in the US after serving as a senior lecturer in the School of Health and Sport Science at the Eastern Institute of Technology, in New Zealand, and consulting with the Ministries of Health, Education, & Sport.

 

While there, Edmond developed the “Let’s Make Me Resilient” behavioural training program that has been presented through Health Hawke’s Bay to high school students throughout the region, and across New Zealand, since 2016.

 

Additionally, Edmond is a world recognised coach and life-long veteran of traditional Japanese karate training. He has coached numerous individuals and teams to national (USA) and international championships and has personally developed many high-ranking instructors.

 

Blending these distinctive skills and insights into his training and consulting style, Edmond teaches real skills, and creates dynamic content, effective strategies and pragmatic solutions for today’s most complex and difficult workplace situations.

 

Edmond is most interested in understanding the endless ways that our thoughts, our emotions, our actions, and our relationships – impact our performance, our health, our happiness, and our quality of life.

 

To find out more about Edmonds karate background and personal dojo in New Zealand, please click here.

 

Roberta Cox

AACT-NOW Director of Research
BS, MS, PhD

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Roberta Cox received her Masters and Doctorate in Psychology from the University of California, Riverside. Her research includes identifying and understanding the effects of personality and aggression on social hierarchy – whether at home or at work, as well as the effects of environment on normal and abnormal social behaviour.

 

She has worked as a project manager and program and content developer for numerous organisations, including Health Hawke’s Bay (HB), and the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT), and continues to accept closed-ended contracts from select clients.

 

Roberta has taught general, physiological, abnormal, health, and comparative psychology, research methodology and statistics at many colleges and universities, including the University of California – Riverside, Loma Linda University, Cal Poly Pomona, and Cal State University at San Bernardino. She also has experience in elementary education, and as a psychotherapist and administrator of an adolescent psych group homes.

BUSINESS, GOVERNMENT, AND ORGINISATIONAL CLIENTS

US CLIENTS

  • American Industrial Hygiene Association
  • American Society of Safety Engineers
  • Baron Center
  • Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce
  • City of Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce
  • Freedom Communications, Inc.
  • Geek Girl Inc.
  • Green Systems International, Inc.
  • Huff Fitness, Inc.
  • IMG Inc.
  • L-3 Linkabit, Inc.
  • Los Angeles Compensation and Benefits Association
  • Los Angeles Federal Credit Union
  • Merit Oil
  • National Employee Services and Recreation Association (NESRA)
  • Nippondenso International, Inc.
  • Nordstrom
  • NWC Federal Credit Union
  • Phelan Hallinan Diamond & Jones
  • S.P.O.R.T., Inc.
  • San Diego County Chamber of Commerce
  • State Bar of Wisconsin
  • The Daily Press, Inc.
  • The Solebury Club
  • Titan Corporation
  • Tournament House, Inc.
  • United States Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)
  • Western Pacific LP
  • California Division of Occupational Safety and Health
  • City of Anaheim
  • City of Calexico 
  • City of Claremont
  • City of Colton
  • City of Fullerton
  • City of Livermore
  • City of Long Beach
  • City of Los Angeles 
  • City of Los Angeles Task Force Advisory Committee
  • City of Los Gatos
  • City of Mission Viejo 
  • City of Oxnard
  • City of Palo Alto
  • City of Palos Verdes
  • City of Pasadena
  • City of Pasadena Advisory Committee
  • City of Pasadena Employee Association
  • City of Pleasanton
  • City of Richmond
  • City of Sacramento
  • City of San Bernardino
  • City of Santa Ana
  • City of Santa Clara
  • County of Fresno
  • County of Long Beach
  • County of Marin
  • County of Orange
  • Long Beach Management Association
  • Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
  • Riverside Area Rape Crisis Center
  • San Diego Airport Authority
  • San Diego Trolley Car Management Training
  • Alannah Family Agencies, Inc.
  • Center for Brief Therapy of Southern California
  • Continuum Care Medical Group
  • Guadalupe Group Homes, Inc.
  • Inland California Psychotherapy Association
  • Jordan-NeuroScience
  • Loma Linda University Medical Center
  • Spectrum Behaviour Management Services
  • Sports Medicine and Health Association
  • St. Bernardine Medical Center
  • Vista Pacifica, Inc.
  • AmeriCorps, Inc.
  • Children’s Discovery Center, Inc.
  • Colton Unified School District
  • Jurupa Unified School District
  • Lake Elsinore Unified School District
  • Loma Linda University
  • Moreno Valley Unified School District
  • Oceanside Unified School District
  • Riverside Unified School District
  • San Bernardino Unified School District
  • The Infopeople Project
  • The University of California, Los Angeles
  • The University of California, Riverside
  • The University of California, San Diego
  • The University of California, Santa Cruz
  • University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Val Verde Unified School District
  • Alameda County Public Library
  • Anaheim Public Library
  • Bakersfield Public Library
  • Berkeley Public Library
  • Black Gold Cooperative Library System
  • Buena Park Public Library
  • Burlingame Public Library
  • Chico State Public Library
  • Fresno Public Library
  • Glendale Public Library
  • Livermore Public Library
  • Lodi Public Library
  • Long Beach Public Library
  • Los Angeles Public Library
  • Menlo Park Public Library
  • Monterey Public Library
  • Placentia Library District
  • Pleasanton Public Library System
  • Sacramento State Public Library
  • Salida County Public Library
  • San Bernardino Public Library
  • San Diego County Public Library
  • San Diego County State Law Library
  • San Francisco Public Library
  • San Jose Public Library
  • San Mateo Public Library
  • San Rafael Public Library
  • Santa Barbara Public Library System
  • Santa Maria Public Library
  • Southern California Library Cooperative
  • Southern CA Library Association
  • Whittier Public Library
  • Yolo County Public Library

NEW ZEALAND CLIENTS

  • Bigsave
  • Catalyst Risk Management Limited
  • Centralines Limited
  • Changing Minds
  • Dance Express Events Limited
  • GROW Inc.
  • Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce Inc.
  • Kite Communications
  • MOORE Markhams
  • New Zealand Wine
  • PMA
  • Rayonier
  • Matariki Forests
  • Think Bigger Group
  • Unison: The Powerlines People
  • Badminton New Zealand
  • Bay City Cheerleaders
  • Catalyst Risk Management  
  • Eastern Netball Association
  • Greater Auckland Coaching Unit (GACU)
  • Hawke’s Bay United Football
  • Hawke’s Bay Rugby
  • Hawkes Bay Cricket Association
  • Horse of the Year
  • Magpies – Hawke’s Bay Rugby Union
  • Manawatu Rugby Union
  • Napier Marist Football Club
  • Netball Central Zone
  • New Zealand Canoe Polo Association
  • Regional Sport Organisation – Hawke’s Bay
  • Sport Gisborne
  • Sport Hawke’s Bay
  • Sport New Zealand
  • Auckland City Council
  • Invercargill City Council
  • Ministry of Social Development
  • Ministry of Work and Income
  • City of Hamilton
  • City of Dunedin
  • Family Works Hawke’s Bay
  • Gains Psychology and Consulting
  • Gains Psychology and Consulting Service
  • Goodfellow Unit
  • Green Prescription Sport Hawke’s Bay – NZ Ministry of Health
  • Green Prescription Sport Otago – NZ Ministry of Health
  • Hawke’s Bay PHO
  • Hawke’s Bay District Health Board
  • HB Rural Support Trust 
  • Health Hawke’s Bay
  • NZ District Board – Annual Health & Safety Conference
  • Physiotherapy New Zealand
  • Physiotherapy New Zealand Hawke’s Bay
  • Presbyterian Support – East Coast
  • Presbyterian Support East Coast
  • Taradale Medical Clinic
  • Te Mata Peak Practice 
  • The Kina Trust
  • YMCA South and Mid Canterbury
  • Board of Directors – Napier Central School
  • Board of Directors – Napier Intermediate School
  • Eastern Institute of Technology
  • Hereworth College
  • Iona College
  • Lindisfarne College
  • Napier Central School

OUR CLIENTS LOVES US

“Wow! What a presentation! Your team-building session afterwards was absolutely outstanding.”

Scott Boston
President, US Industrial Hygiene
Association
“All comments have been overwhelmingly positive, citing examples of your use of humor, and the ‘real life’ situations.”
Jane Hinshaw
Chair, City of Los Angeles Advisory Committee
“Your participant evaluations for each of the 13 sessions you have presented for us over the last 12 months have been uniformly ‘excellent’, consistently averaging 9’s and 10’s in each category.”
Cher Gould
The Infopeople Project
“Fantastic day. Motivational and thought provoking! Gave us lots to work on and think about.”
C. J. Dixon
Physiotherapy New Zealand
“Your presentation was wonderful … I am especially grateful for the hit of our staff training this year.”
Barbara Adams,
Director of Health and Human Resources, Nippondenso Int., Inc.
““Your message came through loud and clear! The presentation was exciting, but also real and practical. Best of all, you gave us solutions that worked.””
Ed Taylor
President, IMG Inc.
“Edmond is not only a karate master, but a master of guiding businessmen and women to develop healthy communication styles and open trustworthy work environments.”
Kenneth G. Jordan
M.D., President, Jordan NeuroScience Inc.
“Excellent presentation! Captivating and easy to listen to!”
Sharon Hanne
Physiotherapy NZ
“Edmond was great! Easy to understand, exciting to listen to and a great sense of humour! He was excellent and presented material not just relevant to Safety but to management and leadership generally.”
Unison
The NZ Powerlines People
“Well spoken, direct and interesting. Very helpful and insightful. Related knowledge to our needs very well.”
Rachel Gunsan
Green Prescription, Sport Hawke’s Bay
“The entire room was swept up in your energy and ability to seemingly ‘touch’ each member of the audience. As you can see by the audience evaluations, everyone felt that this was an outstanding, exciting, and extremely insightful presentation!”
Lucia Ortega
AmeriCorp Int.
“The comments I received can easily be summed up with the word ‘outstanding’. You were engaging to say the least. Your dynamic way of sharing made the presentation a welcome dialogue between you and the audience.”
Shirley Ewells
Chair Person: City of Pasadena EAP Advisory Committee
“Edmond Otis is a vibrant speaker that immediately establishes a rapport with the audience. His ability to tailor his presentation to our needs and deliver the content but still keep it entertaining was a refreshing change from the usual circuit of boring speakers. He mixes real world experience with humor in such a way that our customary dry subject matter became interesting and had all of us participating, even that grump who always sits at the back of the room! The feedback from the group was outstanding and we look forward to having him return soon.”
Shannon Kane
Controller at Revchem Composites
“Edmond Otis is a training-coaching professional with engagingly effective presentation skills. He always keeps the focus where it should be—on the learners he serves. It was always a pleasure to have Edmond facilitate conflict resolution sessions when I was serving as training director for the San Francisco Public Library system, and I would jump at the chance to work with him again.”
Paul Signorelli
Social Media Strategist, and Consultant
“Edmond provided business coaching and motivational speaking to our Senior Team of 15 Managers in a series of 4 training sessions. Senior Team loved it! they were higly complimentary about Edmond’s style, knowledge, professionalism and integrity. The investment in Edmond’s training sessions have been excellent from the company’s perspective: Senior Team have already applied the knowledge that they gained.”
Sanja Majstorovic
CEO at PSEC
“You were a huge hit with our staff! The Evaluation Forms were overwhelming marked – ‘excellent’. The BPL staff really enjoyed your presentation style, behavior modification techniques, and practical exercises… But to me the most important outcome of your workshop was the team-building that occurred during the workshop and after. Our job as managers will be to build on that momentum and keep the communication going. Thanks again for an excellent workshop!”
Patricia Harding
Executive Director, Burlingame Systems
“Excellent Presentation! Very specific to our needs. A lot of new material we can work with.”
Sue Smith
Team Leader, Green Prescription, Sport Hawke’s Bay