About Barb Bickford

 
Barb Bickford, founder of Improve Your Meetings
 
Hello!  I'm a scientist, former public servant, and now I serve leaders like you. I've worked in government and volunteered in non-profits. I love being outdoors and I care passionately about water quality and public health.
 
Much of my career has focused on helping communities and healthcare facilities better manage and prevent wastes, and my volunteer work has been about outdoor education, protecting our rivers and lakes and about helping individuals and groups heal and grow.  
 
These days, I want to enable people to contribute to addressing the challenges of our time. We need to work together!
 
Here's my story -- perhaps you will relate to it. 

 
My story -- who I am as a professional

  woman sitting a cubicle with books and files   There I was, an introverted and fact-oriented Professional Geologist in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, 
in my cubicle, happily reviewing groundwater data and technical plans for landfills.
       
  woman standing in front of a medical waste truck  

Suddenly, I got a mid-career assignment to coordinate Wisconsin's medical waste program.  It required me to work closely with diverse groups of people.

How would I do that? What did I know about healthcare  -- let alone collaboration?

I set about learning, and I continue to learn.
       
  Woman standing in front of a room, facilitating discussions  

Although shifting gears wasn't easy, I grew to become well-known statewide and nationally for collaborating on challenging and emerging issues such as reducing pharmaceutical waste and collecting household sharps,

Here I am, leading discussions at a national conference on managing highly infectious waste after the Ebola crisis. 
       
  woman bending over to help someone in a workshop    

I observed first-hand how collaborative leadership 
-- or lack of it -- can impact results.

I now focus on guiding people to improve their results and make a greater impact by transforming their meetings  ... and themselves ...
       
 
 And who I am as a person
 
  woman carring a canoe on her shoulders in the wilderness  

Ever since my first Earth day, I've been focused on improving water quality. I've moved forward...

  • from preventing groundwater contamination 

  • to recycling and reducing waste 

  • to changing public policies that create waste

  • to transforming how we meet and supporting leaders to do the same...

... and I'm always moving upstream.
       
  woman smiling and paddling a canoe  

I've been moving upstream personally too, developing myself by embracing life challenges such as

  • overcoming low-self esteem and "imposter syndrom"
  • living with persons who have a mental illness, 
  • divorcing, being a single parent, losing a child,
  • supporting aging parents and
  • starting a business. 
       
  woman holding a tree seedling surrounded by children  

I live in a small town near St. Paul, Minnesota, with my family and a cat who thinks it's a human. 

My husband and I are both Minnesota Water Stewards. We keep busy planting trees, pulling buckthorn, and planning our next canoe trip.  
       
  woman holding a certificate, with a city, river and bluffs in the background  

I do what I can to improve the environment as a business, as well. 

Bickford Collaboration has been a menber of the Green Business Directory of the Stillwater, MN area since 2021. Read more here.  
       
 
What others say...
 
 
Barb is one of the nicest people I know and is consistently ready to offer her 'best self' to others for the benefit of the common good. She can motivate groups and individuals, and encourage them to stretch their goals and achieve them.
Charlotte Smith
President, GreatWorks LLC (founder of PharmEcology)
 

Barb is very knowledgeable and easy to work with.
She presents information in a down to earth way. She is passionate about the environment and you can’t help but catch the bug!

Angela Flemming
Dietary/Environmental Services Director at The Richland Hospital Inc
 

Get to know me better 

Learn more about how I approach my work (exits to the Bickford Collaboration website) 

Learn more about Improve Your Meetings and Bickford Collaboration

Contact me

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Improve Your Meetings is a division of Bickford Collaboration, LLC
Our address and phone number are in the footer, below. 

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Want to explore whether we’re meant to work with each other?
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Appointment Type: Meet with Barb for 30 minutes