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Driving Ethics and Professionalism in Sport

Meet Our Team

Wendy Guthrie
Principal, Pushing the Perimeter

Strategic Partner. Change Agent. Consultant. Coach.

Wendy Guthrie is Principal at Pushing the Perimeter and WJG Coaching & Consulting. She is the former Vice President of Athlete Safety at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee where she led the organization’s efforts to protect athletes from emotional, physical and sexual misconduct and abuse. She is a former internal consultant and Senior Executive of human resources at the Federal Bureau of Investigation where she led strategic efforts to infuse business strategy into the organization and led a 100-person section which served a workforce of 37,000. Prior to the FBI, Wendy spent 20 years in higher education as a senior intercollegiate athletics administrator leading people, educating student-athletes and partnering with internal and external constituencies to elevate programs.

Guthrie earned her MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s The Wharton School, a master’s in Athletic Administration from Springfield College and a bachelor’s in Business Administration from Whittier College. She was a student-athlete at Whittier where she excelled in cross-country and track & field and is now an unremarkable CrossFit athlete.

As a STRATEGIC PARTNER: Wendy has extensive experience in facilitating dialogue with various stakeholders toward a common goal. She enjoys building mutually beneficial relationships which further organizational transformations.

As a CHANGE AGENT: Wendy has been an instrumental player in leading organizations through cultural change, policy development and process enhancement in education, the federal government and not-for-profit organizations.

As a CONSULTANT: Wendy is a trusted advisor, thought partner, and problem solver. She is a quick study of people and organizations and drives both strategy and execution, ensuring the solution is targeted for each organization.

As a COACH: Wendy strives to always do better and understands even elite individuals can soar higher with a coach. She brings these ideals to her coaching practice as she serves as a confidant, thought partner and accountability coach; providing her clients the support that allows them to up-level their personal and professional lives.

Tara Carcillo
Advisor, Pushing the Perimeter

Thought Leader. Leadership Coach. Consultant. Speaker.

Tara Carcillo is an advisor at Pushing the Perimeter and President and CEO of The Clearing, Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based management consulting firm. She is the co-creator of MeetingPRIMES.com, a website that offers straightforward tutorials on how to engage, motivate, and lead others in meetings using powerful, proven techniques.

Tara has spent over 20 years guiding, designing, and advising on enterprise transformation, systems design and modeling, leadership development, and instructional design. She received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Washington College and holds a Master of Arts in Whole Systems Design and Organizational Systems Renewal from Antioch University.

As a THOUGHT LEADER: Tara has extensive experience in guiding, designing, and advising on enterprise transformation, systems design and modeling, leadership development, and workplace change. Her professional focus and passion is in creating structures, methodologies, and tools in support of organizations undergoing significant transitions.

As a LEADERSHIP COACH: Tara has helped guide and advise leaders in the education, federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.

As a CONSULTANT: Tara has devoted her career to developing and leading enterprise transformation, systems design and modeling, and instructional design for clients. Tara Carcillo brings pervasive and comprehensive expertise to her work that is grounded in systems design principles.

As a SPEAKER: Tara speaks to businesses and organizations across the country on a wide range of topics regarding professional growth, change management, and systems design. She regularly speaks at regional and national conferences.

Sarah Feyerherm
Advisor, Pushing the Perimeter

Educator. Coach. Team Leader. Higher Education Expert

Sarah Feyerherm is an advisor at Pushing the Perimeter and is the Vice President for Student Affairs at Washington College in Chestertown, MD where she leads the division responsible for student life outside the classroom. With over 30 years in higher education, Feyerherm is an experienced leader, guiding people and programs that transform student lives and prepare them for an ever-changing world.

Feyerherm earned a bachelor’s in English literature from Hamilton College, a master’s in Sport Management from UMass-Amherst, and an Ed.D. in Innovation and Leadership from Wilmington College (now Wilmington University.) A three-sport varsity student-athlete at Hamilton where she played field hockey, basketball, and lacrosse, Feyerherm’s professional career began with stints in journalism and athletic communications before transitioning into collegiate coaching and administration. Following a successful decade in coaching, Feyerherm earned her doctorate and moved into the field of student life.

As a TEAM LEADER: Sarah has guided divisions, task forces, committees, and many other work groups toward successful outcomes through collaborative, thoughtful, and ethical leadership.

As an EDUCATOR: Sarah has designed and led countless workshops, seminars, and both short- and long-form educational and personal development programs for college students and professionals in the fields of athletics and higher education.

As a STRATEGIST: Sarah has deployed her experience in multiple areas of higher education to develop and execute strategic plans that are clear, focused, and grounded in institutional values.

As a POLICY DEVELOPER: Sarah has established and re-worked a broad spectrum of policy documents in higher education, including student and student-athlete handbooks, Title IX policies, conduct policies, crisis planning documents, and standard operating procedures, ensuring consistency and compliance with institutional, local, state, and federal statutes.

What We Do

At Pushing the Perimeter we believe that participation in sport can form the foundation for a life well-lived. We believe that sport organizations providing these opportunities have a duty to reach the highest levels of integrity, to ensure that young athletes are safe, and to establish an ethical organizational culture.

To that end, Pushing the Perimeter is committed to helping sport organizations, ranging from youth to professional, achieve success by offering the following:

a comprehensive "crisis to culture change" program
culture and leadership assessment
education/training materials
an ethics curriculum for athletes, coaches, and organization employees
policy and protocol guidance
other as-needed advisory services

Programs, Workshops, & Presentations

Looking to Drive Internal Conversation? Need a Compelling Keynote Speaker? Expanding Your Team’s Knowledge?

The PtP Team would welcome the opportunity to craft a message specific to your audience. We also have already explored the following topics that may be right to bring to your organization:

What if Whistleblowing Isn’t Enough?

Many organizations are relying on whistleblower policies and/or a third-party whistleblower reporting program as a way for employees or members of an organization to report their ethics or misconduct concerns. The panel explores the benefits and challenges of this model while offering alternatives and enhancements to ensure your program reaps maximum benefits, aligns with cultural norms and values and leads to effective action.

Shared Accountability: How Might the Board of Directors Expand the Dialogue on Conduct Risk with the CEO?

Ultimate accountability for the organization lies with the Board so the Board should be driving a new level of conversation about the risk of misconduct. The panel explores the partnership between the CEO and Board of Directors to ensure effective and strategic Board oversight of employee and member misconduct. How do you make decisions about the use of data at the Board level -- or do you even need it? What do you do if your CEO is the subject of a complaint? What follow up is appropriate if someone makes an allegation directly to the Board--do you engage with the reporter directly? Who should you hear from directly within the organization, unfiltered by the CEO? The panel encourages a proactive conversation, with consistent and clear expectations, between the CEO and Board of Directors to ensure a strategic approach to managing risk and will offer tips on the right questions and topics to discuss!

The Intersection of Preparedness and Response: Have you Rehearsed for Your Next Crisis?

The military and law enforcement are known for their expertise in planning for a crisis. Using models from these and other sectors, how can your organization both anticipate and counter threats? What resources are needed to counter those threats? What personnel and what type of expertise is required? How are programs, operations, and people impacted when individuals in your organization are accused of wrongdoing? Join the panel to learn how these same principles can better prepare your organization to handle an ethical dilemma, crisis, or allegation of misconduct.

Right, Wrong, and Winning

An interactive workshop for coaches, student-athletes, or administrators on identifying the ethical pitfalls inherent in sport, how to engage players in meaningful conversations about ethical behavior, what it means to “play fair,” and why that’s important. Participants work alone and in groups to clarify values, identify risks, and develop actions plans to establishing ethical team environments.

Student-Athlete Misconduct: “This is not who I am”

This workshop helps coaches respond to student-athlete misconduct by considering elements and stages of personal development, leveraging an athlete’s motivation and values toward acceptance of responsibility, and establishing team culture and rules. Additionally, this workshop explores the role of the coach as an advocate or mentor for an athlete who is being disciplined by another governing body (ie. an Honor Board at their school or by a state athletic association)

Character and Sport: Is a Virtuous Athlete a Virtuous Person?

Proponents of youth and college sport often espouse the benefits of participation as contributing to the development of leadership and other positive character traits. This multi-session seminar dives into this assumption by a) exploring the traits or virtues necessary for success in sport; b) identifying how those traits “cross over” into other areas of athletes’ lives; c) discussing those areas of disconnect where athletes act unethically; and d) discovering methods to clearly link sport-developed virtues into positive character traits that athletes will embrace throughout their lives.

Failure, Trust and the Questions Essential for Engagement

An interactive session designed to highlight how to find and build resilient relationships across your personal and professional community. Resilience is a key characteristic of a lifelong learning and is a strong determinant of personal growth. Discover four simple techniques that can change the way you think about failure and its relationship to trust.

Participative Decision Making: A Key Characteristic of Strong Culture

A high paced keynote that highlights how successful leaders build culture through shared decision making. Combining just in time data gathering with the principles of system design can enable leaders to grow accountability across their ranks and reveal insights traditionally seen only at the top of an organization to key leaders at every level of an organization.

Focusing on the Voice of the Customer When It’s the Last Thing You Want to Do

Leaders establish and maintain their power through four key channels. Discover how leading from your customer’s perspective can accelerate your ability to drive change through your organization.

Small Moves on the Path to Breakthrough Outcomes

Organizational performance is directly dependent upon small groups ability to establish shared perspective, shared intent and shared coordinated action. Learn the time tested techniques of the most talented leaders and how them employ soft power to get results in groups and build accountability at every level of an organization.

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