Dr. Christina Beth Coons Yates
Christina Beth Coons Yates is an Assistant Director of Human Resources of Organizational Development and Strategic Planning. She works in the offices of Employee and Organization Development and teaches as a faculty member in the Department of Communication Arts.
Christy came to VSU in 1998 to teach the Organizational Communication courses in the Department of Communication Arts. Her teaching has included topics such as Interviewing, Organizational Analysis, Training and Development, Conflict Resolution, Leadership, Public Speaking, and Creative Thinking Techniques. While teaching full-time, Christy became actively involved with VSU’s strategic planning process and began to provide goal setting seminars and leadership retreats for the Division of Business and Finance. She officially joined the staff of the Organizational Development and Training Office in the Fall of 2004 as a way to integrate her teaching expertise with a greater role in developing the university and its employees. In July of 2005, Christy added the Strategic Planning functions of the university to her professional role.
Her focus is on assisting departments with handling change within the university, providing organizational assessments, developing leadership enrichment programs, fostering strategic goal setting, stimulating creative problem solving and cooperative work efforts, and enhancing employee’s communication skill sets. She assists in revising the planning database, monitoring goal completion, and developing collaboration across campus.
Christy earned an MA and a PhD in Organizational Communication with an emphasis on Instructional Communication from Ohio University, and a BS in Alternative Dispute Resolution & Human Resources from James Madison University. In addition to private consulting, Christy has worked in training and development for the Architect of the Capital’s office in Washington, DC, a servicing branch of Congress, and for NASA Headquarters as a publication design specialist. She belongs to the American Association for Higher Education, American Society for Training and Development, the Society for Human Resources Management, Phi Kappa Phi, Golden Key, and numerous other honorary societies.
229-245-6435
cbcyates[at]valdosta[dot]edu