October 21, 2001 The Times Leader Alison R. Brown is the president and principal consultant of ALMEC Internatinal, located in the Columbus area. Brown formed ALMEC International in 1995 with the goal of helping businesses run more efficiently by improving internal communications. ALMEC International conducts training on workplace diversity, teambuilding, leadership, customer service and supervision. Borwn is currently the project leader for the diversity initiative at Firststar/US Bancorp and serves as consultant to the American Red Cross of Greater Columbus. She has served in an adjunct capacity for training projects at Toyota, Chase Manhattan Mortgage and Goodyear. Brown and her associates at ALMEC International have trained more than 7,000 employees during the past three years. Prior to forming ALMEC International, Brown held various titles including customer services coordinator and office supervisor for Ohio Power and Columbus Southern Power (now known as American Electric Power) where she worked for 18 years. While at the Columbus utility business, she facilitated training programs, managed employee relations and employment practices and defined standards for employees. Brown graduated with academic honors from Franklin University and holds a Bachelor of Scient degree in Business Administration. Brown can also be credited with a business adjunct professorship at Central Ohio Technical College and is currently working on a master's degree in Labor and Human Resources at Ohio State University. She completed mediation training at Capital Law School in 1994. Brown is also contributing a chapter in the soon-to-be published book that brings together business, spiritual and celebrity figures for their personal prescriptions on achievement. Brown currently resides in Pickerington, Ohio. She was born and raised in Martins Ferry. ALMEC International, known for improving internal communications in U.S. business, will be conducting diversity training for several Firststar bank offices around the country during the months of September and October. On September 19-20 ALMEC conducted diversity training at Firststar locations in Sioux City and Spencer, Iowa. On October 11 ALMEC visited the Des Moines, Iowa Firststar location. On October 16 Columbus' Firststar had diversity training sessions scheduled and October 23 and 31 Firststar in Davenport, Iowa will receive diversity training. Diversity training is conducted for businesses by ALMEC International and tailored to a company's specific needs. To help define a company's needs, an assessment is conducted first by ALMEC International. Examples of diversity issues can be gender, race or age (primary dimensions) or culture, income, religious beliefs, education, or military status (secondary dimensions). "The dimensions of diversity can vary from one department to another or from one location to another within the same city," said Alison Brown, president and principal consultant of ALMEC International. Brown said, "Diversity issues can even be generational. If you have employees hired right out of high school or college and they work with more senior employees, the groups may have a different - which is either real or perceived - work ethic and definition of professionalism. As with any diversity issue conflict can be the end result." Brown added, "The word 'diversity' makes some people resistant when they first come into the training session. Many participants think they already know what the course content is and may not be open to diversity training. But what I've seen through our training is participants begin to accept that the training is educational and look at it as a learning experience. By the end of the training participants understand the impact of handling diversity positively. They know if they learn to work with others' differences this will increase productivity in the workplace." The training programs are designed to deal with not only internal but external challenges. Brown says, "If a business can successfully manage diversity in the workplace, ultimately employee satisfaction increases and you improve the bottom line, so you can see why this training is invaluable." The number of diversity training sessions conducted by ALMEC International has been steadily increasing since the company formed in 1995. Since 1998, ALMEC International diversity training sessions have doubled. ALMEC International is scheduled to continue to conduct diversity training through the end of this year for Firststar Bank locations across the United States. Other Columbus businesses that have taken advantage of ALMEC International diversity training include the American Red Cross of Greater Columbus. ALMEC International conducts training on workplace diversity, teambuilding, leadership, customer service and supervision. ALMEC International is located at P.O. Box 420, Pickerington, Ohio. Find ALMEC International on the web at www.almec.com. Brown's e-mail address is alison@almec.com and the ALMEC International fax number is 614-755-9819. More...