Who We Are

About Bartell & Bartell, Ltd.

Our purpose at Bartell & Bartell, Ltd. is to help our clients realize their full organizational potential and increase their business performance.

We are leader in the creation and execution of leadership training, team building, and executive development. Over the past 40 years, we have worked with thousands of leaders and organizations across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Our services lay the foundation from which to unleash the potential in your people and optimize your organizational intelligence. Our passion is cultivating organizational health for our clients and partnering in their journey towards leadership excellence and peak performance.

Built on Innovation

Innovation has always formed the core of our products and services. Whether it’s our advanced assessment offerings, or our high impact leadership training and team development, we continually focus on the application of forefront techniques and technology. To continually build on this foundation of innovation, we operate an internal research center, Applos Technologies, dedicated to pioneering the fields of Orgopathy and Organizational Science. The indepth research and solutions from Applos allows Bartell to provide our clients with the most advanced products and services available.

Backed by Expertise

At Bartell we understand that to achieve sustainable success you need two essential elements – insight and expertise. You first need insight to accurately measure what is occurring, and second, you need expertise to understand the problem and implement the appropriate solution. This is where our forefront technologies, and the expertise of the Bartell team, combine to amplify the success of our clients. Data backed insights allow you to clearly identify any areas for improvement, while our expert consultants, with decades of experience, provide tangible solutions.

Our Team

R. Shawn Ishler
Executive Director

Shawn Ishler is the Executive Director of Bartell & Bartell Ltd.  Since joining the Bartell team in 1997, Shawn has presented to organizations throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.  He has worked with thousands of individuals and groups on various aspects of organizational studies, candidate assessments, Executive Developments, “Know Thy Self” Workshops, Team Alignments, and executive coaching engagements.  He is also a lead instructor in Leadership Flight School™.

Shawn’s pragmatic, hands-on approach to training and development uses down to earth examples and clear objectives. He challenges participants to set their own specific goals and to constantly seek continuous improvement both personally and professionally.  Shawn has developed a personal philosophy of “edutainment.” This blend of Bartell & Bartell, Ltd.’s solid professional development combined with Shawn’s magic and humor is designed to make the learning process a more enjoyable experience.

Shawn holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and French from the Pennsylvania State University and was also a premier Dale Carnegie Sales Leader, Instructor and Speaker prior to joining the Bartell team.  He was consistently ranked in the top 10 in the organization, which boasts 4,000 sales and training associates, ranking fourth in the world and second nationally for his sales, training, and public speaking skills in his final year with the organization.  These experiences give him expertise in coaching the success of individual contributors and building healthy and synergistic teams.

When Shawn is not serving our clients’ organizational development needs, you’ll most likely find Shawn and his wife, Darlene, cruising around the rolling hills of Pennsylvania on his Harley Davidson Motorcycle, or relaxing at home; playing the blues on his guitar.

Tara R. Arnold
Director of Business Development

Tara Arnold joined the Bartell team in 1994, as Director of Business Development and oversees Marketing, Sales, Contracting, and Project Management.  She serves as the central point of coordination between the senior consulting team, clients, and the assessment/diagnostic team.  Her specialty is in listening to the client’s needs and proposing an appropriate solution to unleash the potential in their people and optimize their organizational health.

Tara maintains a seamless interface from project design, to proposal preparation, through implementation and follow-up to ensure we fulfill all client expectations.  Serving our broad client base – from Fortune 100 Executives to public sector clients and fast-growth entrepreneurial start-ups, Tara enjoys nurturing excellent client relations and derives great joy in seeing leader’s lives touched and organizations substantially impacted by Servant Leadership and the Bartell brand.

Tara holds a dual major in Marketing and Management from the University of Richmond, E. Claiborne Robins School of Business, where she was named the 1993 Lyon Scholar of Marketing.  She designed and implemented a special marketing study for Philip Morris USA, and then worked in Sales Administration for Kaman Sciences Corporation, before joining the Bartell team.

When she’s not working with clients or staff, Tara enjoys spending time with her husband and three children, singing and playing the piano, or finding a rare moment to “be still” and appreciate the beauty of God’s creation.

Jared Detter, PsyD, MBA
Leadership Development Consultant

Jared Detter joined the Bartell Consulting Team as a Leadership Development Consultant in January 2022.

Prior to joining Bartell, Jared has worked in a variety of contexts since 2005, from being a military psychologist, a police psychologist, a trained hostage negotiator, and an organizational psychologist. He has worked with leaders in both the private and public sectors, from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. As a Clinical Psychologist, Jared is an expert on how people think and behave, which allows him to offer keen insights into the people side of organizations. He is on the editorial review board of the Consulting Psychology Journal, which helps shape the emerging research in the field of Consulting.

Jared holds a Master’s degree in Psychology, a Doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology, and a Master’s in Business Administration, with a dual focus on Management & Organizations and Entrepreneurship.

In his off time, Jared enjoys spending as much time as possible with his wife and three boys. He is also an avid reader and a huge fan of baseball.

Steve Lutz
Leadership Development Consultant

Steve Lutz, Leadership Development Consultant at Bartell & Bartell, Ltd., joined the Bartell team in November 2021.

Prior to joining Bartell, Steve served for twenty years in the faith-based non-profit space, which profoundly shaped his passion for helping people. Steve gravitates to innovation and entrepreneurship, starting and leading several organizations of his own. A three-time published author, he is an accomplished presenter and has spoken to audiences all over the country. Steve built a coaching and consulting practice focusing on leadership development and the adoption of new paradigms. He also created “Storyline,” an immersive personal development experience based on the classic elements of story. Steve thrives on helping clients see new levels of breakthrough in their professional and personal lives.

Steve holds a Master of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary and a B.A. in American Studies with Honors from Penn State University.

When Steve isn’t helping clients develop their leadership, he can be found making music, taking walks with his wife, and enjoying the roller coaster he built with his kids in their backyard.

Darryl A. Wahlstrom, PhD
Leadership Development Coach

Dr. Wahlstrom is an experienced leader in the field of leadership development, change management and organizational performance. Over the last 20 years, he has partnered with a wide variety of organizations to help clients identify and overcome critical roadblocks to improved performance so they can achieve their individual, team and organizational goals.

Darryl’s clients are diverse in their focus, industry, size and mission. They include well-known Fortune 50 companies such as Pfizer, Ford Motor Company, and J&J, as well as universities, nonprofits and private companies.

Building on decades of professional experience, Dr. Wahlstrom offers confidential and results-oriented assistance to executives, leaders, managers, business owners and work teams around the nation. He also harnesses the latest diagnostic and assessment tools to provide objective, reliable input for each client he serves.

Darryl received his coach certification training from the Gestalt International Study Center (GISC) and advanced certification in Organizational Development Human Resource Management (ODHRM) from Columbia University. Darryl is an active member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Dr. Wahlstrom earned his Ph.D. in Education at the University of Michigan, with a multi-disciplinary focus on organizational psychology and workforce development.

Erica Young Reitz
Leadership Development Specialist

Erica Young Reitz, Leadership Development Specialist at Bartell & Bartell, Ltd., joined the Bartell team in August 2023. With a passion for developing people and teams, Erica is a relationship-driven facilitator who loves creating and delivering engaging learning experiences.

Erica brings a 20+ year history of leadership influence within a variety of contexts, including community and faith-based non-profit sectors as well as higher education spaces. As someone who thrives on opportunities to innovate, Erica enjoys looking for gaps and finding creative solutions. From designing and delivering customized content to launching her own consulting and training practice, Erica’s entrepreneurial endeavors have delivered concrete results.

With an ability to combine compelling vision and practical application, Erica has worked with organizational leaders throughout the nation—levering her expertise to unleash their potential. Hundreds of leaders have benefited from the resources she has developed, and she has been invited to speak and train throughout the United States.

Erica holds a Master of Arts in Higher Education (MAHE) from Geneva College where her capstone research and writing received the recognition of the MAHE Scholarship Award. Her focus on the college-to-workplace/“real world” transition fueled her first book, After College, and her writing on the topic has appeared in numerous publications.

In her free time, Erica enjoys exploring the outdoors with her family, cooking and eating new foods, or curling up with a good novel.

Clara Tefft-Brodie
Leader of Solution Design

Clara Tefft-Brodie, Leader of Solution Design at Bartell & Bartell, Ltd., joined the Bartell team in June 2018, after her graduation from the Pennsylvania State University.

While a student, Clara designed her own course of study to allow her to focus on her passions of psychology and motivation research. Through the Penn State Leadership and Teams Research Lab, Clara helped conduct global research and designed training interventions to improve leadership and teamwork across cultures. Clara is particularly fascinated by work motivation, inspiring her to design a quantitative research study to find the connection between motivation, creativity, and workplace citizenship behaviors. She is driven to stay updated with the scientific community so that she can innovate new strategies for motivating workers in the 21st century.

Clara holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business-Psychology and a minor in Employment Relations.

When Clara isn’t looking into the latest management studies, she enjoys golfing with her husband, Liam, and taking her dogs, Moxie & Momo, on long walks along Wissahickon Creek.

Nathan Bartell
President

Nathan Bartell is the President of Bartell & Bartell, Ltd.  Dedicated to the Bartell mission, Nathan serves to guide the organization and lead its growth through helping our team deliver incredible client experiences. He likes to think of himself as “Head of Team Success” – ensuring that all Bartell team members have the resources and support they need to achieve their full potential, which enables them to best serve our clients.

Nathan is passionate about helping organizations achieve their full performance and potential through their people. For instance, his college research focused on creating a new measurement of innovation efficiency by calculating the ROI on company R&D investment – with the goal of increasing R&D team productivity. He draws on this passion for “people operations” to lead Bartell in helping organizations achieve exceptional performance and results.

Nathan joined Bartell in 2013, and is the second-generation at Bartell & Bartell, purchasing the business from Rod and Kathy Bartell in 2017. He works directly on building the assessment and technology function of Bartell, and partners with Shawn Ishler who leads Bartell’s consultation and support services functions.

Nathan received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Schreyer Honors College at the Pennsylvania State University, Summa Cum Laude, and has a minor in business.

Nathan lives in Lewisburg, PA with his wife Laura, and has hobbies that include playing the double bass, photography, hiking, and fitness. 

Kathy A. Bartell
Co-Founder and Director of Administrative Services

Kathy Bartell, Co-Founder, has worked with Bartell & Bartell, Ltd. since 1981.  Kathy has served over 500 clients in the public and private sector, conducting organizational diagnostics and assessment centers.  The knowledge and tools developed during these early years led to the many products and services which the company now provides.

In 1993, Kathy gave up full time client case load, to focus her efforts on the finances and corporate development of the business, as well as raising and home schooling her two sons.

Currently she is Director of Administrative Services and is very involved with the new product development of Know Thy Hire®, a powerful system for crafting customized interview questions so that clients know what to ask in an interview to ensure they are finding a good match.

Kathy holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Penn State University in the Administration of Justice.

Dr. Roderick J. Bartell, R.O.D.C.
Corporate Advisor, Founder

Dr. Rod Bartell is one of the pioneers in employee assessment profiling and organizational diagnostics (Orgopathy). Rod’s primary areas of expertise include Organizational Diagnostics and Development (OD), Organizational Triage (OTR), and Executive Leadership and Development.  He has over 40 years of experience working with complex organizations in their assessment and development.  Rod has worked with over 2,000 organizations in the public sector (small communities to large cities) and private sector (entrepreneurial start-ups to Fortune 100 companies), representing clients around the world.

Rod founded Bartell & Bartell, Ltd. and the Center for Executive Assessment and Development, he holds a B.S. from the College of Human Development, Pennsylvania State University;  Master of Public Administration, Institute of Public Administration, Pennsylvania State University, and Doctor of Education in Organizational Behavior and Development, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  He is a Registered Organizational Development Consultant (RODC), one of only 99 in the world, and a former active member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the American Arbitration Association (AAA).

Dr. Bartell’s focus has been on unleashing the potential in people, aligning teams for synergy, and maximizing the health and effectiveness of organizations. He is an executive coach and mentor to numerous executives and leaders, and is proud to be able to track their success. He also has been part of many “firsts” – including the identification of many organizational syndromes and the development of intervention templates designed for easy and predictable use by leaders.

Dr. Bartell has designed and developed numerous temperament, personality, and leadership assessment instruments. He is a principal in the design of organizational diagnostic instruments such as: the Executive Simulator® for the assessment and development of managers and executives, ODDIS® (Organizational Diagnostic and Development Intervention System), and Excellerator™. His latest developments include Know They Hire®, AMP™ (Attachment Motivation Performance), the Radiant Leadership™ 360, and TeamNav™. Rod is renowned for his interpretive and profiling expertise, systemic approach to organizational dynamics, and organizational architecture construction.  Rod continues to provide executive counsel and mentoring to clients and serves as a guest Instructor and Diagnostic Expert in Bartell’s own Leadership Flight School™.  His design of leadership protocols and templates continue to serve the more than 1,900 Leadership Flight School™ alumni over the last 15 years.

Dr. Bartell is a thought leader in Servant Leadership and his book, “Before the Call: The Communication Playbook,” is about a revolutionary communication template called MVP, a power tool for interpersonal success. His book has been described by readers as an “excellent read and very helpful tool!” Rod has also led a national effort to create an “organizational medicine” model for developing diagnostic instruments, establishing diagnostic methodologies, and establishing treatment protocols.  Rod is passionate about this evolving discipline, called Orgopathy, and established the Institute for Organizational Science in 2007. Amazingly, Rod finds the time to talk with anyone interested in Orgopathy when he is not enjoying playing his trombone!

Rod retired from full-time work in October 2020, but he remains on in an advisory capacity to the organization.