Accounting Research Workshop Series

Effective project management is about more than hitting deadlines. It's about delivering results that align with stakeholder needs, managing risk, and driving team accountability. This hands-on, Professional Edge training introduces foundational project management tools and mindsets through a dynamic, scenario-based learning experience.

Whether you're aiming for a career in consulting, operations, marketing, tech, or entrepreneurship, learning to analyze a project and develop an actionable plan is a standout skill that employers value across industries.  

What to Expect

• Live scenario walkthrough: Analyze a real-world inspired case study and contract to uncover the key milestones, stakeholders, and risks.  
• Interactive mock interviews: Step into the role of a project team member and engage with a simulated Project Executive Sponsor to practice stakeholder engagement and requirement gathering.  
• Team-based planning: Collaborate with your peers to synthesize documentation and interviews into a complete high-level project plan.  
• Presentation and peer feedback: Present your project plan, justify your decisions, reflect on your approach, and receive instructor feedback.  

What You'll Gain

• Analytical skills: Learn how to extract key deliverables, timelines, and risks from contracts and documentation.  
• Stakeholder mapping: Build a visual stakeholder map that identifies priorities, influence, and communication needs.  
• Project structuring: Translate ambiguous information into high-level project goals, tasks, and dependencies.  
• Risk management: Anticipate potential challenges and design mitigation strategies before they derail progress.  
• Team presentation experience: Practice articulating your plan with confidence—just like you would with a client or project sponsor.  
• Portfolio-ready output: Leave with a professional-quality high-level project plan and reflection you can reference in interviews or future projects. No matter what field you intend to go into, the ability to plan and execute effectively will help you lead with impact and credibility.  

Schedule

• Friday, January 30, 9:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. (in-person)
• Friday, February 6, 9:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. (in-person)

Participants who attend both days of this program and fulfill all requirements are eligible to earn a Project Management Essentials microcredential. This credential is perfect for showcasing your skills on LinkedIn and other platforms, offering tangible proof of your newly acquired competencies.  

About the Instructor

Brian Ikei is a seasoned technology executive and digital transformation strategist with a track record of leading complex, high-impact initiatives across higher education and global enterprise. From managing a CRM modernization at the University of Oregon Foundation to driving large-scale tech programs for The Walt Disney Company at Accenture, Brian is known for building high-performing, resilient teams that thrive in fast-paced, mission-critical environments.

Learn the key principles of being a neuro-inclusive leader in today's and tomorrow's working environment while exploring leadership outside of traditional hierarchy structures. Develop skills to understand and respect different ways of thinking, and gain insights into how diverse perspectives strengthen organizational outcomes.

This Professional Edge training provides a deep dive into intersectionality and examines how identity influences people's experiences at work. You will understand the importance of psychological safety at work through the lens of trauma-informed principles and discover what makes a workplace psychologically safe for all team members.

Throughout the training, you will learn to assess different business scenarios for inclusive or exclusive policies and environments, developing the analytical skills needed to identify areas for improvement.  

Why Participate

• You are looking to build and strengthen your ability to lead and support others in a rapidly changing and growing digital workplace.  
• You are interested in reflecting on your identity, how it may vary from others and what privilege and oppression can look like in the workplace.  
• You are interested in learning how your past experiences and behavior can support or detract from the psychological safety of your work environment.  

What You'll Gain

At the end of this training, you'll be able to:

• Recognize and appreciate neurodiversity as the natural variation in the way people think, feel and experience the world and understand these differences are not deficits.  
• Foster workplace environments that embrace neurodiversity through inclusive policies, practices, and physical/digital environments.  
• Understand as formal or informal leader, that there is no singular "ideal leader" and that there are many ways to lead.  
• Build more compassionate, trusting spaces through an understanding of how trauma impacts our understanding of self and others.  
• Recognize the nuance of intersectionality in the workplace and understand that neuroidentity is only one aspect of how marginalization and privilege can be present in the workplace.  

Schedule

• Week 1: Friday, February 6, 1:00–3:00 p.m.
• Week 2: Friday, February 13, 1:00–3:00 p.m.
• Week 3: Friday, February 20, 1:00–3:00 p.m.
• Week 4: Friday, February 27, 1:00–3:00 p.m.

Participants who attend all sessions of this program and fulfill all requirements are eligible to earn a Neuroinclusive Leadership microcredential.

This credential is perfect for showcasing your skills on LinkedIn and other platforms, offering tangible proof of your newly acquired competencies.  

About the Instructors

Graham Hulbert (he/him) is a mechanical engineer whose early career was spent as a continuous improvement leader in the manufacturing and supply chain industry. He later transferred his love of problem solving into the world of business process design and software implementation. He founded Tula Consulting to showcase the strengths of neurodivergent thinkers and help build more neuroinclusive environments at work.

Vo Vo (they/them) explores support strategies and models of community care within a post-traumatic social landscape, focusing on the resilience of BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+ and disabled communities. They are editor of an internationally renowned publication, speaker, educator, curator, artist and musician who has exhibited and toured in countries around the world.

Kino Crooke (he/him) is a mental health therapist specializing in crisis response and mental health stabilization during and following significant adverse life events. He works in Vancouver, Washington and Portland, Oregon, both in the community and within a behavioral health hospital and emergency room.

Laura Nichols (she/her) is a mental health therapist and manager for crisis intervention specialists working within a psychiatric emergency room in Portland, Oregon. She runs Courageous Conversations and teaches classes on health equity and anti-racism. She is an adjunct professor in the Lewis and Clark Graduate School of Counseling.

Already mastered the fundamentals of relationship-based selling? Transform your sales fundamentals into strategic, client-ready expertise during this Professional Edge training. Take your skills to the next level with the Intermediate Sales training program, a hands-on, scenario-driven experience that transforms foundational knowledge into applied expertise.

This training is ideal for students preparing for roles in sales, marketing, consulting, or entrepreneurship who want to move beyond theory to practice the kind of advanced communication, persuasion, and problem-solving that define top-performing professionals. Designed for participants who have completed Sales Essentials, this program challenges you to think strategically, communicate persuasively, and close confidently.  

Prerequisite Training: Sales Essentials

To participate in this training, you must have completed the Sales Essentials training program and earned the microcredential.

If you are registered for the Sales Essentials training this term, you may register for this program concurrently, pending successful completion of Sales Essentials prior to the start of Intermediate Sales.  

Why Participate

In this 8-hour, two-day program, you'll deepen your understanding of the sales process through interactive simulations, roleplays, and peer collaboration. You'll learn how to define an ideal customer profile, conduct effective discovery conversations, and tailor value propositions that resonate with specific decision-makers. You'll also create and deliver a professional solution pitch deck and practice overcoming common objections using industry-informed tactics.

Through realistic, technology-enhanced exercises, you'll refine your ability to think on your feet, read your audience, and position solutions that drive results.  

What You'll Gain

• Earn a marketable skills microcredential: Advance your professional toolkit by earning the Intermediate Sales microcredential from the Lundquist College of Business, proof of your ability to engage in complex sales scenarios with strategy and confidence.  
• Build strategic sales competence: Develop advanced skills across the full sales cycle, including defining customer profiles, crafting value propositions, creating solution pitches, and closing the sale with actionable follow-ups.  
• Practice sales scenarios: Engage in realistic discovery conversations, handle objections effectively, and adapt your messaging to different client roles and needs.  
• Create a portfolio of applied work: Leave with tangible artifacts—including an ideal customer profile, discovery transcript, value proposition, pitch deck, and action plan—that demonstrate your readiness for client-facing sales roles.  

Schedule

• Week 1: Friday, February 13, 9:00–1:00 p.m. (in-person)
• Week 2: Friday, February 20, 9:00–1:00 p.m. (in-person)

Participants who attend both days of this program and fulfill all requirements are eligible to earn a digital microcredential.

This portable, verifiable credential can be shared on platforms like LinkedIn, showcasing your expertise to potential employers and offering tangible proof of in-demand competencies.  

About the Instructors

Jason Ford has more than 30 years of experience and a notable track record in assessing and recommending complex technology solutions and products across various sectors, including Fortune 500 companies, the public sector, healthcare, education, and small and medium businesses.

Craig Tiffany is a seasoned enterprise sales professional with more than 25 years of experience at both large corporations and small companies. He specializes in building strategic relationships and driving growth in complex business-to-business environments. He also serves on the CASA of Clackamas County board of directors, advocating for children in foster care.