About Gabriele Educational Materials & Systems

For over 40 years, GEMS has served the education community. The company’s initial emphasis was on English Language Learners, and their first publication, “The Verb Chart Bulletin Board,” was selected for the LAUSD Secondary Audiovisual Recommended Materials List. Over the years, GEMS widened its purpose to serve the whole school community and provide systemic solutions to meet the increasing complexity and changing needs of schools, workplaces, and society. For the last 20 years, GEMS has been developing an exciting program, the GEMS RoundTable. With the RoundTable, GEMS aims to help schools and workplaces as they seek more effective ways to enrich, renew and transform their organizations while improving participant learning, performance and satisfaction. Today GEMS clients are national and international.

Executive Director Sue Gabriele has over 40 years experience in the education field. After studying school organization theory at UCLA and language, literacy and learning at USC, Sue received her Ph.D. in “Human Science: Social and Institutional Change” from Saybrook Research Institute underpinned by a theoretical framework of systems thinking, systemic change and systemic renewal. Prior to her graduate work, Sue spent 20 years as a classroom teacher in elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as junior colleges. Her years in LAUSD included responsibilities as mentor teacher, ESL and Foreign Language department chair, and teacher trainer. Sue also taught educational research methods at Chapman University in Manhattan Beach. Sue is also a certified instructor of Thomas Gordon’ Effectiveness Training, Inc., focusing on Personal and Professional Effectiveness, No-Lose Conflict Resolution, and Teacher Effectiveness Training.

GEMS is available for workshops, coaching and training. We can provide one of our existing programs, customizing it with you for your purposes. We can also do a needs assessment of your organization with you, and design a program drawing from our combined expertise and all of our programs.

Or, you may simply want to add a monthly 30/30* RoundTable to your existing structures and procedures! *30/30 = A session lasts 30 minutes; Everyone present (e.g., 30 people) is offered equal time to speak.

Our RoundTable Designer and Developers

Sue Gabriele conceptualized the GEMS RoundTable in 1992. It builds on her teaching experience, education and management theory, and research into effective learning organizations and communities of practice. She continues to develop and evolve the GEMS RoundTable with users for users’ own purposes in education, business, government and other communities.

Our RoundTable Champions


Brian Hilton	Sandra Rumble	Erynne Hart	Anthony Markovich	Cecilia Haskins	Mike Pafford	Gary Smith

Peter Tuddenham	Kathy O'Donnell	Laura Braeunig	Robert Jordan	Damilare Olumeko	Jawahar Bhalla	Chris Browne

Brian Hilton is associate professor in international business strategy in the Nottingham University Business School in Ningbo, China. He has been RoundTable participant/ researcher since 1999 during the week-long annual conference of the International Society for the Systems Sciences. He utilizes it with his students and also with peers in other professional societies. To contact him: brian.hilton@nottingham.edu.cn

Sandra Rumble is a 4th grade teacher at Pennekamp School, Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles County, California. In 2000, Sandra was a participant/ researcher in the first RoundTable study in K-12 schools. Sandra has been developing the RoundTable in her classrooms and meetings ever since. Her contact information is: srumble@mbusd.org

Erynne Hart, like Sandra, is also a 4th grade teacher at Pennekamp School in Manhattan Beach. Erynne joined us in 2009. She has been holding RoundTables in her classroom ever since. Sandra and Erynne have also introduced RoundTables in faculty meetings, grade-level meetings, and school district meetings. Erynne can be reached at: ehart@mbusd.org

Anthony Markovich co-coordinates a monthly RoundTable for professionals, hosted by the Los Angeles chapters of the Association for Talent Development (ATDLA) and International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI-LA). Anthony also teaches at Loyola Marymount University where he facilitates RoundTables to help his students deal with controversial topics. To contact him: anthonymarkovich @gmail.com

Cecilia Haskins co-coordinates daily morning Systems Thinking RoundTables at annual conferences of the International Council of Systems Engineers (INCOSE), which are hosted by the INCOSE Systems Science Working Group (SSWG). She has been doing this twice a year, during both the INCOSE IW (International Workshop) and the INCOSE IS (International Symposium) since 2016, To contact her:cecilia.haskins@ntnu.no

Mike Pafford, Past President of the Chesapeake Chapter of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), has been introducing GEMS Systems Thinking RoundTables in Middle and High School STEM and STEAM related events (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) in Virginia and Maryland since 2017: One format for students, and one for adults (i.e., parents and teachers). Contact him: mepafford@verizon.net

Gary Smith is Senior Expert Systems Engineer at Airbus Group in the United Kingdom. In 2015, he became committed to GEMS RoundTables at the annual conference of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS), the International Council of Systems Engineering (INCOSE), and the International Federation of Systems Research (IFSR). Ever since, he uses them in his workshops. Contact him: gary.r.smith@airbus.com

Peter Tuddenham is President of the College of Exploration, in service since 1991. During his 2018-2019 presidency of the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS), he adapted the GEMS RoundTable to use in weekly videoconferences with ISSS members. The RoundTable also inspired the format for his group workshops and sessions at the weeklong ISSS 2019 annual conference. Contact him: Peter@coexploration.net

Kathleen P. O'Donnell is a GEMS RoundTable facilitator with ISPI SoCal. Her perspective builds on experience as Manager, Learning Innovation and Architecture at Teradata, a leading provider of database and analytics-related software, products, and services, as well as long-time consulting in instructional design for high-tech companies. She received her Ph.D. at the University of Cailfornia. Contact her:kathyodonnell@icloud.com

Laura Braeunig is responsible for development, management, and administration of Certification and Testing programs for the Medical Gas, Plumbing, Pipefitting, HVACR, Fire Protection and Saftey Systems and related industries. Learning about the GEMS RoundTable at ISPI So Cal and in Sue's course in Systemic Leadership, Laura introduced a weekly RoundTable at work with her colleagues. Contact her:laura@nationalitc.com

Robert Jordan is employed by the federal government as an instructional designer. He was a student of Dr. Sue Gabriele's "Systemic Leadership" course where he experienced systems thinking RoundTables. He has inccorporated RoundTables into leadership development programs and intends to continue introducing them in other types of training. To contact him: RobertAJordan@pm.me.

Damilare Olumeko is human resource manager at Insight Redefini in Lagos, Nigeria. Since 2020, he has been participating in GEMS RoundTables monthly though the Intenational Society for Professional Improvement (ISPI SoCal). He brought Dr. Gabriele's course "Systemic Leaderdhip" to Lagos to experience with colleagues. He regularly uses the GEMS RoundTable with staff at his workplace. Contact him: damilareolumeko@gmail.com

Jawahar Bhalla (JB) is a passionate Systems professional and current president of INCOSE's Australian chapter (SESA) who continues to contribute to the understanding and advancement of Systems Thinking, Systems Engineering and Modelling & Simulation locally, regionally, and globally. JB has been participating and delivering RoundTables at INCOSE and SESA events since 2018 and can be reached at jawaharb2413@gmail.com.

Chris Browne is a senior lecturer at The Australian University. His R & D focus is literacy and systems thinking for complex problems. Since 2017, he has been participating in and more recently coordinating RoundTables at the International Council of Systems Engineering (INCOSE) and Systems Engineering Society of Australia (SESA) events. He regularly uses the format with students and staff. Contact him: Chris.Browne@snu.edu.au.