Jonakan O'Steen
M.A. Organizational Psychology, 2007
 Before he decided to come to Antioch, Jonakan O'Steen researched many graduate programs over several years.
"I wanted and needed to continue working while going to school, so Antioch's program allowed me to do just that," says O'Steen, national education and leadership development director for Equity Residential.
While flexibility was key, it wasn't the only factor that brought him to Antioch.
"My primary driver to attend Antioch was to broaden what I knew about organizations and their people. I was specifically curious about individual and team effectiveness through the lens of leadership development.
"I know so much more about group and social construction and I am better at helping groups make meaning of their work and team life."
"I got much more than I bargained for and quickly moved from a theoretical idea of change and leadership into living an experience that modeled change and leadership. It is Antioch's culture, cohort design and action learning model of turning theory into practice that fosters such dynamic and powerful transformation," he says, adding, "I would go back again and again!"
Ask him about the faculty in the Center for Creative Change and he says he thoroughly enjoyed all of his interactions with faculty.
"Shana Hormann was my adviser and cohort facilitator. She was open to feedback and allowed our group to experience their process of development and transformation," O'Steen describes. "However, I have outstanding moments in mind with all of my key faculty such as Don Comstock, Sadru Boga, Farouk Seif and Barbara Spraker. Antioch has a powerhouse of talent!"
His best memory relates to his change project, which involved telling the living history of Seattle's Bailey-Boushay house, the nation's first HIV/AIDS residential facility.
"We started by interviewing founders, staff and residents and then the project culminated with a public premiere of a documentary we created to tell their story. At the event, people came together that had not done so in 20 years. To watch them reconnect, make meaning and share their story was an experience I will never forget.
"The Living History (we created) continues to live. It has been inducted into the Seattle International Film Festival and has won two Telly awards, one for outstanding documentary and one for history/biography," he says.
O'Steen remains in his director role with his employer.
"However, how I do my job has changed," he notes. "I know so much more about group and social construction and I am better at helping groups make meaning of their work and team life. I also have continued to work with other nonprofit and private organizations in order to help them achieve greater team synergy and group transformation. I love what I do!"
Here's what he tells prospective students: "Antioch is outstanding as an institution of higher learning, but most of the learning doesn't come from the 'institution.' You learn about yourself and others through practice and your cohort. It is a rich, meaningful and sometimes painful process as you grow and transform, yet, worth every growing pain!"
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