Ottawa Valley Outaouais Chapter's Events Calendar

Presentation Title

Lunch & Learn | Finding the Function in Dysfunction: Trauma’s Impact on Project Management Leadership

Session Abstract

Many project managers carry stories of early adversity that quietly shape how they lead, communicate, and respond under pressure. This session examines how formative experiences — including childhood trauma and other Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) — can influence Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and leadership behaviours in meaningful ways. 

Participants will explore how survival instincts often mirror project leadership competencies: navigating ambiguity, anticipating conflict, reading stakeholder cues, and staying resilient when demands intensify. By connecting ACE research with EQ frameworks and the science of Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG), this session reframes trauma not as a limitation, but as a source of depth, authenticity, empathy, and adaptive strength. 

The goal is not to pathologize the past, but to show how trauma-informed awareness can help project professionals build healthier teams, strengthen communication, and lead with clarity and compassion — even in high-stakes environments.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Recognize how formative experiences influence leadership style, emotional intelligence, and decision-making under pressure.

PDUs

• Power Skills - 1 PDU

Speaker Mark Rozner

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrozner/

Mark Rozner has over four decades of leadership experience in highly visible and complex health care, financial services, and corporate support organizations. A veteran of the United States Air Force, Mark served in the medical field, and in the process, gained insights into holistic patient care and seeing first-hand the effect of streamlining patient processes. Combining his love for technology and passion for healthcare, Mark went on to work for national and international software vendors, implementing clinical and financial healthcare information systems. His roles evolved from subject matter expert to project manager, to program/portfolio manager, and ultimately to PMO director. He founded Sunrise Path LLC in 2018, a continuation of his passion for transforming how healthcare is delivered and shaping the craft of project management. Now semi-retired, he dedicates much of his time and energy into transferring his knowledge to future generations through mentoring and regularly contributing to online communities.  His current focus is development of a book aimed at showing how illness and death affects our own perspectives on life and living. Topics in the book include how to be a caregiver and advocate for loved ones as they move through morbidity and mortality, working with their friends and families to ensure that their wishes are followed, and ultimately, how to do for others without losing yourself in the process.