Tuana Dowan

Tuana Dowan is an instructional designer, trainer, and consultant specialized in self-development. She is the author of "THENA-Fight for the Future". She holds a B.Sc in Sociology with minors in Psychology and Education, and an M.B.A. degree.

After completing her M.B.A., she started working as a consultant on Quality Management Systems. She considered the Total Quality Management (TQM) a very effective tool that promised five-star results in producing successful organizations. Unfortunately, a few months working with people from all levels in different organizations taught her a lesson: People were not as enthusiastic as she was for the quality applications. Almost no one was willing to participate actively; motivation level, leadership skills, teamwork, and initiative were poor.

At that point, she started working on a self-improvement model that would guide people in becoming happier, healthier, more successful, more productive, and more competitive in life. She developed the Personal Quality Management (PQM) model in 1997. PQM was a structured system for self-improvement with twelve components: self-knowledge, accepting change, setting up goals, positive energy, self-esteem development, time management, creativity, effective communications, conflict resolution, stress management, motivation, and teamwork. From then on, she assumed the responsibility of helping organizations in developing their organizational structures by implementing OD methodologies and TQM principles, and training the human resources in soft skills by putting the PQM fundamentals into effect.

Coming from a positive background, and actively practicing the self-development principles along the way has contributed tremendously in

solving the challenging situations she encountered in her life, as well as successfully mentoring and coaching other people.

Tuana Dowan lives in Cupertino, California, and writes the second half of her self-development journey.