About this user
As founder and director of Humor Quest, I am passionate in my quest to find and promote humor research while sharing resources so that individuals and organizations may increase their joy, decrease their stress and become more productive. My special interest is to search for the links between learning, humor and fun.
Mary Kay keeps looking for humor! She continues to find it while conducting workshops that link laughter and learning. She advocates a focus on healthy humor practice using the positive energy of humor or "humergy" to promote a balanced lifestyle and reduce stress. In addition to humor and stress management, Mary Kay has conducted sessions on brain research, leadership, ADHD, group facilitation, parenting and mentoring.
As an educator who has taught kindergarten through college level classes, Mary Kay enjoys learners of all ages. She has a B.S. in Education, an M.S. in Adult Education and certification in Education Administration. Her position at KIDS, a regional office of education in northern Illinois, gave her the opportunity to work directly with over 200 schools with the responsibility for providing staff development to meet the state certification standards for administrators in her region. She served on the Illinois NCLB implementation team and conducted train the trainer sessions for the State Board of Education on school improvement and mentoring.
Mary Kay currently serves on the Board of Directors as well as membership chair for the international AATH (Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor) She was a member of the education research panel at their recent conference.
For over 15 years she has been providing keynote presentations and breakout workshop sessions for numerous agencies and districts nationwide. Her recent book, "Using Humor to Maximize Learning; Exploring Links between Positive Emotions and Education" is the text for humor studies courses at several universities.
Age
65
Hometown
Peoria, Illinois
Country
United States
Occupation
Education, teaching, consultant
Companies
KIDS, Regional Office of Education Kishwaukee College
Schools
Northern Illinois University
Interests
Humor, Education, Brain Research
