Joanne Osmond serves on the Governing Board and Executive Board of the Special Education District of Lake County (SEDOL) and served as the President of the SEDOL Executive Board for three years. Joanne has been involved with SEDOL for thirty years first as the mother of a daughter with Down Syndrome and more recently as the SEDOL representative from the Lake Villa District 41 School Board. She strives for a balance between quality education and fiscal accountability to the stakeholders.

Joanne is her local Board representative to SEDOL’s (Special Education District of Lake County) Governing Board since 2005 and a member of SEDOL Executive Committee since 2007. She serves on several committees including Finance, Building (a new facility for profoundly handicapped), Technology, and Negotiations. SEDOL’s mission has changed significantly over the years. When the organization was first formed, SEDOL instructional programs were provided for virtually all children with disabilities from our member districts. As a result of the Regular Education Initiative and the emphasis on inclusion programming, SEDOL has progressively moved toward encouraging districts to provide more inclusive programs that are closer to students’ homes and their home school districts. SEDOL continues to support inclusive education environments where appropriate, while recognizing the need for a full continuum of educational service options tailored to the unique needs of individual children and their families.

Joanne Osmond worked with the Illinois SBDC at the College of Lake County providing training and mentoring for entrepreneurs who want to start or grow their business from 2003 – 2018. Market Drafters was born because she listened to her clients and realized that start-ups did not have the resources to have a web presence. She provided web design and web hosting that allowed clients to maintain their own web sites. Maket Drafters is no longer in business, however she still provides entrepreneurs with web and social media support through her SBDC Counseling.

In addition to providing counseling on developing a web presence, Joanne has expertise in marketing, human relations, training,  customer service, technology, basic business finances, and business organizations based primarily on her over fifteen years of experience coaching clients from all walks of life.

Joanne has assists in planning and hosting the Small Business Success in Lake County conference that provided small business owners with the latest in growing their business.

Beginning in 2002, Joanne volunteered at the Illinois SBDC (Small Business Development Center at College of Lake County). She was on the Advisory Board, was an advisor, facilitator, organizer of entrepreneur events, designs courses, and represents SBDC and College at Lake County events. She developed ten online e-training classes to augment classroom train when enrollment declined in classroom workshops. She was a major contributor to Small Business Success in Lake County an annual forum for small business owners as an organizer, presenter, and web designer. She provided webinars to entrepreneurs on topics relevant to their business needs.

Joanne served as a counselor and presenter on behalf of the center assisting small business owners across Lake County in their efforts to start and grow their businesses. She was frequently requested to comment for newspaper articles in their business section. She was asked to present a marketing segment for the online version of NxLeveL training for entrepreneurs.

Small Business Spoken Here, a DBA for The Vision Tree, Ltd. was formed to provide online and blended training for the Lake County Community. The program was adopted by the State of Illinois, then expanded to include Business Advisor Certification.

Lake County ATHENA PowerLink

She was a founding member of Lake County ATHENA PowerLink Governing Board which selects women business owners who were mentored as they grew their businesses to the next level. Over the years she worked with the selection process and assisted in facilitating five WBO and their panels. With the SBDC and the College of Lake County, Joanne was the Co-chair for ATENA PowerLink, providing women with boards and support to take their business to the next level.

Joanne Osmond served as the Director for the Lake Division representing the Lake County School Boards at the Illinois Association of School Boards for ten years prior to her election as the Vice-President of the IASB in November 2015 and President in 2017. Joanne current serves the IASB as Immediate Past-President.

Joanne Osmond is committed to excellence in education from early childhood through college. She has a long track record of judicious spending and fiscal responsibility while focusing on the whole child. She dedicates effort to bringing educational equality to a diverse population.

Whatever Joanne’s involvement in a specific program, leadership position, board, or executive committee; her talent has been to make sure that it’s run better, more productive, more insightful, and more conscientious after she has left.  There are good leaders but few such as Joanne, who have left such a trail of total instruction.

She has served as an officer of the Lake Division of the IASB for 20 years and elected to serve eight years as the Director representing all Lake County School Districts on the state association board. She currently serves on the IASB Executive Committee and Immediate Past-President of the organization. She is a frequent presenter at the IASB annual conference in Chicago and has presented at the National Association of School Boards Conference. Since its inception in 1913, IASB has a long and proud tradition of serving public school leaders. Today, 98 percent of Illinois public school districts are members of the Association. Their service to Illinois districts and nearly 6,000 elected school board members is what IASB is all about. The vision of the Illinois Association of School Boards is excellence in local school governance supporting quality public education. Read more about our Vision and Mission Statement. In our effort to fulfill that vision and mission, IASB staff has adopted Staff Standards, or in other words, what our members have a right to expect from us.

Joanne has taken the old Boy Scout concept of “leave the earth better than we found it” and applied it to all aspects of her life. Whatever Joanne’s involvement in a specific program, leadership position, board, or executive committee; her talent has been to make sure that it’s run better, more productive, more insightful, and more conscientious after she has left. There are good leaders but few such as Joanne, who have left such a trail of inspired instruction.

Joanne has been an adult Scout Leader in the Boy Scouts of American since 1979 and served on the Council Executive Board after serving as a Council Vice-President of Membership for 12 years. Currently, she services as the Cub Scout Committee Chairman for her Church Pack. In 2010 she was the Wood badge Course Director for the record breaking Northeast Illinois Council course. She represents the local Council at the National Boy Scout Meeting. She is a Brotherhood member of the Order of the Arrow. Joanne is on the Camp Inspection team which monitors Boy Scout camps in the Central Region and a member of the LDS Relations Committee. Joanne has held several Scouting positions including: Den Leader (1980 – 1982, 1982 – 1985), Cub Scout Trainer (1982 – 1992, 2001 – present), Director of Cub Scout Day Camp for Northeast Illinois Council (1986), Chairman Cub Scout PowWow (1985), National Cub Scout Committee (1983-1987), National Cub Scout Sports Programs (1983-1985); Unit Commissioner (2000 – 2007); Council Executive Board (2005 – present), Committee Chairman (2017 – present). Both of her sons are Eagle Scouts. Joanne Osmond has been, and still remains a driving force behind the success of the local Boy Scouts of America program. Her vision is to take the scouting opportunity scouts in underserved areas of the Council including communities that are primarily black and Hispanic. The programs established here gained attention from National BSA professions and continues to grow in numbers and quality.

As a Cubmaster she planed the Cub Scout meetings and coordinated the leaders in ensuring that all boys advance. She organized events including Pinewood Derbies not only for her Pack but for other local Packs. She toke the boys to Day Camp for a week each summer and planed other hikes and field trips. Her primary objective was to instill values and ethical decision making in all boys with a focus on character development, citizenship training,  and mental and physical fitness.

What sets her apart from over 4,100 other registered adult volunteers in the Council is her leadership by example and her ability to serve as an outstanding role model to other women, youth, and adult volunteers throughout our diverse Scouting demographics in Lake and Cook Counties in Chicago. In the summer of 2011 she went backpacking in Northern Michigan for a week with a group of Venturers (boys and girls over age 14) teaching leadership skills. Whether it’s working with the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, career education for high school-aged youth, or our non-traditional scout reach programs for special needs youth or at-risk areas, Joanne has a way of touching everyone’s lives and giving them a vision of how Scouting can build character and ethical decision-making skills.

She is instrumental in assisting volunteers and staff in creating very unique programs to reach new markets, such as in-school programs for underprivileged youth and starting new units in Hispanic communities. Joanne commissioned a study by Boise State University to determine the viability of the program. The study not only confirmed that the program was meeting the objectives but was making a difference in the communities.

In 2006 Joanne wrote two training manuals for LDS Scout Leaders – “LDS Position Specific Cub Scout Training” and “LDS Position Specific EYOS Training”. In 2010 with the Council Training Chairman, Felicia Brandt, Joanne created online Cub Scout Training for LDS Scout Leaders. In 2011 the manuals were updated and a new web site was developed to provide the information to all LDS Scout leaders. Daily

In 2005 Joanne Osmond was asked to serve as the NEIC Vice President for Cub Scouting. The Council Board reorganized in 2009 and the position was eliminated, she was then asked to serve as the Vice President for Membership. Joanne has continued to serve Scouting in the Northeast Illinois Council as Course Director for Wood Badge Course C-03-10. Michael Fries commented “I have had the honor to serve with Joanne on many Wood Badge Courses and she represents the highest qualities for Scouting. Joanne is the recipient of the Boy Scout’s coveted Silver Beaver Award.” In 2012, Joanne served as the Council representative to the BSA National meeting, served on the Executive Search Committee to select a new Council Executive, and served as the Council VP of Membership until 2017 when she stepped down after twelve years of board service.

She served the community through her volunteer work with Lake Villa Township by assisting in the Annual Job Fair, Lake Villa Historical Society, Civil War Encampment, and Arts Festival. Joanne was the Chairman of the Lake Villa Township 5K to raise money for local youth organizations.

Joanne is on the board of directors of her local Chamber of Commerce supporting at home businesses, the Women in Business and represents lake Villa District 41. In her Church, she has served many roles over the years including the president of the Women’s Organization and the children’s programs. From 2000 – 2004 she served as the Stake Primary President (responsible for youth programs in twelve Churches in Lake and McHenry County), 2004 – 2008 she was the Stake Public Affairs Director for Chicago Area Council responsible for Church communications / events. She has served on the LDS Relations Committee representing scouts from multiple stakes, as a Cubmaster, Merit Badge Counselor, and member of the Troop Committee. Currently she is the Primary President responsible for the religious instruction of children between the age of 18 months and twelve years old.

Other projects / events Joanne worked on over the past ten years included: A Safe Place Capital Campaign 2001 – 2003, WEDO (Women Economic Development Opportunity) Annual Event 2004 – 2008, YWCA (2001 – 2003), and Lake County Senior Expo 2009 (Panel / Presenter).

She is a public speaker and writer. Since 1999 Joanne has spoken at conferences in Florida, Texas, Illinois, California, Wisconsin, Canada, and London. Besides books on Scouting and Business she wrote a book of stories about Chomedy her daughter who was born with Down syndrome. She is currently working on a series of books for boys ages 8 – 11 to support the new learning standards. There is a need for books that a more complex in structure and are age appropriate in content.

Joanne not only gives of her time and talent to improve her community but she serves as role model to other aging women. She ran her third full marathon (26.2 miles) in June 2012 and has retired from marathon to concentrate on half-marathons and mountain trekking. In 2010 she hiked Machu Picchu and dreams one day to hike rim-to-rim-to-rim at the Grand Canyon.

“Start Strong. Grow Strong. Stay Strong.”

As Illinois Small Business Development Center advisors for over fifteen years, Joanne Osmond and Claudia Pannell helped hundreds of small business owners find their path to success. Offering one-on-one consulting targeted to small businesses and entrepreneurs, they are dedicated to providing the best advice and resources. They are trusted business partners offering expert advice on business plans and development, loan readiness, financial, marketing, and operations. They have facilitated a variety of business workshops to sharpen the entrepreneur’s skills and have developed their own courseware and workbooks for in-person classes before turning their focus to online training and counseling.

Their most successful initiative is the development of Dynamic Strategic Planning for Small Business Owners. More information is available at TheVisionTree.com.

Joanne Osmond and Claudia Pannell
Pannell holds an undergraduate degree in business and a MBA from the University of Dallas. Osmond received an undergraduate degree in education from Purdue University and an MBA from Webster University.

Joanne Osmond and Claudia Pannell  –  SmallBusinessSpokenHere@Gmail.com