Experience and Qualifications

Please read my bio below or you can click here to see my CV.

Bio
Writer, speaker, leader and artist are some of the titles used to describe Dr. James A. Ballou, MA, ND, PhD.  Since 2001 James has been the leader of the education and training functions for Utah based nutritional supplement manufacturer Nutraceutical Corporation.  As one of the most prominent and well regarded supplement manufacturers in the nation, Nutraceutical has a vast program designed to educate consumers and the nearly 8000 retailers that sell the more than 3500 Nutraceutical products.  James Ballou leads the education efforts which encompass employee training, retail and consumer education and the company learning management system (LMS) - Nutraceutical University.  His area of responsibility also includes the company's Nutritional Product Help Line which handles more than 4000 calls each month from retailers and consumers around the world and staffed by nutrition professionals.  Nutraceutical has also charged James with overseeing domestic customer service operations which are responsible for processing more than $100MM in sales each year.  His professional life represents an important dimension of the former Iowa resident's life but there is much more to share.

James Ballou grew up in Davenport, Iowa in the 1970s and 1980s. At three, his mother abandoned the family leaving James and his two older brothers with their father who was deeply involved in criminal activity and drug use. In the small house located less than a quarter mile from the Mississippi River, the young boy learned to survive in the midst of drive-by shootings, illicit drug use, neglect and abuse of the most abhorrent nature. Surrounded by evil people the boy spent his formative years in misery and pain and was promised a future as bleak as his childhood. 

At 15 years old, James saw his life forever changed as the drug abuse, wreckless lifestyle and hard living caught up with his father who died soon after his 44th birthday.  His father's untimely death forced James to reunite in Salt Lake City, UT with his estranged mother who had lived a life similar to that of his father.  While living with his mother James met April West who shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him.  At 17 James moved out of his mother's house and following high school graduation he enlisted in the Coast Guard. 

The Coast Guard provided James with the structure he had lacked throughout his life enabling him to excel during his four and a half years of enlistment earning five promotions and a number of awards.  Following his Honorable Discharge James went on to complete a BSc in business administration and a MA in organizational management both from the University of Phoenix.  He then completed a PhD in Business Administration with a focus on Normative Reeducation from Century University in Albuquerque, NM and earned another doctorate (ND) this time in naturopathy from Clayton College of Natural Health in Birmingham, AL.

In 2008 Dr. Ballou published his first book titled Soul Survivor.  He wrote the book to share the experiences of his upbringing and to help people understand that who we are is who we choose to be. He stresses in the book that people are not victims of circumstance but have the wonderous ability to choose their own paths despite their circumstances. He has given a number of seminars and has been a guest on local radio discussing the subject of choice and overcoming childhood traumas and he is a regular speaker in the greater Salt Lake Valley. 

A prolific writer, Dr. Ballou has authored both published and unpublished works that he uses in his various professional capacities.  One such book is entitled Quantum Design and provides details for his instructional design system.  He created the system to help train subject matter experts, trainers and psychometricians about essential design concepts.  Other books include From Guppies to Sharks (A Guide to Surviving the Corporate Waters), Team Synergy and Normative Reeducation.  Dr. Ballou has also written countless white papers and training courses on a wide variety of subjects (please note this list is not exhaustive) Adult Learning Theory, Affirmative Action, Antioxidants, Business Management, Cold War Events, Communism, Constitutional Authority, Consumer Behavior, Criminal Justice, Differentiated Teaching Techniques, Distance Learning Approaches, eCommerce, Forensic Software Functionality, Economic Principles, Global Commerce, Individual and Organizational Cognition and Change, Instructional Design Concepts, Military Affairs, Organizational Behavior/Psychology, Product Promotion, Political Science, Pollution and the Environment, Project Management, Quality Business Practices, Representative Governments, Software Engineering, Telecommunications, UN policies and Work Group Function/Design.

As a graphic designer and sketch artist James is able to spend some of his time fulfilling his creative interests.  He is considered by many to be a top notch designer and is skilled in the use of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.  Using his sketch art as a starting point for many of his design pieces he has a knack for bringing a simple drawing into full color life that is reproducible in a digital environment.  Some of the digital elements that he has created have been especially important as support pieces for his training courses.  Many of the courses he has written in the last several years have required specific anatomical models that are used to illustrate important points in the training.  The ability to start with a hand drawn image and convert it to a color digital design has served other purposes as well.  James has created web presences for a number of local companies including his own web sites.

Of the many roles that James plays in his life he describes his most important as husband to April, his wife of nearly twenty years and of father to his four sons. James explains that "Because of my wife and my children I feel a great sense of purpose and belonging that I missed as a child.  They give so much to me and help fill me with desire and a drive to do well.  I am incapable of fully expressing how grateful I am for their love and for all of the help and support they give me."

His involvement in helping people make more informed choices is the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition and a testament to the positive outcomes of making right choices.  His favorite quote comes from former slave and scholar Booker T. Washington who penned a line that James finds both admirable and inspirational - "I have learnt that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed."  James works to embody the spirit of Washington's sentiment and takes on each of life's obstacles with the hope that he will set a positive example for his sons to emulate and that he will be worthy of the love that he receives from his best friend April.

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