Worldwide Who's Who Names Gail C. Ristow Executive of the Year in Business Management

    ANN ARBOR, MI, August 13, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Gail C. Ristow, Artist and Owner of Bead Here Now, Administrator for the University of Michigan Law School, Mediator for The Dispute Resolution Center, and Labyrinth Facilitator, has been named a Worldwide Who's Who Executive of the Year in Business Management. While inclusion in Worldwide Who's Who is an honor, only a small selection of members in each discipline are chosen for this distinction. These special honorees are distinguished based on their professional accomplishments, academic achievements, leadership abilities, years of service, and the credentials they have provided in association with their Worldwide Who's Who membership.

Ms. Ristow has amassed a wealth of knowledge and experience over the course of her career. With vast and varied expertise in the areas of fine arts, metalwork, jewelry, administration, mediation, and labyrinth facilitation, she shines as the head of a meditation bead company, as a valued administrator with a university law school, a strong valued support for local county organizations, and as the sole proprietor of a business that provides one-of-a-kind strings of meditation beads handcrafted with semiprecious stones and metalwork. As owner of Bead Here Now, Ms. Ristow has garnered a reputation of distinction for creating and producing metalwork and designs for meditation beads, managing the Web-based business, showing work at selected art fairs, choosing semiprecious stones for the qualities they possess, and creating customized pieces upon request. As an administrator at the University of Michigan Law School, she is responsible for supervising and managing a large staff, making all faculty support assignments, acting as a liaison between the faculty and staff, and ensuring high-quality, consistent faculty support for permanent as well as visiting faculty members. Ms. Ristow serves as a volunteer mediator in civil and domestic court cases for several counties in Michigan through The Dispute Resolution Center, and she personally offers services to organizations and individuals who wish to learn more about labyrinths, build them or hold special events around them.

Ms. Ristow grew up in the university town of Ann Arbor, MI and has worked for the University of Michigan most of her life. She began in high school part-time in the radiation labs and was then employed in the natural science department as well as the undergraduate and graduate libraries. She found one of her multiple career paths when she became an entry-level secretary at the Law School, progressing to the level of research secretary and ultimately to her present position as the Director of Secretarial Services. Ms. Ristow studied fine arts in the late 1960s-early 1970s, and for the past five years has applied both her expertise in metalwork and awareness of the metaphysical qualities of semiprecious stones to the creation of unique meditation beads that support health and well-being. As a trained and certified mediator, Ms. Ristow assists residents of Washtenaw and Livingston Counties in resolving disputes outside of the court system. She enjoys being of service to others and has completed certification in civil, domestic and elder care mediation. In addition, she has been a certified labyrinth facilitator for the past eight years. Building a labyrinth walking meditation path was a transformative experience in her own spiritual life.

Ms. Ristow attributes her success to her passion for what she does and her desire to be of service to others. She also credits her spiritual connection with a higher power working in her life, many times through other people, as well as her natural creative ability. She became involved in her profession as a designer of meditation beads through her experience making prayer beads for friends and colleagues who were facing severe challenges in life.


She became involved in her profession as an administrative professional through a natural progression of opportunities working in a university town. She acquired her mediation skills and training because she enjoys helping people, and she finds that she uses many of the same skills in administration as well as other parts of her life. She became involved in labyrinth facilitation after taking training in 2000 and finding that it transformed her life in terms of spiritual awareness and perspective.

Ms. Ristow received a Bachelor of Art Education, with a concentration in Metalwork, at Eastern Michigan University. She continued graduate coursework towards her Masters in Fine Arts in metalwork and silversmithing also at Eastern Michigan University into the 70s. Ms. Ristow is a Certified Mediator in Washtenaw and Livingston Counties; she is a Certified Labyrinth Facilitator, as granted by the Veriditas Organization in San Francisco, CA. She is a member of the State Court Administrative Office in the State of Michigan, and The Labyrinth Society. In the near future, Ms. Ristow hopes to retire from her administrative position at the law school and further develop her bead business; she also hopes to show her work in galleries. In addition, she would like to market and grow her mediation practice and to develop an independent Web-based business in mediation by 2014.

For more information about Bead Here Now, please visit http://www.beadherenow.net.

About Worldwide Who's Who
With over 500,000 members representing every major industry, Worldwide Who's Who is a powerful networking resource that enables professionals to outshine their competition, in part through effective branding and marketing. Worldwide Who's Who employs similar public relations techniques to those utilized by Fortune 500 companies, making them cost-effective for members who seek to take advantage of its career enhancement and business advancement services.

Worldwide Who's Who membership provides individuals with a valuable third-party endorsement of their accomplishments, and gives them the tools needed to brand themselves and their businesses effectively. In addition to publishing biographies in print and electronic form, it offers an online networking platform where members can establish new professional relationships.

For more information, please visit http://www.worldwidewhoswho.com.

Contact:
Ellen Campbell
Director, Media Relations
[email protected]

# # #