Dr. Dave Gosselin
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CO-HOST OF THE MINDSCIENCE PLAYBOOK PODCAST + AWARD-WINNING SOCCER COACH + AUTHOR + TEAM & ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE CONSULTANT + EARTH SYSTEMS SCIENTIST and EDUCATOR
Dr. Dave Gosselin
Get to know Dr. Dave
Dr. Dave Gosselin serves as the co-host and producer of The MindScience Playbook podcast. He has coached youth to college age athletes for over 30 years. He is a Professor Emeritus of Earth Science and the Director Emeritus of the Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. In this role, he was recognized as an innovator in face-to-face and online educational programs and as the creator of effective strategies for working in interdisciplinary teams.
“I do, what I do to help others positively impact the people and places where they live. I seek to share 35+ years of professional, coaching, and teaching experience to connect diverse groups of people, solve problems, create effective learning, training and planning environments, and organize people into effective, trust-based, teams and communities.”
Dr. Dave
DR. DAVE’S PHILOSOPHY
Coaching, Teaching and Leading are basically the same thing - taking a person or group from where they are now to some place new.
We are all coaches, teachers, and leaders to varying degrees and under different circumstances. To be effective in these roles, we need to focus on basic human needs, that is, we need to provide a safe environment in which people feel they belong as they pursue their goals of becoming who they want to be.
We also need to develop a high level of self-awareness so that we can understand and manage how we interact and engage with others.
To create high levels of performance as individuals or teams, we need to recognize that technical and cognitive knowledge is important. However, just as important, we need to develop the skills to work effectively with other people and develop our ability to effectively “play in the sandbox” with others. People are chosen for their technical and cognitive abilities, but lose their positions because of their inability to effectively work with others.
We are all coaches, teachers, and leaders to varying degrees and under different circumstances. To be effective in these roles, we need to focus on basic human needs, that is, we need to provide a safe environment in which people feel they belong as they pursue their goals of becoming who they want to be.
We also need to develop a high level of self-awareness so that we can understand and manage how we interact and engage with others
To create high levels of performance as individuals or teams, we need to recognize that technical and cognitive knowledge is important. However, just as important, we need to develop the skills to work effectively with other people and develop our ability to effectively “play in the sandbox” with others. People are chosen for their technical and cognitive abilities, but lose their positions because of their inability to effectively work with others.
Dr. Gosselin has amassed a wealth of recognition throughout his 30+-year career as a collaborative leader, educator, and coach, including being honored as the 2018 Research Partner of the Year by TTI Success Insights. His dedication to education and innovation has been recognized with the Catalyst Award from the Nebraska Association of Teachers of Science, the UNL Omtvedt Award for Innovation in Teaching, and multiple coaching honors, including the 2013 State Coach of the Year for Nebraska High School Girls Private/Parochial Schools by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.
His extensive research in Earth systems, water quality, teaching and learning, and developing collaborative teams has resulted in over 150 publications and millions in grant funding. His innovative work applying business-based behavioral assessments to undergraduate education and athletic teams has provided a novel framework for understanding human dynamics, lowering the walls of cross-disciplinary divides, and fostering collaborative learning environments.
Current pursuits include developing strategies for cross-disciplinary collaboration, and applying brain science to leadership and coaching activities. His cutting-edge work on team enhancement and organizational development is currently impacting interdisciplinary environmental programs and athletic teams nationwide. He is the author of the award-winning book Focus on Them: Leading the Mindset Revolution for Coaches, Educators, and Business Leaders, and the editor of A Practical Guide for Developing Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Skills.
Dave’s Story
Dr. Gosselin has amassed a wealth of recognition throughout his 30-year career as a collaborative leader, educator, and coach, including being honored as the 2018 Research Partner of the Year by TTI Success Insights. His dedication to education and innovation has been recognized with the Catalyst Award from the Nebraska Association of Teachers of Science, the UNL Omtvedt Award for Innovation in Teaching, and multiple coaching honors, including the 2013 Nebraska High School Coach of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America
His extensive research in Earth systems, sustainability education, and water quality has resulted in over 150 publications and millions in grant funding. Plus, his innovative work applying business-based behavioral assessments to undergraduate education and athletic teams has provided a novel framework for understanding human dynamics, lowering the walls of cross-disciplinary divides, and fostering collaborative learning environments.
Current pursuits include developing strategies for cross-disciplinary collaboration, creating inclusive sustainability roadmaps, and applying brain science to leadership and coaching activities. His cutting-edge work on team enhancement and organizational development is currently impacting interdisciplinary environmental programs and athletic teams nationwide. He is the author of the award-winning book Focus on Them: Leading the Mindset Revolution for Coaches, Educators, and Business Leaders, and the editor of A Practical Guide for Developing Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Skills.
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Being a leader is challenging—but we may make it more difficult than it needs to be. A critical first step is recognizing leading is not about you, it is about whom you lead. For many, this requires a mindset shift. Whether coaching, teaching, or leading, you must create an environment of trust that engages each person in learning and maximizes the abilities of each person on your team. Focus on Them explains what it takes to build the team atmosphere to do all these things—for teams on the field, in the classroom, and in the workplace.
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Interdisciplinary Teaching about the Earth and Environment for a Sustainable Future presents the outcomes of the InTeGrate project, a community effort funded by the National Science Foundation to improve Earth literacy and build a workforce prepared to tackle environmental and resource issues. The InTeGrate community is built around the shared goal of supporting interdisciplinary learning about Earth across the undergraduate curriculum, focusing on the grand challenges facing society and the important role that the geosciences play in addressing these grand challenges. The chapters in this book explicitly illustrate the intimate relationship between geoscience and sustainability that is often opaque to students. The authors of these chapters are faculty members, administrators, program directors, and researchers from institutions across the country who have collectively envisioned, implemented, and evaluated effective change in their classrooms, programs, institutions, andbeyond. This book provides guidance to anyone interested in implementing change—on scales ranging from a single course to an entire program—by infusing sustainability across the curriculum, broadening access to Earth and environmental sciences, and assessing the impacts of those changes.
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Solutions to societal and organizational problems require people from diverse fields of expertise to effectively work in team-based, collaborative environments. To create these environments, we need to address a myth in modern culture that people have natural abilities to collaborate and work together. Collaboration and teamwork are skills. As such, these skills need to be learned and practiced. Commonly, collaboration is learned through trial and error. Team members have little or no training in how to effectively and efficiently harness the diversity of strengths among team members and maximize their contributions to the team. The purpose of this book is to provide a practical, process-oriented guide that, at its most fundamental level, is about building relationships and promoting communication and learning among diverse groups of individuals that results in creative, collaborative, and inclusive problem-solving environments. This volume provides explicit approaches and processes that will help team members more effectively and efficiently create new knowledge and solutions for societal and organizational problems through collective action.
Career Highlights
| 2025–Present | Co-launched the MindScience Playbook Podcast with Dr. Ron Bonnstetter |
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| 2025 | Retired from UNL with Emeritus status after 35 years |
| 2023–Present | Volunteer Assistant Coach, Women's Soccer, Doane University, Crete, NE |
| 2023 | Stepped down as Head Coach at Lincoln Lutheran after 18 seasons. Final record: 125W–88L |
| Edited and authored chapters in A Practical Guide for Developing Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Skills (Springer Nature) | |
| 2021-2022 | Led Lincoln Lutheran/Raymond Central to the Nebraska Class B state championship game. Runner-up |
| 2019 | Featured workshop facilitator, MIT Net Zero Carbon Solutions Design Thinking Workshop, Boston |
| 2018 | Named Research Partner of the Year, TTI Success Insights, for contributions to human behavior and motivation research. Appointed Director, UNL Sustainability Initiative |
| 2017 | Appointed Co-Chair, Chancellor's Sustainability Commission, UNL |
| 2018 | Published Book // Focus on Them: A Mindset Revolution for Coaches, Educators, and Business Leaders. Won two Idaho Author Awards: Best Business Book and Top Ten Non-Fiction |
| 2014 | Received the Omtvedt Innovation Award in Science Education, UNL |
| 2013 | Led Lincoln Lutheran/Raymond Central to the Nebraska Class B state championship game. Runner-up |
| Named Nebraska Private High School Coach of the Year, National Soccer Coaches Association of America | |
| 2009 | Named Regional Youth Coach of the Year, National Soccer Coaches Association of America |
| Appointed Chair, Science for Educators Specialization, Masters of Applied Science, UNL | |
| 2008 | Appointed Head Coach, Lincoln Lutheran High School Women's Soccer |
| Appointed Director, Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program, UNL. Certified, Professional Behavioral and Motivators Analyst, TTI Success Insights | |
| 2007 | Received Lifetime Achievement Award, Nebraska State Soccer Association. Appointed Nebraska State Technical Coordinator, National Soccer Coaches Association of America; trained more than 100 coaches |
| 2004 | Appointed Associate Director, School of Natural Resources, UNL, overseeing approximately 200 people including 75 faculty |
| 2002 | 2002: Named Director of Coaching, Lincoln Spirit Soccer Club |
| 1995 | 1995: Promoted to Associate Professor, UNL |
| 1993 | Named Director, Nebraska Earth Systems Education Network, University Nebraska Lincoln |
| 1989 | Joined UNL faculty as Assistant Professor |
| 1987 | 1987: Earned Ph.D. in Geology, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology |
| 1982 | 1982: Earned B.A. in Geology, Magna Cum Laude, College of St. Thomas |