Matheson History Museum presents ‘The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: Gainesville Roots — Worldwide Influence’

Press release from the Matheson History Museum

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Matheson History Museum will present “The Myers-Briggs Indicator®: Gainesville Roots – Worldwide Influence” with Mark Enting on Wednesday, February 18, at 7 p.m. The program is free with registration.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® instrument is a global phenomenon, but many people do not know that its roots are in Gainesville, Florida. Mark Enting, President & CEO of Myers & Briggs Foundation®, will tell us the story of how the most popular personality assessment in history came to call Gainesville home. The story begins with a passionate mother-daughter team who built and tested the first versions of the MBTI® instrument with family members, medical students, and personnel consultants, and unfolds in a research laboratory at the University of Florida Department of Psychology, where a team of three women developed the first computer scoring program for the MBTI assessment in the 1970s. Mark will also bring us up to date on the Gainesville nonprofit that has been of national influence in the field of psychological type for decades and the current mission of Myers & Briggs Foundation that drives research, education, and community in personality type worldwide.

Registration: https://mathesonmuseum.networkforgood.com/events/94826-the-myers-briggs-type-indicator-gainesville-roots-worldwide-influence

Mark Enting

Mark Enting, President & CEO of Myers & Briggs Foundation®, has built a 30-year career in MBTI® personality type in Gainesville, Florida. In 1996, as a fresh graduate with a degree in psychological science from the University of Florida, he began as a coordinator in the training division at the Center for Applications of Psychological Type (CAPT). At the time, CAPT was the largest qualifying trainer of the MBTI instrument in the country. Additionally, CAPT was the largest publisher on the topic of psychological type globally, with a robust business scoring the assessment and providing support materials and educational workshops.

After becoming supervisor of the training division, and as the world went “online” in the late 90s, Mark stepped up to build the first organizational website for CAPT. From this success, his decades-long career in IT was born. Mark steered CAPT through building at least a half dozen additional websites, generating the technological infrastructure for the growing organization. In 2014, Mark became Vice President and Chief Information Officer of CAPT, and in 2020, he was selected to lead CAPT as President and Chief Executive Officer.

In 2023, Mark completed an 18-month effort to merge CAPT with Myers & Briggs Foundation. In his role as President & CEO, Mark collaborates with staff as they carve a new identity for the MBTI system and Myers & Briggs Foundation in the world with the express purpose of building the products, services, and programs that will usher the MBTI system forward into the future.

This program is sponsored in part by Visit Gainesville/Alachua County, FL and the City of Gainesville.