Empower
The Human at Work
A Lifetime of Workplaces. A Commitment to the Human Within Them
I’ve worked in over 27 organizations and have held over 40 job positions in my life - starting in 1973, earning $1.30 an hour at an import store. Since then, I’ve worked at a power utility company in nuclear engineering and many other departments, for two major telecoms in several positions, for a major hospitality company (again in several positions), a globally recognized sports brand (several positions), a major television network affiliate (many positions), a state teachers union, for the federal government in the Army, the Air Force, Defense Security Service, a VA hospital, a university, and many, many places in between. I used to joke that “change” was my middle name….
Across all of these experiences, I became familiar (sometimes painfully so) with the reality that just because people show up for work doesn’t mean their humanity is welcome.
And like many, I knew when something was wrong. I could feel the weight of toxic, rigid, or unspoken dynamics in the room. But I didn’t have the skills to navigate them. The only way I adapted was to leave. You could say that I embraced change, but only by managing the external kind. The only kind I felt I had the control to change.
That pattern, of sensing misalignment but lacking the tools to maintain wellness within it, is part of why I created Empower: The Human at Work. What I didn’t have then (and what Empower now offers) is a way forward for those who find themselves in difficult workplace environments but want more than just an exit strategy.
It integrates emotional intelligence, resilience, and creativity into the workplace culture itself, where many of us spend the majority of our waking lives.
Empower: The Human at Work is built from lived experience and hard-earned insight. It’s for anyone who has ever asked, “Is it me, or is it the system?” This isn’t just a professional training series. It’s a reclamation. It’s about reclaiming emotional clarity, setting healthy boundaries, activating creative agency, and staying connected to your humanity, even in environments that make that hard. Because it’s not enough to tell people to be resilient. We need to build systems within the workplace that actually respect the human beings inside them. If you can’t change the workplace, you can choose how it impacts you, for the better.
