To me, ensuring "everyone has a voice" means more than simply inviting people to speak. It also means actively creating conditions where every person feels safe to speak, and where what they share can lead to real change. It means elevating those who have been systemically silenced, stigmatized, or ignored. My lived experience as a neurodivergent, LGBTQ+ individual who has also been justice-involved has shaped this commitment. I know what it’s like to be talked about rather than listened to, and labeled rather than understood. I also know how that impacts a person’s self-esteem and confidence. After two decades in corporate human resources leadership, I transitioned into inclusion work because I saw how workplace systems often exclude the very people they claim to support. I’ve worked to shift that narrative, both from the inside and beyond, by advocating for trauma-informed hiring practices, inclusive benefits, and fair chance employment policies that open doors for those returning from incarceration. These are not abstract goals. These are strategies that offer people dignity, hope, and a path forward. Not to mention, they are also a much-needed source of economic and community growth. In my role as former LGBTQ+ Council Chair at Pitney Bowes and now as a DisruptHR Denver and SHRM Colorado board member, I’ve brought this value to life by amplifying historically excluded voices. I have curated speaker lineups that reflect intersectional experiences and perspectives, and I have helped select nonprofit beneficiaries who work directly with marginalized communities. I strive to ensure that inclusion is more than performative. It must be restorative and transformative. Recently, I helped secure a partnership with One Colorado and Colorado Health Network, nonprofits serving marginalized Coloradans, as a central feature of our event. We centered their mission, not ours, and helped raise awareness and funds for their work. In my studies, I’m pursuing a Humanities degree with a concentration in Gender, Women, and Sexualities Studies. When people ask me why, I share two views. First, after nearly 20 years of business experience, I didn’t feel I needed any more business theory or application lessons. Second, I believe human resource leaders should have some knowledge of humanity. It’s this education, combined with my experience, that helps me influence and shape policy and organizational culture. My coursework explores systemic inequities, particularly in how our criminal legal system impacts marginalized communities. I’ve examined intersectional models of justice that reframe how we understand harm, accountability, and healing. These studies deepen my ability to hold space for nuance and complexity. This is essential in ensuring every voice is heard, not just the loudest or most resourced. What I’ve learned is that creating space is not enough. We must also listen with the intent to take actions to change. Whether it’s moderating difficult discussions among professionals with opposing views or providing ways and means for those reentering the workforce, I return to the same grounding belief, people deserve to be seen and heard for the fullness of who they are, regardless of their circumstances. My long-term goal is to consult with employers and policymakers to redesign systems that dehumanize. I want to make workplaces safer, more inclusive, and ultimately more effective by integrating principles of restorative and transformative practices. Ensuring everyone has a voice isn’t a checkbox. It is the foundation of equity and true inclusion. And it is how I intend to spend the rest of my life showing up.

Pursuing a degree in Humanities has offered me a deeper understanding of systems of oppression while also supporting a personal journey of healing and transformation. As someone who identifies as LGBTQ+, neurodivergent, and justice-involved, I intimately understand the ways in which systemic harm and social exclusion manifest. These experiences have shaped my purpose: to create pathways for healing, dignity, and opportunity, especially for those who have been incarcerated and dehumanized by systems that claim to protect or rehabilitate. My background in human resources and inclusion leadership has shown me both the importance and the absence of trauma-informed practices in many organizations. This gap is especially stark when it comes to justice-involved individuals and those navigating multiple marginalized identities. I plan to use my degree and lived experience to advocate for both restorative and transformative justice in the workplace and beyond. Restorative justice focuses on repairing harm through accountability, empathy, and community reintegration. Transformative justice goes even further by challenging the root causes of harm, such as racism, poverty, and heteronormativity, while centering the wisdom and resilience of those most impacted. By bridging my education with professional experience, I aim to consult, educate, and empower organizations to create equitable, humanity-informed cultures. This includes helping employers understand that fair chance hiring isn’t about charity. Rather, it is about recognizing the untapped value in people who have faced systems of incarceration, addiction, or stigma. I want to help build hiring practices that do not punish survival and foster leadership cultures that reward vulnerability, growth, and authenticity. My advocacy will extend into policy and community support as well. I plan to continue working with organizations that center inclusive work, while specializing in LGBTQ+, neurodiverse, and formerly incarcerated people. My ultimate goal is to help dismantle the cultural and economic barriers that perpetuate cycles of harm. These include a range of limitations such as glass, lavender, and concrete ceilings. I want to help shape organizational cultures that promote meaningful and sustainable transformation. I believe real change begins with storytelling, education, and practice. That’s why I also plan to use public speaking, writing, and educational programming to challenge dominant narratives that frame people as disposable or broken. We are not, and no one is disposable. We must ask questions of leaders that uncover the circumstances that led individuals to commit crimes in the first place. Many of us are survivors of violence, whether state-sanctioned, interpersonal, or structural… we carry insight into what healing could look like if we were courageous enough to imagine it. My degree is an enrichment tool, and my experiences serve as my North Star. Together, they guide me toward a vision where we no longer accept harm as inevitable. Instead, we commit to interrupting harm with compassion, accountability, and courage. This is a future where we move beyond labeling people as simply good or bad and begin to understand the full complexity of their lives.

Building Empathy and Opportunity: Reimagining Human Resources for Fair Chance Employment As someone whose lived experience intersects with neurodivergence, the LGBTQ+ community, and involvement in the justice system earlier in life, I’ve come to understand that reentry into the workforce and the community is not just about second chances. It’s about healing, dignity, agency and rehumanizing systems that too often reduce people to their past mistakes and sorts people into categories of good and bad. My passion lies in evolving human resources and organizational culture so that we stop seeing justice-involved individuals as risks, and start seeing them as resilient, skilled, and deeply worthy of investment and opportunity. To build a more empathetic and understanding global community, I use my voice, experience, and platforms to educate employers on trauma-informed, reciprocal relationships. For those returning from incarceration, employment isn’t only a job, its stability, purpose, and a connection to society. And for employers, engaging this talent pool requires more than compliance checklists, gatekeeping and risk management. It demands cultural humility, psychological safety, and a willingness to change outdated narratives. I guide leaders and organizations in developing practices that recognize the complex trauma many justice-involved individuals carry, not just from incarceration, but from the systemic inequities that often led them there. I help companies shift from transactional hiring to relational onboarding: from background checks as barriers to storytelling as bridges. I imagine workshops, strategic advisement, and curriculum development, that support frameworks and workplace culture that foster accountability without shame, support without pity, and structure without surveillance or gauntlets meant to exclude. My views are not exclusive to justice-impacted individuals. It’s about all of us. A workforce that embraces fair chance hiring strengthens its own emotional intelligence, agility and resilience. Not to mention an ever-growing demand and competition for talent. An HR team that leads with empathy and connection builds trust with every employee and fosters engagement. A community that welcomes people home helps prevent recidivism, poverty, and cycles of harm. Fair chance isn’t charity; it’s talent strategy. And it’s humanity. My talents lie in my ability to connect across differences, to build bridges between heart and policy, and to translate complexity into action. Whether I’m speaking from a stage, facilitating a workshop, or consulting with a team, I approach every engagement with emotional intelligence, authenticity, and a respect for the lived wisdom and agency that people carry, especially those who’ve survived systems meant to break them. We don’t need to fix people who’ve been incarcerated. We need to fix the systems that exclude them. I believe HR and employers are uniquely positioned to lead this transformation, not just by opening doors, but by creating cultures that hold them open. My purpose is to make sure we do just that, with courage, compassion, and commitment.

Building Empathy and Opportunity: Reimagining HR for Fair Chance Employment As someone whose lived experience intersects with neurodivergence, the LGBTQ+ community, and involvement in the justice system earlier in life, I’ve come to understand that reentry into the workforce and the community is not just about second chances. It’s about healing, dignity, agency and rehumanizing systems that too often reduce people to their past mistakes and sorts people into categories of good and bad. My passion lies in evolving human resources and organizational culture so that we stop seeing justice-involved individuals as risks, and start seeing them as resilient, skilled, and deeply worthy of investment and opportunity. To build a more empathetic and understanding global community, I use my voice, experience, and platforms to educate employers on trauma-informed, reciprocal relationships. For those returning from incarceration, employment isn’t only a job, its stability, purpose, and a connection to society. And for employers, engaging this talent pool requires more than compliance checklists, gatekeeping and risk management. It demands cultural humility, psychological safety, and a willingness to change outdated narratives. I guide leaders and organizations in developing practices that recognize the complex trauma many justice-involved individuals carry, not just from incarceration, but from the systemic inequities that often led them there. I help companies shift from transactional hiring to relational onboarding: from background checks as barriers to storytelling as bridges. I imagine workshops, strategic advisement, and curriculum development, that support frameworks and workplace culture that foster accountability without shame, support without pity, and structure without surveillance or gauntlets meant to exclude. My views are not exclusive to justice-impacted individuals. It’s about all of us. A workforce that embraces fair chance hiring strengthens its own emotional intelligence, agility and resilience. Not to mention an ever-growing demand and competition for talent. An HR team that leads with empathy and connection builds trust with every employee and fosters engagement. A community that welcomes people home helps prevent recidivism, poverty, and cycles of harm. Fair chance isn’t charity; it’s talent strategy. And it’s humanity. My talents lie in my ability to connect across differences, to build bridges between heart and policy, and to translate complexity into action. Whether I’m speaking from a stage, facilitating a workshop, or consulting with a team, I approach every engagement with emotional intelligence, authenticity, and a respect for the lived wisdom and agency that people carry, especially those who’ve survived systems meant to break them. We don’t need to fix people who’ve been incarcerated. We need to fix the systems that exclude them. I believe HR and employers are uniquely positioned to lead this transformation, not just by opening doors, but by creating cultures that hold them open. My purpose is to make sure we do just that, with courage, compassion, and commitment.