Chatting About Change with Dr. Jim Maddox

My guest this week is Joella Walker, a a licensed psychotherapist, Certified Spiritual Director, and shamanic practitioner. She shares both her personal career journey and path as well as offers insights into helping others explore careers and life’s purpose. Joella shares how she works from a strengths perspective and helps adults navigate anxiety, life transitions, relationships, loss, addiction and recovery, and personal growth. We discuss how she helps her clients create balance, be their authentic selves, and get back in the driver’s seat of their lives.

My guest this episode is Kayshia Kruger, who is the organization development director for a small organization in North Carolina. She shares how she has created, from the ground up, the organization development function in her organization of about 300 employees. We discuss some of the interesting projects she is engaged in currently such as employee engagement, learning & development, leadership development, and change management. A fascinating aspect of her role is how progressive her organization has been in terms of leveraging Organization Development. She also shares how the Organization Development function is a completely separate function and is not part of the Human Resource department, which is somewhat unique, especially for a smaller organization.

My guest this week is Jenny Wiley, Community Manager Lead at Zencity. She is a certified life coach and specializes in Community Coaching, partnering with groups who desire to connect and expand together. She is an experienced facilitator and relationship builder, and a strong believer in building social capital in all interactions and experiences. She shares how she uses her coaching skills and facilitation expertise to help groups thrive and connect. Her passion for helping others is contagious and she offers a refreshing perspective on how we chose to show up in the work we do, the questions we ask, and the relationships we nurture.

My guest this week is Kelli Grant, owner and CEO at Grant Consulting and Coaching. Kelli shares her fascinating story and how she has combined her background in public service, training, health & wellness coaching, and criminal justice, in helping others embrace healthy lifestyles and choices. She discusses her current journey in her doctoral program as she works on her dissertation in the field of sociology. Her passion is around combining her coaching experiences with her interest in qualitative research and bringing this skill set to the intersection of food and women who are serving time in a residential facility. Her passion around studying food and the criminal justice system is inspiring and has the potential to transform lives and our society. Understanding the role food plays in our socialization process is important for creating healthy communities and has the potential to transform lives. Kelli’s doctoral journey is fascinating and inspiring!

My guests for this episode are Kristin and Ted Skantze, joining me from shores of Lake Michigan. Ted is the former director of the non-profit organization Re-Member and former director of their board, and Kristin is a Nurse Practitioner who has worked for the past 20 years with Pine Ridge Indian Health Service on the Pine Ridge Reservation, in South Dakota. They share their personal story of their involvement on the reservation, and discuss the impact around cultural understanding, and the importance of listening in helping to heal broken relationships and build connections and bring to attention to the truly resilient spirit of the indigenous people. The term, Re-Member, refers to the idea of putting back together that which is broken, to re-member. What has been broken is a trust, and the treatment and relationship with the Oglala Lakota people. Through the work of Re-Member, volunteers have the opportunity to learn, and listen, and offer hope to those who have been marginalized, through relationship building and cultural understanding. Rather than attempting to fix or change what those from outside the culture perceive needs to be changed, the focus is on understanding and appreciating the diversity of cultures. I am reminded of the work of Edgar Schein, who developed the concept of Process Consultancy, which is built upon the foundation that assumes that “one can only help a human system to help itself”. To learn more about volunteer opportunities with Re-Member, check out this link: https://www.re-member.org/volunteering