THE QUESTION THAT CONNECTS IT ALL
Understanding people.
Helping them choose.
“Knowing is not the hard part. Choosing well, again and again, when everything around you makes the other choice easier, is where people struggle.”
That question became a lifelong interest in human behavior: why smart, well-intentioned people make the choices they make, and what separates those who thrive from those who only survive.
It led me to emotional intelligence and the evidence on emotional maturity, health and relationships. Debate gave me my first tools: as president of the debate team at Illinois, I learned to take a position apart, find what mattered, and make the case to a room that had not decided yet.
I followed the question across disciplines. Sociology gave me a lens for systems and communities. Business and labor relations helped me understand organizations. Education gave me a way to teach. Human resources and research put those ideas to work.
