The Larsen Group

Ema Kammeyer is CEO of the Easter Seals Blake Foundation, an organization that has been providing services to children and adults with disabilities in southern Arizona since 1950.  After practicing law for several years, Ema turned to non-profit leadership over 25 year ago, shepherding the growth, scaling and impact of the foundation’s commitment to enabling independent, productive living and personal development.  They offer over 52 direct service programs and manage therapeutic services at 16 sites and two childcare facilities each with 150 children, in addition to adult vocational services and residential support.

Brenda Griffin is an expert in skin care and reflexology, and founder of Faces Plus.  After working in the legal field for over 20 years, in 2003 she pursued her passion of assisting others by sharing knowledge of proper skin care and specialty product selection, as well as integrative healing and relaxation through reflexology.  In addition to donating her services at a cancer support center, one of the greatest joys of Brenda’s career is consulting with teens struggling with acne and helping them restore their self-esteem.

Ashley Trout started winemaking as a part-time job at age 18.  A native of Washington DC she studied at the University of Chile in Santiago and has traveled extensively in Asia, Indonesia and Latin America.  Due to a serious rock climbing accident that left her badly injured and bedridden, Ashley missed the grape harvest in the northern hemisphere one year, and decided to go south to Argentina for their crush.  Ten years later, Flying Trout Wines is now her bi-hemispherical business, partnered with Tero Estates Winery based in Walla Walla Valley, Oregon.

www.flyingtroutwines.com                                    August 21, 2010             22 minutes

Pete Congleton is Director of Planned Giving for the University of Hartford, where in five years he has rebuilt a planned giving program to anticipate future gifts well in excess of $20 million. A former US Navy helicopter pilot and flight instructor, it was while working as a regional sales representative that Pete and his wife Carie discovered that their third son, Grady, had been born profoundly hearing-impaired.  Pete’s career and philanthropic service endeavors have subsequently been shaped through supporting the journey of their son, who is now a sophomore in college.

Evan Kelsay is Director of International Sales for Vault.com, Inc., the premier source for employer rankings, ratings and insight for highly-credentialed, in-demand candidates. Evan tracks graduate and professional hiring trends globally and how these trends are shaping the worldwide workforce in several fields.  A native of Indiana, his career has taken him around the world, including two years in Hong Kong opening up Asia Pacific for Vault.com.  Like many professionals in his generation, Evan is faster-than-the-average bear when it comes to technology adoption and seeing things from an emerging global perspective.

www.vault.com                                                       August 14, 2010             21 minutes

Jo Falls is Director of Public Programs and Education Curator at Tohono Chul Park, Tucson’s iconic, pioneering experiential center that is celebrating 25 years of connecting nature and culture.  The 50 acre site includes picturesque botanical gardens with indigenous wildlife, a museum and rotating art gallery, a tea room and countless programs to enhance community education and appreciation for the desert Southwest.  A history major and transitioning lawyer, Jo originally interviewed for a temporary position 24 years ago, and has enjoyed a dynamic, cross-disciplinary career ever since.

www.ixchelleigh.com                                               August 7, 2010              22 minutes

Dr. Jonathan Ellerby is Director of Spiritual Programs at Canyon Ranch Health & Wellness Resort, and has dedicated over 20 years of his life to the personal, professional, and academic exploration of spirituality, healing, and consciousness.  His soon-to-be released book Inspiration Deficit Disorder:  The No-Pill Prescription to End High Stress, Low Energy and Bad Habits encourages readers to learn to know and honor oneself through reconnecting with a true essence and mission for living, in particular dropping the bad habits that sidetrack fulfillment.

Bob McCandlish has been leading “Hands on Expressions” since 2006, a Connecticut-based distributor of motivation art prints that teach and assure.  Bob describes himself as a former corporate marketing leader wearing the “upwardly mobile, together guy mask,” now dedicated to making genuine connections with people –

figuratively matching his fine art images with poetry, and literally via his new therapeutic massage studio.  He encourages us that while choices are going to bring more choices, to keep both hands on life to live it well.

Judith Reilly is a well known fabric artist whose studio is in a restored Victorian home in Brandon, Vermont.  She believes that every creative journey has a beginning; yet, one of life's secrets is that this journey began long before we may have agreed to take it.  Judith’s story includes her Twelve Life Lessons for Creativity, discovered when she reflected on a compendium of over 25 years of her distinct quilting and fabric art pieces, many of which have earned national and international recognition – from classic Vermont red and white-trimmed barns and landscapes to precocious cats, birds and other wildlife.

www.judithreilly.com                                              July 24, 2010                   22 minutes

Rod Kelsay is Executive Director of Mid America Cooperative Council, a non-profit association of cooperatives across the four-state area of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.  Mid America focuses on leadership education and outreach programs and under Rod’s leadership since 2004 has facilitated some 100 events with over 3,300 attendees from very diverse business sectors.  Rod’s passion for educating leaders in the midst of change comes from his own life endeavors in pharmaceutical sales/marketing, farming, strategic planning and consulting for private companies and cooperatives.

www.macc.coop                                                       July 24, 2010                   21 minutes

Joan Belzer is a certified graphotheripist who uses handwriting analysis to help people change and heal their lives from the inside out.  Following 20 years of counseling guests at a high end health and wellness resort, Joan launched into private practice and in 2006 at the behest of clients and lecture attendees published the book The Five Minute Therapist:  Rewrite Your Life in 5 Minutes a Day.  Her self-help methods are based on relatively simple cursive handwriting exercises, done in 21 day increments for but 5 to 10 minutes a day.  Her motto:  Change your life one stroke at a time.

www.thefiveminutetherapist.com                          July 17, 2010                  21 minutes

Dr. Mary Reidy is a lead engineer from the Smart Technology Center at National Grid, a company based in New York that is charting new territory within the 100-year old electric utility industry.  Dr. Reidy and her team are at the epicenter of the Department of Energy-funded program “SmartGrid,” accelerating systems thinking and technology integration to better connect all layers of industry employees to consumers.  Mary’s technical passions are coupled with helping increase higher education options to attract professionals of all disciplines to enter this re-emerging industry. 

www.us.ngrid.com                                                   July 17, 2010                23 minutes

Jale Tweedy is an entrepreneur originally from Turkey. Following early careers in pharmacy and dietetics, Jale circled back to her lifetime passion for food to start a specialty catering business in 2004.  Jale and her extended team from Petite Pea Catering & Fine Foods are known by some of the most discriminating clients for their unique product offerings, impeccable presentation and full service (including china, flowers, tables/chairs and valet services).  They also have corporate lunch service and are imminently opening a retail store featuring signature products.

Dr. Karen Stephenson is founder and CEO of Netform.  She has been cited by Malcolm Gladwell, the luminary who wrote the books The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers, as one of the original gurus of social network analysis –analytical survey research coupled with large group interactions to help resolve complex people system problems in large and loosely defined organizations.  Karen is pro-bono supporting PIMA Connects, a project to help “connect the connectors” involved in community change in Tucson.

www.pimaconnects.org                                                July 10, 2010          21 minutes

www.netform.com

Lynn Moran is CEO of the Arizona Coaching and Consulting.  Lynn spent over 25 years with the Mars, Inc. the global, privately-held candy company, where she ultimately served as president of Ethel M Chocolates, expanding the high end brand into specialty retail/consumer networks.  Lynn leads a business advisory firm and shares her precepts on the power of independent coaching for leaders, particularly based on data-driven, business results-focused performance – not the measurement of activities.

www.azc3.com                                                              July 3, 2010            21 minutes

Laura Vanderkam is a prolific, young New York City-based freelance writer with career and specialty topic columns often featured in USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and on-line Huffington Post and Scientific American venues.  A mother of two children under age 3, Laura’s new book, 168 Hours:  You Have More Time than You Think, is targeted to help us rethink the 24/7 mantra of this day and age, and consider getting a “time makeover” to achieve a more balanced life AND reach our personal goals.

Dr. Monika Hudson shifted from 30 years in California’s state, county and city public sectors five years ago to pursue a career in management higher education.  Low and behold, she now finds herself continuing to build public/private partnerships as Director of the University of San Francisco’s Gellert Family Business Resource Center AND teaching – with ever the eye on the power of small business to impact neighborhood economic vitality.

www.usfca.edu                                                              July 3, 2010            22 minutes

Susan Basford is Director of the City of Tucson’s treasured Reid Park Zoo, one of 210 select accredited zoos amidst the 1,200 across the US.  Courtesy of Susan’s 15 years of leadership, the Zoo has increased the educational and interactive opportunities for zoo guests, expanded facilities and diversity of animals, and created broader career horizons for the staff.  Before coming to Tucson, Susan’s “animal career” was as a zookeeper for the Bronx Zoo and studying leatherback sea turtles in the Virgin Islands.

www.tucsonzoo.org                                    June 26, 2010               23 minutes               

Rosalie Tyner and Tom Anderson took a sabbatical to Paris last year as part of their “Act II” – life after a very hectic career in oncology nursing for Rosalie, and non-profit strategy consulting, university leadership and social ethics teaching roles for Tom.  Their year abroad to “waste time” included experiencing life from different perspectives, journaling to their extended family and friends, and reading over 100 books.  They espouse personal life strategic planning and a commitment to one another to make decisions first anchored in clear outcomes.

                                                                                 June 26, 2010              21 minutes

Vince Redhouse is a two-time Grammy nominee and well known Native American flute musician.  A former jazz saxophonist, Vince stumbled upon the six-holed wooden flute of his ancestors, expanding the instrument’s versatility to a full two octaves. With seven CDs to his credit, two years ago Vince embraced a major shift is his career – a calling following the suicide of a teenager – to teach young Native Americans across the US how to play unique classical music interpretations on the flute, a journey that includes skills and confidence building, and coming home to their heritage. Winds of Change!

Drew Humphrey has always had a passion for performing on stage, and Dad, Jim Humphrey and his wife, Jane, supported Drew every step of the way.  When Drew graduated from college in 2003 and took the “flying leap of faith” without a Plan B to become a professional actor in New York City, Jim wrote him a special essay based on the song “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”  Seven years later, Drew continues to land opportunities and professionally flourish courtesy of the tight camaraderie within his guild.  And Jim is a proud supporting father in the audience.  Happy Fathers’ Day!

                                                                                 June 19, 2010           21 minutes

Jane Dominguez, affectionately referred to as the “Email Doctor”, is a solo-preneur with The Write Business Advantage.  A CPA who was adept at explaining highly technical financial information to non-techincal audiences, Jane is now a trainer, coach and consultant dedicated to helping people be more effective in business communication. 

Over 10,000 people follow Jane’s “Fat-Free Business Writing Tips” and other effective business writing information on Twitter.  She focuses on being crisp, concise and relevant: Write well – Right Results.

www.writebusinessadvantage.com                                       June 12, 2010         20 minutes

Dr. Kathy Kram from Boston University’s School of Management is known and respected worldwide for her research and books on mentorship, leadership development and organizational change.  While mentoring continues to be critical in today’s volatile career environment, everyone is both a novice and an expert in something.  We may overlook how peers are partners not just to get our jobs done, but to help us become more accountable for our own careers.  Whether tapped through the workplace or community groups, and regardless of where we are in a real or perceived hierarchy, peer coaching can be pivotal to our learning and progressing.

www.bu.edu                                                             June 12, 2010           23 minutes

Cindy Richards is a freelance writer and editor of the website TravelingMom.com, an on-line resource with tips, tricks and insights for women traveling with or without children.  She never dreamed of anything but being  in the media, launching a newspaper at age 10.  An award winning journalist and Pulitzer Prize nominee, over 10 years ago Cindy left the fast pace of the high profile newsroom of the Chicago Tribune and editorial roles at several of the Windy City’s popular magazines to freelance and focus on her two young children.  She now also teaches graduate level journalism at Northwestern University. Think AND, not OR.

www.travelingmom.com                                          June 5, 2010          23 minutes

Laura Penny’s earlier career traversed criminal justice, behavioral health and education as a probation officer, case manager and chief policy officer for a state school superintendent.  She also volunteered at a variety of organizations advocating on behalf of disadvantaged women.  In 2004 Laura shifted sectors to become Executive Director of the Women’s Foundation of Southern Arizona.  WFSA has granted over $800,000 in six years to a portfolio of non-profits serving women and girls challenged by economic, social, gender and political barriers.  As a leader she believes in abundance.

Rudy Beeck is founder and CEO of startup XIGO Health, a Miami firm dedicated to naturopathic dietary supplements to boost immune systems – prevent and ease the symptoms of the common cold and related health problems for families.  Made from powders from New Zealand, Japan and the US, XIGO embraced the rigors of scientific research and the conventional pharmaceutical approval process during product development. Rudy’s career crisscrossed banking, international government service, telecommunications, real estate, and B2B internet services – defying the conventional wisdom that it is impossible to switch industries.  Not in Rudy’s book.

www.xigohealth.com                                                  June 5, 2010      22 minutes

Tana Blackmore is the founder of Sacred Ground International and Native Vogue Jewelry.  Tana’s “success to significance” story involves multiple circles from her difficult youth as a Native American and Anglo crossing cultural bridges, to a fast paced, high profile fashion design career in New York that crashed.  She was spiritually called and “circled back” to her family’s multi-generation ranch in Montana, restoring it as a non-profit sanctuary, and tumbling into raising buffalo and designing unique jewelry.  The products symbolically tie to the buffalo coming back, and his spirit providing again for mankind.

www.sacredgroundintl.org                                     May 29, 2010          22 minutes
www.nativevogue.com

Ava Butler is an organizational development consultant with a real passion for guiding clients through intentional and sustainable change – going for the big game of transformation.  Ava’s background is in social work and she has lived and worked in Europe, as well as guided clients from a variety of industries across the US.  In our show she discusses the “Top 10 Tools for Transformation,” tools that can help both individuals and organizations to embrace change.

www.avasbutler.com                                                  May 29, 2010         23 minutes 

Ginger Kathrens is President of Taurus Productions and the founder and Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation.  She is a first-hand informed, impassioned and entertaining speaker about her sixteen year journey with wild horses. An Emmy award-winning TV producer and award-winning author, Ginger has produced and contributed to programs on The Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, the BBC and PBS.  Her documentary films have taken her all over the world, but the Arrowhead Mountains of Montana, home of the wild horse Cloud and his herd of unique Spanish wild horses, hold a special place in her heart.

www.thecloudfoundation.org                                    May 22, 2010          22 minutes

Tom Wuelpern is President of Rammed Earth Development.  As an architect, designer and neighborhood developer, Tom is known for his contributions to the historic renovation and preservation of areas such as Tucson’s eclectic Barrio District.  His proven expertise and passion for true sustainable, green buildings sets RED’s work apart – quite often reclaiming and reusing unique materials and design features that few others would know to see how to integrate.  Complete design appeal, inside and out.  Like the famous sociologist Jane Jacobs, Tom understands how multi-purpose buildings help regenerate and retain our urban vitality.

www.rammedearth.com                                            May 22, 2010          23 minutes

Judy Rosemarin leads Sense-able Strategies, Inc. a coaching and training firm that helps leaders refine their executive presence, leadership confidence and competence. Her philosophy is based on a deep belief that people have most of the resources they need, with her job being to help them rediscover and reclaim them through safe learning and skills practice.  Judy is a firm believer in the power of storytelling, and is well known in print and television/cable media for her career transition know-how – with quite the splash of dynamic and colorful personal communication in the mix.

Seymour Adler and Lorraine Stomski are Senior Vice Presidents of Aon Consulting, a global human capital consulting firm which serves clients through employee benefits, talent management, and rewards strategies and solutions. Backed with years of industry experience and doctoral studies in industrial and organizational psychology, this team is conversant on contemporary leadership development practices.  They use a Five Phase On-Boarding process to facilitate successful integration of new employees into roles, whether coming from the outside or inside of an organization.

www.aon.com/hcc                                                          May 15, 2010         20 minutes

Abbott Taylor is the versatile creative genius behind Abbott Taylor Jewelers, known for custom pieces executed with state-of-the-art craftsmanship – if you can imagine it, Abbott can make it.  Abbott is also a talented jazz musician coming full circle from high school rock band days to recently recording seven of his songs with legends Pee Wee Ellis (did horn charts for James Brown and Van Morrison) and Jimmy Cobb (drummer for Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock.)  They were joined by Abbott’s A Year of Mondays CD team at Jim Brady Recording Studios in Tucson.  Congratulations!

Chris Bubany of Chris Bubany Studios is a graphic artist known for striking, colorful tableware, tiles and ornaments in true Southwestern patterns.  Her business evolved from a home-based studio that enabled her to also be a fulltime mother – always her first priority – to now having a dedicated, welcoming retail store and manufacturing facility connected to a team of virtual greenware providers and painters.  Chris’ motto is “Celebrate the Everyday”, and she encourages us to find joy, our “voice,” in what we do.

www.chrisbubany.com                                               May 8, 2010          22 minutes

Jennifer Iannolo is a committed “food philosopher” and it is her life’s passion to ignite excitement in others for gastronomy.  As founder, CEO and editor-in-chief since 2005 for web-based Culinary Media Network, Jennifer spent a prior decade in the food industry and launched culinary programs featuring over 100 master and Michelin-starred chefs from around the world.  Today she travels the world literally and figuratively to keep her finger on the pulse of local food scenes.

www.culinarymedianetwork.com                               May 1, 2010       20 minutes

www.foodphilosophy.com

Art Papas is co-founder and CEO of Bullhorn Staffing & Recruiting Software, a “software as a service” firm that serves the $120 billion executive recruiting and staffing industry.  The firm launched amidst the 1999 recession and grew from $2 to 20 million in sales between 2004 and 2009.  During the chaotic economic downturn in 2009, Art and his team re-energized the culture and launched an innovative market approach to “future proof” investments in technology – from software to platform as a service.

www.bullhorn.com                                                      May 1, 2010       22 minutes