KATIE ABBOTT

Katie began her career in the Arts, her experience spanning the private and public sectors. This included helping to run a Live Performance Venue, a Contemporary Art Gallery and also a Theatre Company working within the Criminal Justice and Mental Health systems.

Working with a diverse range of people across different disciplines confirmed her desire to make people and their lives her priority and focus.

Katie’s investigation into mental wellbeing took her across many continents, learning and studying with some of the world’s leading health care professionals.

In April 2007 she set up a practice at the renowned 1 Harley Street in London. Katie has written for the National Press and is a contributing writer for The Guardian Newspaper UK.

ALLISON “JOY” CUMMING

Joy currently works for the Department of Massachusetts Veterans of Foreign Wars at the State House in Boston, Massachusetts in service of veterans. She chooses to spend her free hours volunteering for the VFW and other veteran organizations.

KATIE HARVEY

Katie Harvey is a Professional certified Coach with the International Coach Federation (ICF).

Katie trained at CoachU with whom she is now a member of the teaching faculty and a Professional Mentor Coach.

Katie is passionate about standards in coaching and for that reason served on the board of directors for the UK International Coach Federation.

Katie has coached clients on their leadership, personal management and career management within companies such as BT, BBC, Vodafone Global Enterprises, Everything Everywhere, Coca-Cola Hellenic, Orange, ABN AMRO, Microsoft, Honeywell, LogicalCMG, Hearst, Disney, AMEX and Accenture. She has also worked in the public and charitable sector with the NHS and The Terence Higgins Trust amongst others. Clients describe working with Katie as “So professional I feel safe to explore and challenge myself much further than I would alone” and talk about her style as “Insightful, warm and challenging”

 MAUREEN OSWALD

Maureen has been happily teaching middle school language arts for 28 years in Farmington, Maine. She is married with three enthusiastic, loving and unfortunately almost fully-grown adult children.  “Those childhood days were the best!”

Maureen knew by the age of 12 that she would be a teacher, having opened her own neighborhood “school” at that time and hiring a principal (age 11) with the $1.00 a week cost per student she charged.

The financial pay hasn’t increased much since that time, but Maureen feels that the rewards of watching children ignite with life is far more important. Recently, Maureen’s spirit was renewed after taking classes with Bill, whom she credits with inspiring her to inspire others.

Maureen loves meeting new people and observing their personal growth through classes such as “What Every Person Can Do” and “Inspired Teaching.” She is excited about convening classes in order to be among others who share the desire to celebrate what lies within all of us.

EMILY SCHWEPPE

Emily is in her second year of Graduate School, seeking licensure and a master’s in early childhood education.

She has had the opportunity to teach English in Mexico and Italy to children ages 5-9 and currently teaches kindergarten in an elementary school in Cincinnati.

Emily is lit up when she is working with youngsters in and out of the classroom.

Her goal is to create inspired learning environments as a means for children to experience love and possibilities.

DAMIAN BLANCHARD-MCINTOSH

“Time is short in this life and I want to be positive. I wouldn’t be able to do that if I held onto negative emotions, whether they arise from personal experiences with people or events. I won’t allow those emotions to immobilize me.” – Damian Blanchard-McIntosh

Damian’s interest in the well-being of his peers began in the first grade as he found that a seemingly angry and aggressive classmate could be transformed into a best friend with a little compassion and understanding.

Damian’s sense of fair play, values and social justice continued in elementary school when he discovered that not all students were receiving equal portions at school lunch. Free or reduced-price students were at the end of the lunch line and often did not receive equal portions. Damian advocated with the school principal to have this changed and was successful. Since middle school Damian has volunteered to tutor his peers and this practice continues as he completes his under graduate degree in psychology.

My experience with Damian began after his father was released from the Maine State Prison, where he participated in “What Every Person Can Do.” Damian and his mom completed the program about a year after his dad was released. Damian completed the training to Convene the “What Every Person Can Do” during High School.

As our youngest Convener, Damian will offer “What Every Person Can Do” to peers in college and intends to bring his experience with it to his professional training as a therapist. Damian says, “This work supported me in reaffirming my self-worth and motivated me to rethink my goals and how to achieve them.” No one I know has made more use of this work and Damian’s kind and generous personality will be of use to anyone who works with him!

STEPHEN WOOLSTON

Stephen has had an accomplished career as an IT consultant, with over 28 years’ experience working in large, high pressure corporate environments.

Stephen has also been a professional coach since 2005, coaching executives in a global Fortune 50 corporation as well as individual private clients, and clients of his group programmes.

Stephen’s experience gives him first-hand knowledge in the ways our corporate workplaces can be unwell, the difficulties experienced by professional working people, and the astonishing difference that is made in people’s lives and workplaces when they do this work.

Stephen’s passion is coaching success with unshakeable emotional wellness, because, as he says himself, wellness is the foundation that allows success to be joyful, attainable and sustainable.

VALERIE KNIGHT

Having done ‘What Every Person Can Do’ and ‘The Advanced Exploration’ courses with Bill, Val is passionate about talking with people and exploring with them, the resources they have inside, in order to live the best possible life. Val is happy having conversations over Skype and face to face.

Val is currently working in the health sector, training professionals to work with patients in a more personalised way. This enables individuals to work with what they have inside them, in their journey to manage their own health and wellbeing.

Val has had the opportunity to work with children and families for over 35 years and lights up when children are anywhere near. Her favourite time is to be in the present moment with her grandson.’

Nature has a special place in Val’s heart, as that is where she sees the everyday miracles of this world we live in.

HENRY ZHANG (张旭阳)

Henry is from Shanghai China, he is an easy-going and open-minded person with a passion for cultural exchange, observing new places and ways of life, talking with people and ready to be a 100% listener any time. He has been working in the international trading industry for 13 years and meanwhile a part-time Chinese language teacher with a Certificate for
Teachers of Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages. He was totally overwhelmed the first time he heard the definition of NAMASTE from bill, having done ‘What Every Person Can Do’ and ‘The Advanced Exploration’ courses with bill, he firmly believes that there are always choices, we can make a difference and make our world a better place, one person at a time.

“Henry Zhang is one of the more resilient people I have ever met. He has mastered numerous challenges and has the ability to navigate situations that arise from the ungrounded behavior of other people in every kind of environment. One of the most amazing demonstrations of the grasp Henry has of the pragmatic power of loving kindness came last year in the midst of the Covid-19 uproar around the world. He noticed a group of people being negative, derogatory, rude, lashing out at others in their frustration over the conditions in their country. Without knowing any of them, he began to write each one individually and express his suggestion that anger and hostility would not solve the problem – loving-kindness, understanding compassion and real communication would. Nine out of ten of the combatants he reached took down their hostile tirades and replaced them with solution-oriented compassion, thanking Henry in the process. He brings this heart-felt hearing to his What Every Person Can Do conversations each week.”

– bill cumming