The Working Well Podcast

Today’s guest is Pam Cooper.

Pam is a global Human Resources Manager with extensive leadership experience managing company wide occupational health and wellness teams, vendors and benefits programs. 

She's consulted with local and corporate leaders regarding employee and leadership development, program design and facilitation for learning plans, technical competency frameworks, and conducted diversity and inclusion training.

Pam's experience with health & wellness in the workplace has spanned both profit and not-for-profit organizations where budgets, resources and location of employees were all factors in the programs designed and delivered.

Wellness is one of Pam’s core values and she’s a strong believer in its  the power to transform people and workplaces.  Between hikes with her family, and coffee walks with friends she likes to nourish her creative spirit through painting. 

As a leader and a coach, she encourages stakeholders to consider the costs and benefits to ensuring wellness is not simply handled off the corner of the desk.  

In this episode, our guest is Beverly Beuermann-King. For over 20 years, Beverly has used her S-O-S Principle™ with people and organizations who want to control their reactions to stress, build resiliency against life’s challenges, and live healthy, successful lives. Beverly appreciates that there is not ‘one way’ to deal with our business challenges or build our personal resiliency. Beverly believes that it is about building an action plan that works, which is unique to the person and team who builds it.

Back Home Again was inspired by real testimonials that Michael recorded (while working with the Canadian Red Cross) of individuals who experienced the forest fire, evacuation and the road to recovery. Extensive health research was utilized in the creation of the film, script and content including research from the University of Alberta, CMHA and a number of other studies related to mental health and resilience in disaster/post disaster situations.

In this episode, our guest is Dr. Lisa Belanger. She is an award-winning researcher, innovator, and is CEO of ConsciousWorks, a consulting firm teaching habits, skills and work design to be proactive with mental health and performance. Lisa holds a Ph.D. in Behavioural Medicine, an Executive MBA, and is a Certified Exercise Physiologist and High Performance Specialist.

Prior to the pandemic, she was traveling the world (with her two month old baby) visiting organizations to explore company culture, leadership, and the ability to destress from work. She is the founder of a national charity, Knight’s Cabin, which offers wellness programming to cancer survivors, and the author of two books Inspire Me Well: Taking control of your health and A Cup of Mindfulness: For the busy and restless. Her greatest accomplishments are climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with her father, running the Paris marathon and snack holding for two tiny humans.

In this episode, our guest is Rodney Miller. Rod is the president and CEO for CPHR Alberta, a not-for-profit organization representing over 6,000 members within the human resources community in Alberta, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. In his role, Rod is responsible for the strategic direction of the organization, advocacy for the profession and overseeing the standards for the CPHR designation in the region. Rod’s career began in the pharmaceutical biotech industry. He then led the Calgary operation for an international recruitment firm building an award winning organization while driving culture change.

Prior to his current role he led the corporate development organization at a large post-secondary institution where he and his team led the implementation of workforce development across the globe, including projects in Angola, Australia, equatorial, Guinea, Kazakhstan, and Mexico. Rod holds undergraduate degrees in zoology and economics, along with an MBA in leadership and stragety. In addition, Rod is a holder of the CPHR, designation and chartered member of CPHR, Alberta.

In this episode, our guest is Lindsay Lapaquette. She works with middle managers who want to communicate authentically so they can effectively lead their teams without losing themselves. As a former speech language pathologist with a master’s of applied science, Lindsay harnesses, her expertise in the neuroscience of communication and connection to help managers foster an environment of trust and respect in their teams so that everyone can bring their best selves to work.

Lindsay’s approach has been profoundly influenced by her work with First Nations organizations, her experience as a parent of two neurodivergent children and the premature loss of both of her parents. Along with an unquenchable thirst for learning Lindsay brings to her work extensive experience in emotional regulation, trauma informed deescalation, collaborative problem solving mindfulness, cultural proficiency, and non-violent communication.

She is passionate about helping people foster a deeper connection to both themselves and others.

In this episode, our guest is Michelle Berg. She is the Chief Visionary Officer at Elevated HR and employee experience agency located in Calgary, Alberta.

Since 2010, Michelle and her team of nine have supported over 500 companies internationally with various people and culture program initiatives. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in counseling psychology, with the desire to help organizations sort out their issues in a group therapy setting.

And if Michelle's learned anything from this pandemic organizations are certainly struggling with communication. She is a DISC-certified facilitator and has held her charter professional in human resources designation since 2005, she facilitates and develops course curriculum in both employee experience and leadership development with the goal of making work suck less.