The Empowerment Alliance

Jae Ellard is an expert on how to use communication to proactively manage stress and maintain realistic work life balance.   Whether through her books, workshops, or advising, her methodology is based on her Awareness Framework. This framework empowers people to identify blocking behaviors and to see opportunities to improve how they communicate and how that communication impacts quality of life, daily processes, and productivity.  Her philosophy blends real-world experiences with communication theory and leading research in cognitive and behavioral science and neuroscience, mixed with co-active coaching techniques.  Her offering includes:

• STOP & Think: 25 Tips for Better Work Life Balance
• SPUN Up: How to Manage Stress & Set Boundaries

Lisa Hufford is the President and Founder of Simplicity Consulting and is a Personal Brand Consultant and Coach.  She is passionate about empowering others to understand and represent their best self.  She leverages her 14 years of strategic Account Management experience, half as a Microsoft employee, to deliver practical and effective content and tools.  Lisa teaches Personal Brand workshops and in 2009 she spoke at the Microsoft Women’s Conference on the topic “Power Presentations: What to Say and How to Say it at Microsoft”.  Lisa’s offerings include:

• Personal Brand: Own Your Life or Someone Else Will
• Lead Effective & Efficient Meetings: One Page Presentation
• Create Clear Commitments

Melissa Benaroya, LICSW is a clinical social worker with an emphasis in children, youth and families.  She is the co-founder of Mommy Matters Seattle, a group for mother’s of toddlers/preschoolers/kinders seeking support from peers and professional advice.  Melissa is also the founder of Green Lake Moms, a 1,400+ member web group dedicated to facilitating resources, services, and activities for local area moms.  Melissa provides consulting services to organizations interested in reaching out to the young mother demographic.  Melissa has a Masters degree in Social Work, is a Credentialed School Counselor and is trained in Positive Discipline and is a Certified Gottman Educator offering the Bringing Baby Home Program for families with young children and offers workshops on Emotion Coaching. Melissa practices as a parenting consultant by blending her clinical training with her knowledge of child development and discipline. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two children, Maya (6) and Shane (4).  Melissa keeps her sanity with an active lifestyle of running and Crossfit!  Melissa’s offerings are focused around relationships and families and include:

• Parenting ToolBox: How to be the CEO of your Family
• Create Your Intentional Family
• Oxygen Mask: Caring For Yourself So You Can Better Care For Your Family
• Staying Friends & Nurturing Your Relationship With Your Partner
• Successfully Raising Children: Positive Discipline 101
• Mommy Matters -Eight week workshops for mothers of toddlers, preschoolers and kinders

Communication and Pitch expert Jenna Lange of Lange International has coached and consulted executives in persuasive communication skills and strategies for over 15 years. She helps people gain confidence to effectively communicate so they can connect and compel any audience.  Her offerings  include:

• High Stakes Communication Coaching
• Executive Presentation Skills
• Pitch Consulting.  Pitch audits to assess your pitching performance as well as consulting on live deals.
• And courses such as Pitch to Win, Writing to Compel, Present to Inspire and Advanced Presentation Design (Andrew Abela’s Course)