About the Series
George Mason University’s Leading to Well-Being Speaker Series features presentations from innovative speakers who work at the intersection of leadership and well-being. They will share some of the latest well-being research and insights with you. After each presentation, you can use what you’ve learned to fuel your professional and personal success. Plan to join us online with your colleagues and friends. These presentations are offered for free by the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being.
REGISTER NOW
Join us on Wednesday, March 29, from noon to 1:30 p.m. ET, for “From Self-Care to We-Care: Insights from CEOs, Employees, and Health Care Professionals.”
They will be sharing insights from CEO interviews on psychological safety that reveal strategies leaders are using to impact workplace well-being. Also, they will discuss what a study of therapists and employees showed about what they’d like to see happen in their workplaces for greater well-being. Laura and Michael help host the Happy at Work podcast, where they interview organizational leaders, human resources professionals, and positive psychology researchers about creating more positive workplaces.
Laura is an organizational psychologist and business leader, focusing on the intersection of science and human resources. She is an expert on creating great places to work. Her research is centered around employee well-being, employee engagement, and organizational culture. Laura is the owner of Paris Phoenix Group, a consulting firm specializing in driving impactful research and outcomes. In her consulting business, she has worked with numerous organizations to assess and transform their cultures. Laura was also a co-founder of Limeade, an employee experience software company, where she held the dual roles of Chief People Officer and Chief Science Officer. Before Limeade, Laura worked at Microsoft as Director of People Research. She earned her Ph.D. and M.S. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Old Dominion University and a B.A. in Psychology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Michael is a six-time serial entrepreneur who started his first business at the age of 16 and financed his freshman year at New York University with the revenue from his first three weeks of sales. From 1994 to 2004, he was the #1 Stock Market Timer in the United States. After a brief period of early retirement, in 2010 Michael founded Budi Products, a food company designing brain-healthy gourmet snacks that was acquired in 2015. Michael now focuses on teaching entrepreneurship, sales, leadership, and public speaking. He developed the Leadership Sailing Program for MIT Sloan Executive Education in 2016 and is the founder of Boston Executive Training, a Boston-based consulting firm. Michael is the author of two books, Power Public Speaking: Harness Your Fear and How to Sell: Even When You Don’t Want To. He holds a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Finance and Management degree from New York University.
For more information on the Leading to Well-Being Speaker Series, please visit https://wellbeing.gmu.edu/certificate-programs/leading-to-well-being-speaker-series/.
The speaker series is offered at no cost to our Mason community and the public. If you would like to donate to the UL Student Emergency Assistance Fund, the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, or another Mason fund or organization, please use the link: https://advancement.gmu.edu/welss. Thank you for your generosity.
A Few of Our Past Speakers
Anjali Patel

Speaker, Lawyer, Business Consultancy Founder, and Author
Anjali Patel is CEO of Sweatours.com, a diversity, inclusion, and well-being consultancy focused on unleashing cultures of global connection. She speaks about her book Humanity at Work: Diversity, Inclusion, and Well-Being in an Increasingly Distributed Workforce regularly, at places such as industry conferences, organizations, TEDx, and Google StartUp Grind. She is a military wife and mom of three children and a dog.
Kevin Fenton

Public Health Expert
Professor Kevin Fenton, CBE, serves as Regional Director of the London Office for Health Improvement and Disparities in the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care. He helps leaders work for well-being and equity for all as we manage public health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Featured Leading to Well-Being Programs
Leadership Coaching for Organizational Well-Being
The Leadership Coaching for Organizational Well-Being program will equip you to make positive change happen in your team and organizational culture. It emphasizes strengths-based and transformative practices. This experiential program features a curriculum that aligns with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) requirements and coaching competencies.
The Masterful Coaching Course is a practicum for PCC-credentialed coaches to take their coaching to the next level of success. It meets the criteria for Level 3 Coaching Education accreditation by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and includes in-depth instruction and exploration of advanced coaching topics.