Why trust Jess & Light Up Work with your people?

Let’s review…

Real Experience

The reason Jess doesn’t jargon you to death? She’s been where you are.

She spent years inside organizations, first in Human Resources then quickly moving to Learning & Development Management, focused on leadership development, team building, soft skill training and organizational improvement programs (AKA how to get people to do good work and not annoy each other).

Starting her career with Ontario Power Generation in 2008, she then moved to Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd where she discovered her love of working with Engineers. She then hopped over to England to dabble with Learning and Development within the insurance industry to only head back over to Software Developers where she stayed until coming back to Canada and starting Light Up Work. Feel free to head to LinkedIn for the details!

Now let’s get to the highlights

  • Her favourite people to work with are the left brained spreadsheet folks who are ready for real change - hence the engineer theme

  • While there is a focus on the human, it’s always brought back to WHY those messy emotions or funky mindset stuff is core for the business needs. Humans AND cost-benefit analysis for the win. (There’s even a TEDx talk Jess did riffing on this!)

  • There is always a method to the madness - every solution crafted is based on neuroscience, evidence based tools and tested concepts.

  • Action speaks louder than words - whether it’s a training session, a team building or working one to one with a leader, it’s about what you DO back at the office or on the production floor that counts. Getting out of imposter syndrome and into messy ‘ready now’ action is the goal. Always.

The Formal Part

And of course a few highlights from the many formal learning and qualifications to go along with the ‘school of experience’:

  • Masters of Counselling Psychology | Yorkville University, 2024

  • Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) | College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario, in good standing since 2024

  • Bachelor of Arts with Psychology Honours | University of Guelph, 2007

  • Post Graduate Diploma, HR Management, Honours | NSCC, 2008

  • ICF Certified Coaching Program | Co-Active Training Institute, 2012

  • Organizational Relationship Systems Coach Program (ORSC) | CRR Global, 2013

  • Brené Brown: The Gifts of Imperfection course | Lifeclass Presents, 2013

  • Search Inside Yourself | Action For Happiness, 2013

  • Shawn Achor: 21 Days to Happiness | Lifeclass Presents, 2014

  • MBTI Certified Practitioner | Psychometrics Canada, 2012

  • 360 Assessment Certification | Center for Creative Leadership, 2012

Let’s see how I can help

“This session was a defining moment for us as a team.

I brought Jess in to work with my team when I realized we had some very big goals and needed a very high performing team to be able to get there. She lead a team dynamics workshop, which included interviewing with each individual leading up to the day. Despite having virtual meetings she quickly gained their trust and gathered the appropriate information for our discussion. Her warmth and ability to build trust quickly, call us out directly and respectfully, facilitate the day in a fun and focused way all contributed to the success of the workshop. Leading an HR session has got to be the hardest – as everyone thinks they know how to do it - but Jess did it perfectly. The team frequently references the day, its process and learnings and use Jess as a standard for facilitating sessions such as these. I am looking forward to bringing her back to work with my team in the future!”

- Marilyn Nicholson, VP HR Serta Simmons Canada