Supporting Whole Person Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Cultivating a healthy mind supports sustainable well-being for entrepreneurs to navigate complex challenges and thrive in the world of innovation in a resilient, empowered way.
By integrating evidence-based, well-being tools into the core of our offerings, entrepreneurs have the opportunity to learn skills and cultivate inner resources that can support entrepreneurial thinking and adapt to meet their unique, individual experiences as they navigate the ever-evolving path of entrepreneurship.
Individual well-being motivates collective well-being and compassionate action in the world — and it’s through this sense of connection that we as an entrepreneurship community can impact the work we do together and the ways that we do it.
In collaboration with our student entrepreneurs and community members, we envision nurturing calmer, healthier, more compassionate start ups and communities, starting from the inside, out. Through our programs and events, we hope to:
- Establish well-being as a foundational and integral part of entrepreneurship in a way that adds dimension and brings value to the LEC and MKE community
- Highlight entrepreneurship and innovation — create an inclusive and diverse community rooted in curiosity and compassion, for wellness entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs interested in wellness
- Share accessible and holistic tools, practices and resources that foster and support sustainable habits and well-being in daily life
- Develop a deeper understanding of how to prioritize and integrate emotional and mental well-being into all aspects of entrepreneurial culture
Community Conversations: An interactive talk series featuring entrepreneurs who share their insight on what it means to be well as they start and grow a business, how to create more well-being accessibility and inclusion in their work, and why this matters for the whole of entrepreneurship. Each talk includes a short, guided meditation.
Amelia Coffaro is our Well-Entrepreneur-in-Residence. She is the Founder of the Well Entrepreneur Series and runs meditative practices. Outside of her work with Well Entrepreneur, Amelia is a licensed yoga therapist with a mission to make integrative health and healing accessible to everyone. Amelia was a part of the I-Corps cohort in 2019 and more recently completed the Student Start Up Challenge at the LEC.
Previous Community Conversation Speakers:
Venice Williams is the Executive Director of Alice’s Garden and its visionary leader. She calls herself a cultural and spiritual midwife, strongly believing she was put in Creation to help bring forth all that is good and whole in people and places. She has been doing just that in Milwaukee for the past twenty-seven years. She may be reached at venicewb@gmail.com.
Susan A. Lubar the President and Founder of Growing Minds. Susan founded Growing Minds after recognizing that developing a keen sense of awareness was the most valuable skill she had encountered for children. Growing Mind’s mission is to empower adults to build safe and trusting relationships, thus creating kinder communities and better learning environments for youth. Susan has trained with the most established programs, including Mindfulness in Schools Project .b and .b Foundations, Mindful Schools, Learning to Breathe, UCSD Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Teacher training and Mindful Self-Compassion with Kristen Neff to develop the programs that would be useful to Milwaukee area schools. Check out Growing Minds website here, and their Instagram here.
Mark Fairbanks is our incredibly insightful and well-spoken Social Innovation Entrepreneur-in-Residence. He is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Islands of Brilliance. Islands of Brilliance utilizes project-based learning which allows neurodiverse students to grow their intrinsic capabilities and practice communication, increasing their likelihood of independence as adults.
We recognize and honor that well-being needs are unique for everyone, and make every effort to share our programming in the most accessible way possible. If you are a UWM student looking for additional support, we want to connect you with Let’s Talk, a program providing informal consultation on general issues or questions and concerns connected to mental health. Many thanks to our friends at the Norris Health Center at UWM. For additional questions, please reach out to: nhc-help@uwm.edu