West Foundation Community Convening: Telling Your Story
At this West Foundation community convening, panelists discuss identifying and communicating the stories that are important to your work, including actionable advice for your narrative.
Panelists
Michael Kass – Founder, Story and Spirit
Michael Kass is an international facilitator, consultant, and healer who works with organizations and individuals to weave a new story that brings us into greater connection with ourselves, each other, and the wider world.
Witnessing the power of story, deep presence, and a simple breath to facilitate transformation, he has developed a unique approach that brings together elements from coaching, a decade-plus of breathwork facilitation, storytelling, and earth-based practices to support his clients in stepping into a more aligned, vibrant, and vital future.
Michael is an ICF Certified Executive Coach, Certified Breathwork Facilitator, has completed Trauma Informed Heartmath Facilitation Training and Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy Training with the Embody Lab. He is the co-author of the Hollywood Homeless Youth Partnership’s Ethical Storytelling Whitepaper and serves on the Advisory Council for the International Dignified Storytelling Project.
Sarah Hummell – Founder, Retail Politics
With 15 years of experience in organizing, corporate management, and staffing, Sarah Hummell founded Retail Politics. She’s an expert in recruiting, building, and training successful teams, having hired over 1,000 positions as a leader and professional headhunter.
An Advance Gallup-certified Strength Coach and member of the International Coaching Federation, Hummell previously led retail staff at Abercrombie & Fitch and Williams Sonoma Inc. She launched the Hollister Co. as the company’s first female and youngest district manager with the A&F family.
Hummell went from retail to politics in 2011 when she joined the Obama campaign in Ohio and started her path in the political space. In 2022, Hummell trained over 200 candidates for office in Brazil on how to run effective grassroots campaigns. She holds a B.S. in Labor Studies from Indiana University. Proud Hoosier.
Jessica Kizorek – Founder, Eyes on Your Mission, Two Parrot Productions
Entrepreneur. Activist. Futurist. With her unique experience telling stories with video, Jessica Kizorek teaches nonprofits and entrepreneurs to use multi-media inside of websites, social platforms, apps and eBooks. She is a futurist, constantly encouraging clients to deepen emotional relationships online.
Since 2001 Kizorek has developed a presence for herself, both domestically and abroad, as an entrepreneur and international activist. Working primarily with large non-profits – such as The AARP Foundation, Special Olympics, and Lions Club – through her company Two Parrot Productions (co-founded in 2001 with her father Bill Kizorek) she has created hundreds of short films and video-centric fundraising campaigns.
Having traveled to over 60 countries, she has covered a multitude of humanitarian causes as a journalist and documentarian. Many times venturing onto the front lines of such efforts as education in Pakistan’s largest refugee camp, World Women’s Day in Nepal, and fair trade farming initiatives in Ghana. A large chunk of this work – including the airline miles to fly their crew around the world – is donated by the Kizorek family.
As a diplomat representing the USA, Jessica travels the world empowering millennial women to enter the workforce and start businesses. She facilitates this mainly through an organization she founded in 2010 called Badass Businesswomen. Her production company covers many issues; though female entrepreneurialism is the cause closest to her heart. Referred to as a “Women’s Empowerment Specialist” by the US Department of State and a “Small Business Expert” by Fox News, Jessica speaks to international audiences about the art of modern business in a digital world.
Kizorek has written 8 books, many of which focus on marketing with video on the internet; as well as Make Them BEG, a digital video educational product line designed to teach female entrepreneurs how to create an irresistible personal brand, that won first place in the Miami Herald’s Business Plan Challenge.
Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa, graduate of University of Colorado Boulder with a degree in International Business. Guest lecturer at Princeton, UC-Berkley, University of Michigan, University of Miami and Miami Ad School. She has also appeared as a featured guest on major news outlets such as Fox, NBC, CNN, Weekend Today and the Better Show.
Kizorek is an elite athlete; at one point, she was ranked second in the United States in track cycling and second in Chicago for tennis. She is a poet, singer/songwriter, and fine artist with a collection of over 30 canvases covered with calligraphy, electrified light, and shattered mirror.