Dr. Alise Cortez is the chief purpose officer at Alise Cortez and Associates (management consulting) and chief ignition officer at Gusto, Now! (a multi-lingual e-learning platform offering leadership and professional development courses). She is also an inspirational speaker, social scientist, author, and host of the Working on Purpose radio show. Having developed her expertise within the human capital / organizational excellence industry over the last 20 years, she is focused on helping companies, leaders, and individuals across the globe to live with “gusto” and more meaningfully and purposely experience their work to achieve greater fulfillment and well-being, more impactful results, and work-life harmony. Alise earned a PhD in Human Development, focusing her dissertation research on the relationship between meaning in work and identity, and later greatly expanded the inquiry to yield 15 “modes of engagement.” She has served as a leader in several non- profit organizations in Dallas and knows the value of being a servant leader. She draws her language acumen from her previous residence in Spain and Brazil, which enables her to deliver programs and consulting in English (native) and Spanish and Portuguese. Today Dr. Cortez is focused on enabling organizations to lead from purpose and create cultures of meaning that inspire impassioned performance, meaningful engagement and fulfillment, while encouraging a devoted stay within the organization. She has helped develop and transform thousands of managers and executives in their leadership along the way. She also helps companies visioneer for a purposeful future by facilitating meaningful exchange among all stakeholders for an integrated and dynamic strategic future. For individuals, Dr. Cortez facilitates an online global community and various retreats to enable people hungry for a more meaningful and purposeful life to create it for themselves. Her work producing the Working on Purpose radio program is designed to serve as a thought leadership platform to educate and inspire leaders to create workplaces where people actually thrive. Her book, Purpose Ignited: How Inspiring Leaders Unleash Passion and Elevate Cause was written to turn people ON to their own passion and purpose and then help others discover their own greatness and unleash that into the world. The anthology she is curating, called Passionately Striving in "Why": An Anthology of Women Who Persevere Mightily to Live Their Purpose is an international collection designed to encourage everyone to discover and live their purpose.