Stephanie Swearington

Out of undergraduate school at Purdue, I worked in banking for several years before I actually utilized my degree in psychology. From the banking industry, I went into mental health and started out working at a 24-hour group home for men who had severe mental illness, working the evening shift. I worked my way up in a community mental health center to piloting brand new programs for mental health, including launching a pilot program where we married mental health with medical health. I decided to go back to school to obtain a master's degree in healthcare administration because I wanted to affect change at the administrative level and advocate for people at the systemic level. I finished my master's degree in a year and a half instead of the anticipated 3 years with a 4.0 grade point average, all while navigating new motherhood. I then worked at the Visiting Nurse Association of Northwest Indiana helping run social service programs like Meals on Wheels delivery, Lifelines, and companion homemaking for the aging population. After taking a year off when I was pregnant with my daughter, I took a secretarial position and worked my way up to director of human resources and operations over 5 years. I was then recruited back to my old employer to launch the first episode psychosis program, which was the second program in the entire state of Indiana. I launched not only the program but also created a community education program called Perspective that brought together clients, family members, community stakeholders, and first responders to have conversations about psychosis and schizophrenia. During this time, I was also diagnosed with breast cancer and am now 5 years cancer-free. While working full-time, I started my leadership training company because I felt I could be doing more. I wanted it to be different from other leadership training companies by focusing on tailored training that addresses specific organizational pain points and includes topics like having hard conversations, self-care, developing emotional intelligence, and navigating the transition from peer to manager.