In this episode of The HumanUp Imperative, host Rex Wallace sits down with Gary Jacobs, longtime healthcare lobbyist, proud dad and grandpa, and author of The Zen Lobbyist, to unpack why presence, compassion, and silence can be as persuasive as any talking point on Capitol Hill.
From Gary’s early days shaping Medicare policy and navigating the intensity of Washington, to the health scares that forced him to confront stress head-on, we explore how a “hyper-executive” life can pull you out of yourself and how mindfulness practices can bring you back. Along the way, Gary makes the case that members of Congress and policy leaders are not just decision-makers. They are humans first. When advocacy becomes relationship-driven instead of transactional, influence changes shape.
We cover:
🧘 Mindfulness in the pressure cooker: why “silence is strategy, compassion is influence, and gratitude is renewal” reframes what effective advocacy looks like in DC.
🩺 Patient first, then mindful patient: panic attacks, anxiety, a blood clot, and a stroke scare that Gary did not recognize in real time, and how those moments rewired his priorities.
🌿 The pivot point: biofeedback, the Chopra Center, and how Gary embraced meditation and yoga as a holistic operating system, not just a wellness hobby.
📦 Box breathing as a real-world tool: the simple four-count method that helps you walk into high-stakes meetings calmer, clearer, and less reactive when life is happening at the same time.
🤝 Human connection beats transactions: why relationships built on authenticity outlast check-writing influence, and how being a trusted translator of “truth on the ground” shapes better policy.
🧭 The vision: a primary-care-led “dream team” model for every American that includes clinicians, behavioral health, navigators, home care, nutrition, and even yoga and meditation support, powered by analytics but anchored in dignity.
⚖️ Value-based care beyond the triple aim: how equity and workforce wellbeing fit into the future, why payment reform alone is not enough, and why slogans do not change incentives.
💥 Leading through loss: Gary’s most helpful failure, losing what he built and rebuilding with intention, courage, and authenticity.
📚 Rapid fire: the one book he returns to repeatedly, the belief that grounds execution, and the reminder that presence is not a tactic. It is a gift.
✨ One way to human up: stop rehearsing life, stop clinging to certainty, and practice being present so you can meet people as humans, not roles.

In the final episode of 2025, Rex looks back on a transformative year of The Human Up Imperative—revisiting each conversation, spotlighting standout moments, and sharing his favorite quotes and takeaways from every guest. He highlights the books and resources that shaped the year’s dialogue and unpacks the themes that surfaced repeatedly across episodes.

At the heart of this year-end reflection is the reminder that human connection is the throughline of every story told and every insight shared. Rex closes out 2025 with gratitude, inspiration, and a renewed commitment to helping leaders “human up” as they head into the year ahead.

In this episode of The HumanUp Imperative, host Rex Wallace sits down with Rick Whitted, 30-year “recovering banker” turned CEO of US Hunger, to explore what it really means to restore dignity in healthcare and community work. From losing everything as a young entrepreneur with a pregnant wife and two small kids, to leading a national nonprofit that treats food as a doorway into people’s stories, Rick unpacks why you can’t human up anyone you haven’t first given voice.

We follow his journey from proud, never-failed banker to a leader who has stared at a pantry box on his own kitchen table—and built an entire model of care around that moment of quiet, complicated shame and relief. Along the way, Rex and Rick make a provocative case: we don’t have a disengaged population, we have an unengaged one—and the difference is everything.

We cover:
🍽 “It’s never about food”: why almost 92% of people US Hunger serves are juggling 2–5 overlapping gaps (not just food), and how food becomes the safest, most flexible social determinant—and the perfect on-ramp to deeper conversations.

🗣 Dignity as voice: how starting with a private, judgment-free conversation (“the bots don’t gossip”) gives people control of their own story, and why you can’t claim dignity, respect, or “human up” if you haven’t listened first.

📊 The hidden hungry: what US Hunger’s real-time data reveals about the “working, insured, food-insecure” class, why benefits or income disruptions push them over the edge, and how the SNAP/WIC shutdown scare surfaced a vulnerable population that doesn’t show up on paper.

🏥 Health plans, supplemental benefits & missed ROI: why the failure isn’t offering food and other benefits—it’s deploying them as transactions with no engagement strategy—and how converting food into an incentive for engagement changes quality and Stars math.

🤝 Community-based orgs as trust brokers: how US Hunger embeds with case management and community teams so members can connect with the plan through a trusted CBO, and why “food is engagement” is more than a tagline when it’s wired into Z codes, SNOMED, and real outcomes.

🏠 “You can’t treat strangers better than your own house”: inside US Hunger’s culture practices—team syncs, quarterly “recharges,” Gallup surveys, and radical manager accountability—and why Rick insists the ethos for member dignity must start with how you treat your employees.

💥 The cardboard box moment: Rick’s most helpful personal failure—losing his business after 9/11, staring at that pantry box from his grandmother and aunts, crying alone in the bathroom—and how that experience shaped his empathy for people who would never ask for help.

💸 The hardest call he ever made: choosing not to furlough two-thirds of his staff in 2020, burning through cash and clawing back over years instead—and how that decision rewired the organization’s trust, fear level, and loyalty.

📚 Books & anchors: Rick’s own book Outgrow Your Space at Work on how we emotionally translate our careers, plus the daily role of faith and devotionals in “saving his humanity from himself.”

✨ One way to human up: stop diagnosing people—and organizations—before you’ve listened. Start inside your own walls, one manager and one conversation at a time, and design every engagement so it quietly tells the person in front of you: you have a voice, and it matters here.