In this episode of Activating Hope, we explore the intersection of artistry and leadership with Amelia Acosta-Powell and Emily Tarquin, co-leaders of Actors Theatre of Louisville. They discuss the challenges of leading a legacy arts institution in a post-COVID world, emphasizing the importance of vision, collaboration, and resilience. The conversation also delves into the need for boundaries in the workplace, particularly for women, as discussed with Lisa Kapulitz, who advocates for creating environments where women can thrive without sacrificing their personal lives. This episode offers insights into nonprofit leadership, gender equality, and the future of theater.

Takeaways

• Amelia Acosta-Powell and Emily Tarquin lead Actors Theatre of Louisville.
• Theaters face unique challenges in a post-COVID world.
• Co-leadership can enhance organizational resilience.
• Women seek respected boundaries in the workplace.
• Setting predictable hours benefits both employees and businesses.
• Empowering women to define leadership is crucial.
• Lisa Kapulitz advocates for gender equality in business.
• Creating supportive environments fosters women's success.
• The arts community plays a vital role in societal change.
• Resilience and collaboration are key to thriving in the arts.

During this episode of Activating HOPE with Dr. Luis Velasquez, we’ll dive into the true meaning of resilience—why it's not just about enduring challenges but growing through them. We'll explore the powerful connection between hope and optimism and how they work together to empower leaders in times of uncertainty. Tune in for practical tools and mindset shifts that will help you cultivate resilience, inspire your team, and lead with confidence—even in the face of adversity. Whether you're navigating setbacks or seeking ways to sustain your energy and well-being, you’ll learn actionable insights to help you thrive.

Dr. Luis Velasquez, MBA, PhD is an executive coach in Silicon Valley and a facilitator for the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Once a university professor and research scientist, Luis helps mid-level managers to C-suite executives around the world learn, adapt, grow, and thrive by helping them learn how to reframe their challenges and take the most beneficial next step. Luis is a contributor to Harvard Business Review and Fast Company and was featured in best-selling author Dorie Clark’s book, The Long Game.

He is the author of "Ordinary Resilience: Rethinking How Effective Leaders Adapt and Thrive", a transformational guide designed for leaders who seek not just to survive but thrive in the face of adversity.

An avid endurance athlete, Luis runs marathons, ultra-marathons, and Ironman triathlons. Drawing from his rich background and personal challenges, including recovering from a life altering medical diagnosis, Luis brings a unique perspective to the discussion of leadership and resilience.

In today’s fast-paced work environment, leaders often wear too many hats—resulting in burnout, decision fatigue, and disconnection from strategic priorities. In this episode of Activating HOPE, we’ll explore how successful leaders shift from being doers to enablers, reclaiming their time and empowering their teams in the process.

Our guest, Holly Golebiowski, brings firsthand experience and actionable insights on how to break free from the trap of doing it all. We’ll discuss how leaders can identify what only they should do, how to delegate with clarity and confidence, and how to manage their time around what matters most.

Whether you’re a new leader trying to stay afloat or a seasoned executive aiming to lead at a higher level, this conversation offers tools and inspiration to lead smarter—not harder.

Holly Golebiowski completed her Professional Coaching Training at Coach U and has been an Executive Coach for five years. In her coaching practice and her role as Lead Facilitator of LeaderSkills, Holly works with mid to upper-level management, high-potential leaders, and struggling leaders in her coaching practice. She draws from over 25 years of business management and leadership experience, operating in roles such as a COO and Vice President of Operations at privately held companies and most recently creating and building her own successful real estate business.

Holly graduated from Tiffin University with a Bachelor of Business Administration in 2005.

She has been happily married for ten years and spends her spare time cooking and spending time with her family and friends.

One of the key responsibilities of leadership is finding and growing talented people to enable team and organizational success. And while we hear a lot about talent shortages these days, innovative organizations and leaders see themselves as Talent Scouts of overlooked talent. They have a mindset and superpower that helps them reduce the talent shortage by seeing the gifts of people who are already in our communities and organizations--but who may not match our pre-existing ideas of:

• Who’s talented
• What talent looks like
• Where talent comes from.

During this episode of Activating HOPE with Diane Bailey-Boulet, we’ll discuss how leaders can activate overlooked people in their organizations and make them a source of their greatest strength.

Diane Bailey-Boulet is the President of Scale Excellence LLC, a consulting and coaching firm dedicated to driving cultural transformation in organizations.

With a passion for championing opportunity for all, Diane specializes in leadership development, inclusion strategies, and mentoring programs that empower individuals and teams to thrive.

She is the author of Poverty to Possibility: Snapshots from a Yorkshire Boyhood, a powerful memoir about her father’s journey from a Depression-era coal-mining village in England to a life of leadership and resilience.

Diane’s corporate experience includes:

• Leading a global account team at CoachSource in placing executive coaches;
• Leadership development at Humana, where she designed programs for top executives and scaled enterprise-wide mentoring and women’s leadership initiatives.
• Previously, as Vice President of Client Solutions for Better Communications (now The Ariel Group), she helped leaders in global companies turn their everyday writing into a competitive advantage for building relationships and selling ideas.

An International Coaching Federation-accredited coach, Diane works with a diverse range of coaching clients—from first-generation professionals to military leaders transitioning to civilian life. She holds a B.A. in History from Boston College, completed the Evidence-Based Coaching program at Fielding Graduate University, and studied TESOL at Boston University.

A first-generation British-American, Diane loves to travel, read, make music, and cook. She lives with her husband and is the proud mother of two adult daughters.

Most people think you need a team, office, and round-the-clock hustle to run a successful marketing team. Todd Krise is here to challenge that. In this episode of Activating HOPE, he shares how he left traditional agency life to build a solo business powered by AI and designed for freedom. You’ll hear how to launch your own setup—tools, processes, and mindset included.

But this episode isn’t just about going it alone. Todd also introduces a growing network of like-minded marketers—what he calls “mercenaries”—who are building lean operations while tapping into shared tools, knowledge, and accountability. And for those leading teams, there’s a powerful takeaway: AI isn’t just for automation, it’s a tool for developing people. Todd explains how leaders can use AI to upskill team members, streamline collaboration, and create a more empowered, agile workforce.

Whether you're freelancing, transitioning out of a full-time role, or guiding a team through digital transformation, this episode will show you a smarter way to grow—without the bloat, burnout, or bureaucracy.

Todd Krise is the founder of MercenaryMarketing.ai, where he helps marketers and small business owners learn how to run lean, AI-powered agencies without the need for big teams or bloated systems. With a master’s degree in business communication and six years of experience teaching digital marketing as an adjunct professor, Todd blends practical know-how with a no-fluff approach to modern marketing.

After leading media operations inside traditional agencies, he stepped out on his own to prove that solo operators can deliver more value—faster—when they pair the right tech with the right mindset. His mission is to help others take back control of their time and income by simplifying the business side of marketing. Todd shows how AI can power both personal freedom and team growth without adding unnecessary overhead. Through automation, clear strategy, and a little bit of grit, he helps professionals build flexible, profitable careers—without burning out or selling out.

Leading in moments of crisis requires the higher-thinking part of your brain, your frontal cortex, to orchestrate all of your other brain components to find those stroke-of-genius thoughts that allow things to move forward instead of spiraling into an outright catastrophe. Yet this level of adversity shifts your thinking to the more primitive, survival, component of your brain, your amygdala. At your moment of existential crisis, your intellect is cut in half. What if you could instead double or triple your available intellect at these times? During this episode of Activating HOPE with Joe Luttrell, we’ll discuss how to elevate your own intellect, when you need it the most, so you can lead others involved in the crisis to do the same.

Joe Luttrell is Executive Director of Client-Side Consulting Services and of EQ Leadership Seminars, LLC. He is the author of “Historeq Emotional Accountability™: How Washington, Lincoln, and Churchill Transformed Anxiety into Emotional Intellect” and worldwide seminar and webcast provider on the Emotional Accountability practice and body of knowledge. The seven principles of Emotional Accountability have been included as a primary catalyst in Northeastern University’s Transformative Leader course curriculum.

Joe was a University of Louisville Delphi Center PMI Project Management Professional Instructor and SEI Capability Maturity Model Integration Complex Project Strategic Consultant.

He leads Organizational Change Management and Operational Process Reengineering initiatives for fortune 500 companies. He is a three-term Past President of Kentuckiana PMI. His professional credentials include: Certified Project Management Professional (2012-2020), Certified IIBA Business Analyst Professional, Certified Six-Sigma Professional, and Certified Microsoft Dynamics Project Manager. Joe’s talks are lively, surprising, provocative, and guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat while you are having fun learning the most relevant and practical topic in leadership today, Emotional Accountability.

In this episode of Activating HOPE, we take an honest and hopeful look at what it truly means to lead a nonprofit in today’s complex world. This conversation explores the passion that fuels nonprofit leaders—and the pressures that come with the job.

Our guest, DeVon Holt, brings a wealth of experience and insight to the table as we unpack both the inspiring opportunities and tough challenges of mission-driven leadership. From navigating resource constraints and stakeholder expectations to staying anchored in purpose amid constant change, we’ll explore what it takes to lead with clarity, resilience, and heart.

DeVone Holt is a powerhouse of purpose-driven leadership. With nearly 30 years of experience as a brand builder, culture shaper, strategic communicator, and people convener, DeVone brings a rare combination of vision and execution to everything he touches.

In 2024, he was named President and CEO of the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, a 96,000-square-foot cultural institution dedicated to preserving and advancing the legacy of "The Greatest"—a legacy rooted in service, justice, and courage.

Before stepping into this role, DeVone served as Chief External Affairs Officer at Goodwill Industries of Kentucky, where he led the transformation of a 20-acre brownfield site into a $120 million Opportunity Campus—complete with the area's first full-service hospital in over a century and Kentucky’s first high school for adults, a bold initiative he personally championed.

His career spans leadership roles in education, workforce development, and economic revitalization. From attracting $400 million in urban business investments to co-founding a consulting firm that helped companies invest in inner-city communities, DeVone’s impact is far-reaching. He’s also the author of the best-selling book Hip-Hop Slop, a former radio host, and a recipient of an honorary doctorate from Simmons College of Kentucky for his work revitalizing underserved neighborhoods.

DeVone is a proud husband and father of two future leaders—and today, he joins us to talk about legacy, leadership, and what it truly means to activate hope.

Clarity can mean different things to different people. For some, it arrives in the form of an answer or a direction. For others, it’s understanding the context of a complex situation. For most, however, clarity evokes a calm and focused state of mind with lower stress and diminished anxiety over what to do next. As satisfying as it is to help people find clarity with their business problems, it’s far more rewarding to teach someone how to find their own clarity. During this episode of Activating HOPE with Jim Vaselopulos, we’ll discuss how you can find clarity with your unique business problems.

Jim Vaselopulos is a C-level business advisor and executive coach with a proven record as a leader, strategist, rainmaker, and expert in new business development. With his principled leadership, visionary approach, and effective execution, Jim has successfully established new companies and transformed underperforming organizations. As the founder of Rafti Advisors, Jim assists early-stage businesses in launching successfully, growth-stage enterprises in accelerating their progress, and established organizations in navigating complex challenges and strategic shifts.

He teaches sales and professional development and frequently speaks on the subjects of leadership and innovation. Jim is also the co-host of the popular The Leadership Podcast and volunteers regularly with business incubators and veterans groups. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and earned his MBA at Marquette University. Jim is a dedicated husband and father of two wonderful children with his wife, Dana.