Alise Cortez History
The Early Years
From the early years of growing up in a family of farmers, then later restauranteurs, I was raised to see work as not a bad four-letter word, something to be endured to get a paycheck, but rather a WAY of living and being in the world that holds nobility. In many ways, my experience of work has helped me realize my own potential, develop confidence, and find a way to meaningfully serve from it. I was 14 years old in the summer between 8th grade and my freshman year in high school when my dad asked me to come to work as a hostess and waitress in her parents’ busy restaurant in northeastern Oregon.
As a studious and quiet youth with just one friend, the thought was beyond terrifying. But one thing scarier was the thought of disappointing the man who adopted me some six years prior when my mom remarried for the fifth time. What if he stopped loving me? What if he wouldn’t respect me?
Lessons Learned - Transformation
Over the course of the four years working in Frasu’s Restaurant during those high school years, I transformed from an awkward, ineffective, and timid wall flower to a dynamic, confident, and efficacious young woman who was known for my deft interactions with customers, memorizing the orders in my head without taking notes for up to 25 people at a table, and efficient handling of several tables and orders at a time. I often thanked my dad “for saving my life” with this invaluable experience that totally transformed my identity and blissfully intervened in the course of my life.
Maybe it’s no surprise, then, that I’ve devoted my career over the last 10 years to helping make this a reality inside companies — where work registers as a fantastic playground that facilitates their realizing potential and knowing they really matter and can make a difference to the world.
Career Transition
After more than a decade in various sales roles in my early, I began my human capital career in 1998 as a staffing professional at Analysts International and corporate recruitment consultant at VoiceStream/T-Mobile while simultaneously pursuing my doctorate degree in Human Development.
My experience includes HR System implementation and change management consulting at Hewitt Associates and PepsiCo, and employee engagement assessment and consulting at the Center for Talent Solutions. I co-founded and served as VP of Sales & Marketing at Improved Experience, a consulting firm that offered online feedback solutions and research for the Human Resource and Recruiting industry. Later, I served as a Consultant for Insigniam, a management consulting firm specializing in breakthrough, innovation and transformation.
Helping Companies with Human Capital Needs
I taught various Psychology courses at the University of Phoenix and Communication and Professional Seminar courses at Southern Methodist University as an Adjunct Faculty Professor. These combined experiences inform my practice helping companies with an array of human capital needs from recruiting, onboarding, employee training and development, change management, leadership development, and organizational transformation and now serve as foundation on the meaning and purpose focus I bring today.
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