Denise Bissonnette is a Senior Partner of Milt Wright & Associates, Inc. She is a uniquely impassioned author, trainer and curriculum developer in the field of Employment and Training. Although Denise’s work has broad implications for anyone entering the work world, she is a highly respected advocate for improved employment services for people receiving public assistance, persons with disabilities, refugees and immigrants, injured workers, and persons from other disadvantaged groups.

In the past twelve years, Denise has also trained over 30,000 employment professionals throughout North America. Although she is a popular keynote speaker at national conferences, Denise most enjoys delivering her one and two day workshops in which she is able to deliver hands-on tools and techniques to participants. For more a more detailed description of her presentations, click here.

Drawing from her experience as a job developer for community organizations and as a professional trainer, Denise has authored several publications and curricula [Training Materials]. Her publications include:

To augment her exceptional training on Rekindling the Flame, Denise Bissonnette has a new release for personal growth in and outside the workplace: The Wholehearted Journey. Her poetry, which has become a hallmark of her presentations, is now available on CD A Pilgrim's Plea  Denise's poems embody the aspirations, experiences and hopes of people struggling to cultivate "true" livelihoods for themselves and others.

Both in her writing and her speaking, Denise is known for her innovative and uplifting approaches to job development, case management, vocational assessment and motivational counseling. Speaking to both sides of the employment equation, Denise offers ideas and strategies for bringing about renewed respect and understanding between job seekers and the business community. What she prides herself on most, however, is bringing her readers and workshop participants to cultivate and celebrate their own spirits!

Richard Pimentel is a Senior Partner of Milt Wright & Associates, Inc. He is a nationally renowned speaker and trainer on attitude change, disability management, diversity, rehabilitation, workers' compensation, job development and job retention. 

Richard is not only technically proficient, he is also an exceptional communicator whose audiences praise his ability to combine information, humor, metaphor, analogy and storytelling into an informative whole that does not just  present  the information, but really  communicates  it in a memorable fashion.  

As the key author of the highly acclaimed and widely used  Windmills  program designed to change the attitudes and behavior of supervisors who hire and promote employees with disabilities, he has played an influential role in creating workplace opportunities for persons with disabilities with many of America’s largest and most prestigious employers, which include Fortune 500 companies.

He has authored and co-authored numerous books and professional publications, including Working with People with Disabilities In a Job Placement/Job Retention Environment,  Return to Work for People with Stress and Mental Illness and the Attitudinal Training program, Developing the New Employee: Retaining and Enhancing a Diverse Workforce.  Richard has also received awards from the International Film Festival for his outstanding creative contributions to customer service and health professionals on Return to Work training films.

Richard conducts powerful training and offers consultation nationwide on topics as diverse as: Hiring and Retaining Quality Employees, Changing the Job Placement Culture To a “Team Sharing” Process, Effective Management of Job Order Based Placement, Windmills: Attitude and Disability Awareness, Working with People with Disabilities in a Job Placement/Job Retention Environment, Communicating Effectively with Employees with Limited English, and Attitude Change and Motivation. For more a more detailed description of these presentations, click here.

For the last 14 years, Richard has been rated as one of the top presenters at Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conferences. He is appearing across the nation as an exceptional Keynote Speaker and Presenter who challenges his audience and provides the means for change to happen.  

Anita Lee Wright specializes in organizational development and design of both private and public sector employment, rehabilitation resource and training programs.

As Co-host with Jack Canfield and one of the primary presenters in the acclaimed video series, The GOALS Program, Anita has presented motivational sessions for employment professionals throughout the United States. She has applied her knowledge and acute sensitivity to employment issues, trends and demands for both the private and public sector as the senior editor and trainer of employment and training and corporate in-house training programs that include the following:

With grace and power, she brings energy and enthusiasm to these multi-media programs. 

Not only does her audience gain practical approaches for enhancing employment opportunities, but they also gain confidence to take a leadership role in the changes necessary for their own personal growth and satisfaction in the workplace. 

In presentations throughout the United States, Anita Lee Wright exhorts employees to achieve excellence in all aspects of work life, from performance standards and professional satisfaction to personal effectiveness training with the goal of realizing both individual and company objectives. 

Milt Wright is the creator and founder of Milt Wright & Associates, Inc.  His philosophy in founding the company was to create training programs that would make a positive difference to employers as well as employees. For more than 19 years, under Milt’s leadership, Milt Wright & Associates has provided products, tools and seminars on business service programs, job retention, job development, motivation, reducing disability costs while optimizing employee performance, satisfaction and productivity.  These training materials facilitate the successful incorporation of persons with barriers into the workplace in a manner that is consistent with current State and Federal laws (such as the ADA) and also beneficial and profitable to all parties.  Milt Wright deals with the practical issues of marketing technology and business services, strategic planning, costing and budgeting, and uses his expertise to create programs that bridge the gap between One-Stop Career Centers and the business community.

The goal of Milt Wright & Associates, Inc. consulting and training is to improve organizational ability to manage a changing workforce while reducing costs through recognition and appreciation of the needs of employees.  Under Milt Wright’s leadership, the company has successfully trained more than 75,000 professionals and implemented job retention and return to work programs for many agencies and employers throughout the country.  A few of our employer clients include Motorola, Marriott, Laidlaw, IBM, Cisco, Sunbeam, General Motors, California State University, State of Georgia, James River Corporation, American Medical Response (AMR), Mead Corporation, Rosenbluth International, AT&T and Nabisco Foods.  Additional clients include the California Workforce Association, Build One Stop Center, Career Partners, East Bay Works, State of Wisconsin, Hayward One Stop Center, SETA, New York Employment and Training Association, Ohio Management Training Institute, Connecticut Department of Labor, Oregon Adult and Family Services, and Texas Department of Human Services. 

Milt Wright is an acknowledged expert in initiating successful partnerships between corporations, government and employment training programs throughout the United States and Canada to optimize a valued and productive workforce.  Milt Wright & Associates is seen as one of the leading companies in North America in the design, training and implementation of job retention, job development, business services, disability management, worker’s compensation cost reduction and return to work programs.  

Lynda Jean Groh

Lynda Jean Groh is a nationally known consultant, dynamic trainer and gifted keynote and motivational speaker who uses empathy and humor to dispel and transform deeply held beliefs, fears and biases about the creation of and search for meaningful employment.

Lynda Jean brings to her presentations her personal experience of the miracles that have changed her life.  Twice survived of near-death experiences, Lynda Jean conveys her understanding and challenges, what they mean to our journey and the process that has to take place.

The breadth of her 35 years of practical and hands-on experience in job development, job search skills and motivational training has not only earned Lynda Jean Groh the respect of her professional peers in the employment arena but also the admiration of private and public sector employers throughout the United States.  The recipient of numerous awards, acknowledging her contributions to positive media depiction and expanded services for people with disabilities, Lynda Jean Groh has a mission:  It is to change public perception -- the ways employers and society-at-large view job search and creation.

Attentive to both process and outcomes, Lynda Jean Groh offers skill-based training for job developers and job seekers in a myriad of settings. Persons seeking more meaningful work benefit from her penetrating knowledge of government and private sector employment needs and practices as well as her appreciation of the challenges faced by job seekers.

Known for her creative approach, Lynda Jean couples her knowledge with a philosophy of operating from within. Participants and audiences leave with inspired motivation. She creates an open, stimulating and enjoyable environment while giving practical everyday application. 

Lynda Jean delivers keynote addresses and workshops on the following:

Carolyn Kalil is a nationally acclaimed speaker and author of the best selling book, Follow Your True Color To The Work You Love.   Her mission is to help people discover their unique gifts and talents.  She has spoken to audiences throughout the United States and Canada on a variety of topics including, career, parenting, team building, relationships, and individual diversity.

Once Carolyn started using Don Lowry’s True Colors Personality System, she knew she had to write a career book using this method.  With counseling over 20,000 people, she realized they were asking much more than “what college major should I choose or what job am I suited for.”  They were really asking what should I do with my life?

In 1989 Carolyn wrote a workbook, “How to Express Your Natural Skills and Talent in a Career” using True Colors, and collected enough research since then to pen “Follow Your True Colors To The Work You Love.”  This book is the 7^th  best selling career book in the U.S. and is in use at colleges, high schools, and industry.  Fortune 500 companies like Cisco Systems and Warner Bros. use it for managerial training and team building. 

E-mail testimonials continually flow in with tales of how people have changed their lives after reading this book.  Relationships have healed and parent-sibling communication has reached new levels of understanding.  People learn they no longer have to make others wrong just because they are different.

In addition to being active in the professional Career Development field, she is a sought after speaker and her seminars receive the highest ratings at conferences.  She delivers keynote speeches, workshops and train the trainer events.

Carolyn earned her BA degree in Elementary Teaching in 1970 and her MA in Counseling in 1973 from Ohio State University.  She taught elementary school for 2 years in South Central Los Angeles then began her 30-year counseling career at UCLA and El Camino Community College.  She lives in Southern California with her family.

Alex Valdez

More than 40 million Americans are persons with physical disabilities. The balance of the population likes to consider itself the “normal” majority. Alex Valdez, an inspirational speaker and comedian who happens to be blind, capitalizes on the similarities between the two groups to generate uproarious laughter, empathy and a heightened awareness.

A California native, the nationally acclaimed Valdez is an effervescent, polished performer with an acute sense of hearing and exceptional timing. These innate abilities enable him to read and respond to audiences with genuine insight and understanding.

Alex’s goal is “not only to help audiences accept his own and others’ disabilities, but to recognize that while we may all appear very different on the outside, on the inside we are all very much the same”. His message combined with his humor inspires audiences to appreciate people who vary in terms of age, ability, language and culture.

Valdez delivers his inspirational message with its unique blend of humor to universities, conferences and corporations throughout the United States. His credits include appearances on countless television special and series including: Evening at the Improv, Phil Donahue, CBS’s 48 Hours and the PBS special, Look Who’s Laughing!

Chad Ritchey is best known for his ability to talk with his audience and not “at them”. His areas of expertise include: Customer Service, Change Management, Team Development, Motivation and Leadership.

As the President of Connecting Relationships, LLC Chad is a professional speaker and trainer, who uses a character from a famous movie to connect with his audiences, while delivering unique and content-rich programs to groups throughout the country.

His past experience includes being a Training Consultant for the Kaiser Group delivering training for the State of Wisconsin, Department of Workforce Development, to workforce development professionals in One-Stop Job Centers. He has also served as Director of the Employment Resource Center for a large, urban One-Stop Job Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was later promoted to Director of Training, where he and his team designed and delivered staff development training.

Chad’s presentation style stimulates group interaction. He believes in, and shares with his audience, the philosophy that training is enjoyable and educational. He has presented across the United States at conferences, colleges, meetings, and special events.

Chad is involved in a number of professional development associations, including the Association of Job Search Trainers, where he is serving as President. He is also serving on Wisconsin Employment and Training, Inc. Board of Directors, as President-elect and Chair of the 2002 professional conference.