“Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action. It’s the impetus for creating change.” – Max Carver

We think Max Carver got it right and that if we truly care about community building and making positive changes in the world, we have to invest in learning about how to become even more empathic as empathy is at the heart of true understanding. We asked some deeply empathic leaders to share their perspectives below.

Cherish Stephens-Vickers

Sometimes the most important qualities are shaped in the exact places where we were most deeply hurt.
I have always been an empathetic person, sometimes to a fault. As a kid, I made a quiet pact with myself: If I ever saw someone hurting, I would never look away. That promise came from experiencing my own pain and knowing how isolating it feels when no one notices. It is something I have carried with me ever since. Read More>> 

Evan Odinsoff

I’ve experienced quite a lot in my own life. I grew up in poverty. I did not understand the magnitude of what that meant until I went away to college on the other side of the country at 18 years old and had to provide for myself.

I worked at a grocery store so that i could afford to pay the remainder of my tuition balance on a payment plan each semester after financial aid. I remember eating peanut butter sandwiches for every meal of the day because we did not have a kitchen in my dorm and I could not afford a school meal plan. Read More>> 

Kevin Spencer

When I think about how I developed my empathy, I have to go back to a turning point early in my career. My wife, Cindy, and I were pursuing life as a professional illusion team when everything changed in an instant. The car I was in was hit by a tractor trailer. I woke up in neurological intensive care with a closed brain injury and a lower spinal cord injury. Read More>>

Bárbara HerMor

I always thought I was a very empathetic, respectful and open minded person until a muslim girl did the Salah ritual inside a Buddhist temple.

I was living as a volunteer in the Kadampa Buddhist Temple upstate New York and one day me and Ria had the task to clean the coffee shop, which at the time was inside the temple. Usually at noon, she would run to the barn (where our room was) to do the salah, and come back. That day Rachel was in charge of the coffee shop, one of the residents at the temple.  Read More>> 

Brian Thibodeau

The creative ego wants what it wants. Sometimes it even demands it. But the rigid box of empathy (the brief, the rules, the limits) isn’t a cage… it’s the gateway to freedom.

Empathy is the most underrated skill in my industry of creative branding and advertising… and maybe in life. Read More>> 

Heather Seeger

Quite simply, Jesus helped me to develop empathy. Don’t worry, I’m not here to preach at you, but I hope to encourage or empower you to take the actions you feel called to do!

I believe empathy is one of the many skills that develop with us—if we choose. Growing up, I could easily sympathize with others; it came naturally. I could feel what they were feeling and sit with them in their pain. As I got older, I felt compelled to do something about those feelings. Like, I wanted to do something for the people, but I felt stuck. What do I do for people experiencing pain? This is empathy. I like the simple definition from Webster’s Dictionary. Read More>> 

LaTanya Foreman

Several years ago, my eldest son began facing significant challenges with his mental health. His situation took a drastic turn for the worse when he ceased medical treatment and sought alternative coping mechanisms. What began with marijuana use eventually escalated to harder substances, leading him to find solace on the streets. Read More>>