Over 70% of teen girls avoid normal daily activities when they feel bad about their looks.

Team

Amy Wise

Co-Founder, Director of Resource Development

Amy is an author, coach, speaker, writer and editor. She is the author of Believe in Yourself ~ Inspire Others ~ Spread Joy. Believe in Yourself ~ Inspire Others ~ Spread Joy was an Award-Winning Finalist in the Inspiration category of the 2014 National Indie Excellence Book Awards and in the Self-Help: Motivational category of the 2013 USA Best Book Awards by USA Book News. Additionally, Amy is a contributing author in the anthologies Dancing at the Shame Prom and Oil and Water and Other Things That Don’t Mix. She is the creator of The Many Shades of Love blog, where she writes about the ups and downs of being in an interracial marriage and family. She is also a guest writer on various websites and blogs and is a ghostwriter and editor for all genres of writers. Along with her writing, Amy is a motivational speaker for all types of events and groups. Amy is also a Certified Professional Coach who is forever passionate about helping others find their joy, follow their heart and live their dreams!

Jennifer Myers

Co-Founder, Director of Programs
Jennifer is an expert prison consultant, author, storyteller and advocate for criminal justice reform. In 2007, she founded LA Myers Consulting–a prison consulting business that prepares men, women and their families for the experience of federal indictment to incarceration, and their release.
Jennifer’s writing and art has been published in the literary journal, Qarrtsilunini, and she received an honorable mention in the 2009 Pen Prison Writing Contest, along with her poetry being published in the anthology, Razor Wire Women. Her memoir, Trafficking The Good Life, was published in 2014 by Bettie Young Books, and was a finalist in the San Diego Book & Writing Awards.
Jen’s advocacy and desire to make a difference in our nation’s broken prison and criminal justice system inspired her to speak in middle schools and high schools throughout San Diego County at Violence Impact Assemblies, about making good choices. She spent two years writing a 3-month curriculum to help at-risk teens and women recently released from prison to make positive choices and to help them realize that they can recreate their life at any moment. This led her to found R.I.S.E. To Empower, where she has worked with at-risk pregnant teen girls (many with incarcerated parents), homeless teens and has partnered with San Diego U.S. Federal Probation, working with high at-risk women recently released from Federal Prison.
In 2017, Jennifer went back into prison for the first time since her release–this time as a volunteer on a high security yard in a men’s prison, R.J. Donovan Correctional. There she quickly discovered her love of working with men inside prison, and helped produce the first TEDx inside of a prison in San Diego, eventually becoming Co-Organizer of TEDxDonovanCorrectional.
In 2018, they produced a second TEDx event inside Donovan and proceeded to run the program for the next two years until Covid. In 2018, Jen also delivered a TEDx talk at TEDxWilmingtonWomen, was honored by the mayor of Chula Vista, CA for her work with incarcerated women, and was showcased as a Prison Consultant on Lifetime’s Abby Tells All.
For the last four years, Jen has been showcased as a prison expert on Good Morning America, The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and Inside edition. She has also been interviewed by Entertainment Tonight, Bloomberg News and Town & Country Magazine.
Ultimately, Jen has come to realize the power of adversity, the magic that happens when we share our stories with the world—the importance of restorative justice, non-violence and forgiveness, and the understanding that love can arrive when we least expect it—beyond culture, location or even…from behind prison bars.
  • R.I.S.E. to Empower © 2014
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