The University of Louisville online student is a lieutenant in the United States Coast Guard. Serving at Sector Ohio Valley in Louisville as chief of the investigations division, she is responsible for overseeing the response to marine casualties in an area covering over 3,000 miles of navigable waterways on 12 major rivers.

Originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Queary has served in the Coast Guard since 2014. She began her career in the Prevention Field at Marine Safety Unit Texas City as an apprentice marine inspector. Queary also served in Marine Safety Unit Chicago where she was the assistant chief of the inspections division, and at Hampton Roads Recruiting Office in Chesapeake, Virginia, as an officer trainee.

Queary says her career highlight was serving in the Houston area in 2017 during Hurricane Harvey relief and recovery operations. She was directly responsible for ensuring that ports reopened safely and timely with minimal impact to commerce. Despite the long hours and complex operations, she also dedicated off-duty personal time to help rebuild homes and restore damaged communities.

She started at UofL in spring 2022. Although there were many factors in her choosing UofL, she said the school’s academic reputation and variety of majors/programs were at the top of her list. She also appreciated that UofL is military friendly.Ěý

With an expected graduation in December 2023, Sasha intends to use her degree continuing to serve as part of the Coast Guard’s recruiting mission. After retirement from the Coast Guard, she plans to use the knowledge, skills and qualifications learned in the program as a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advocate in the private sector or academia.

Aug 4, 2023, is the 233rd birthday of the U.S. Coast Guard and its precursors, the Revenue Marine, the Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Life Saving Service.

, an organizational development researcher, and associate professor, calls his four-step plan the “RISE Reintegration Model,” a strategic planning framework he says leaders in a range of industries can use to begin thinking through the questions and plans for bringing teams back into the physical workplace.

“Employee reintegration is coming as it becomes safer to do so,” Shuck said. “But from an organizational standpoint, that’s easier said than done. That’s why it’s important for companies to think through these factors and develop a proactive, intentional plan.”Ěý

Shuck’s RISE model centers on four “Rs,” the first being “Reset.” This step, he said, should begin two to three months ahead of bringing employees back, and asks companies to consider how their offices will be different than they were before pandemic shutdown. For example, there may be COVID-19 safety protocols, increased use of technology and employees who need time to adjust back from working out of their living rooms.

“Companies went through one major reset in 2020, when many employees began working remotely, and this is another major reset,” Shuck said. “It’s not going to go right back to business as usual. Things will likely look different than they did before. Companies need to prepare – and help their employees prepare – for that.”

The second R, “Restart,” happens in the first one to two months after companies restart in-person work. In this phase, Shuck said, companies should allow employees time to reacclimate to the old-but-new environment and put a heavy focus on short-term goals, which can build a sense of momentum, value and direction.

The third R, “Recalibrate,” should begin two to four months after companies reopen. In this phase, Shuck said, companies should focus on adjusting business strategy for new information, emerging market norms and a dynamic operating landscape dramatically changed by the global pandemic.

“As we look into the emerging economies of work, there is no country, no industry, no company, no team and no individual that the COVID-19 crisis did not touch in some way,” he said. “In some market spaces, entire industries changed. Some industries no longer exist. In other spaces, new industries and ideas have emerged.”

The last R, “Reinvent,” is all about taking lessons learned during the pandemic and integrating them into the company’s operations. For example, seeing that employees can work from home effectively may lead to giving them more flexibility in office hours. This phase, Shuck said, should happen four to eight months after companies bring employees back and then every six months for the next three years.

“With adapting to change, everything comes down to having a plan,” Shuck said. “By thinking things through and following a clear roadmap, companies give themselves the best chance of coming back better and stronger.”

The startup — called , for “Underestimated People Of Purpose” — is built around a new cultural well-being survey and predictive analytics framework developed by UofL researchers Theo Edmonds, Cameron Lister, Molly O’Keefe and Sonali Salunkhe, along with Xian Brooks from the UofL Office of Diversity and Inclusion.Ěý

The framework, Edmonds said, can help companies understand and improve their cultural well-being, which can be a critical advantage in recruiting, retaining and motivating top talent, driving innovation and surviving rapid, unexpected changes.

“As the of COVID-19 has disrupted everything, every company must become an entrepreneurial company again,” said Edmonds, research team leader and a co-founder of UPOP. “Economic resilience depends on cultural well-being and finding new ways to connect and co-create value with all stakeholders — both inside and outside the company.”

The cultural analytics technology measures three key areas: cultural actions (creativity and curiosity of employees); bridging actions (inclusion, hope, trust, belonging and health-related quality of life); and growth actions (social and economic value creation).

UPOP is launching with a national, COVID-19 specific survey, and plans to share results with founders, venture capitalists, industry groups, policymakers, higher education leaders and corporate executives in a series of briefs and webinars in late summer.

“One of the worthiest innovation challenges in the months and years ahead will be in creating new forms of cultural well-being in our places and spaces,” said UPOP Board Chair, Dayna Neumann. “Cultural well-being is not about changing what came before, it’s about creating what comes next, together.”

The Cultural Well-being Index intellectual property is protected through , which works to commercialize university inventions by working with industry and entrepreneurs. UPOP worked with the EPI-Center to obtain an exclusive license.

UPOP is UofL’s first public benefit corporation spin-out. This means that UPOP is organized to devote some of its profits to supporting underrepresented and underestimated public health and humanities entrepreneurs and to supporting advanced research on workforce culture, resiliency and inclusive innovation. Edmonds said the company also is a certified LGBT Business Enterprise through the

And now, Louisville startup Ěýhas licensed the technology from UofL and is working to get it to market.Ěý

The inventor here, , studies organizational culture and applied behavioral economics as an associate professor at the UofL College of łÉČËÖ±˛Ą and Human Development (CEHD). His is the first licensed technology out of CEHD.Ěý

Shuck said organizations are more productive and, often, more profitable when their employees are engaged in their workplace. Engaged employees also have a better overall workplace experience. However, his research suggests there is a more than 60% drop off in levels of engagement in the first six months of an employee’s tenure.

“Globally, employee engagement remains a critical, and sought-after competitive advantage for businesses and organizations of all sizes,” he said. “It is the differentiator between market share, customer experience and quality. Everyone wants more of it.”

His software, the Employee Engagement Scale (EES), helps companies to monitor that engagement, and hopefully improve it, through brief, easy-to-use surveys that gauge how employees think and feel about their work.Ěý

The EES will be a central part of system for businesses that provides a sort of “virtual colleague” — one that keeps track of who and what staff are communicating while analyzing collaboration. CEOĚýCharley Miller said the “colleague”Ěýcould help leaders in the company better understand their employees and make smart decisions on how to improve the work environment.ĚýĚýĚý

“One of the key aspects of a good colleague is that they are great listeners,” Miller said. “Dr. Shuck’s IP enables us to ensure our virtual colleague is great listener when it comes to understanding how to ascertain employee engagement.”Ěý

Not only is Shuck’s technology the first out of CEHD to be licensed to a company, but it’s the first license of the UofL Office of Research and Innovation’s Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, or EIR, program.Ěý

Miller was one of the program’s first EIRs, to help guide UofL research-backed technologies to market in collaboration with the . After Miller’s term ended, he launched Unitonomy around Shuck’s technology.Ěý

“Sometimes all it takes is getting the right mix of people — researchers, entrepreneurs, community members — in the same room,” said Will Metcalf, executive director of , who launched the EIR program. “This is case-in-point, and we’re so excited to see what grows of this partnership between Charley and UofL.”Ěý

Funding for the EIRs comes from the , a public-private partnership led by UofL and backed by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development to grow Louisville’s entrepreneurship ecosystem.