Liesel Mertes
Founder, Speaker, Workplace empathy expert
Fields of expertise:
Liesel Mertes is an acclaimed workplace empathy expert. Having experienced her own loss and struggle, Liesel emerged with a deep understanding of what employees need to feel supported at work after a disruptive life event. As the Founder of Handle with Care, Liesel works with groups that want to boost employee satisfaction as well as attract and retain better talent.
Her expertise is broad—loss, returning to work, cultivating resilience, change and compassion fatigue, how empathy impacts the brain—and no disruption is considered less significant. On these topics, Liesel is a dedicated speaker, writer, consultant, and host of the Handle With Care podcast.
Liesel earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a Master’s degree in Business Administration. She has worked in Nairobi, consulted in Fiji and led cohorts in Ghana. Her adventures brought her to Indiana, where she is a proud mother, wife and lover of time spent on the water.
Through her actionable strategies, real life stories and passionate commitment, Liesel helps people survive, stabilize and thrive in the aftermath of adversity.
She is a commissioner for the New Mexico State Personnel Review Board, a board advisor for EDGE, and a member of the Washington DC region Metro Transit Police Investigative Review Panel.
