ABOUT OUR
MASTER FACILITATORS

Prior to joining Fierce, Luis developed and facilitated training workshops for Microsoft’s global effectiveness, intercultural communication, and other targeted training sessions to improve customer satisfaction, intercultural competency, and communications of customer support engineers working with premier Microsoft accounts in the U.S.

With more than 15 years of experience with Marriott International and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Luis brings extensive hospitality leadership experience and a keen sense of customer service. At the Ritz-Carlton, he directed the implementation of Total Quality Management strategies, helping to win the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award twice as a result.

A native English speaker, Luis also speaks Spanish fluently and is conversant in Portuguese. His passions include music of all kinds, world travel, yoga, and surfing.

Ellen has been a researcher and practitioner of Organizational Psychology over the past 16 years focused on elevating the employee experience throughout the hiring, onboarding, performance management, and professional development lifecycles.  

Prior to joining Fierce, Ellen has worked in various roles to champion employee engagement initiatives focused on providing leaders the tools and training to successfully develop high performance teams and improve employee engagement and retention. She has worked in the public and private sector for organizations such as the California Public Utilities Commission, Allstate Research and Planning, Great Place to Work Institute, and the San Francisco Human Services Agency. 

Most recently, Ellen was the Performance Excellence Manager at Colorado College where she brought the Fierce Conversations training series to their in-house professional development program for staff and faculty members.  

Ellen attained her Bachelors of Science in Global Business and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Redlands. She studied Chinese, International Business, and Applied Psychology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has a Master’s of Science from San Francisco State University in Industrial Organizational Psychology and she is a Gallup trained Strengths Coach.  

Outside of the world of employee engagement, Ellen spends her free time playing badminton, tennis, and pickleball. She lives in Colorado Springs with her husband, 3 children, and 2 dogs.