“I'm used to helping other people get through their darkest days, and suddenly, here I am, the grieving mum, wondering if anything that I've ever learned is going to be relevant and helpful to me now” - Dr. Lucy Hone

After the sudden loss of her 12-year-old daughter, Dr. Lucy Hone was forced to put her life’s work on resilience to the ultimate test.

In this episode of Standing Up Strong, host Dr. Jillian Coppley sits down with the renowned resilience researcher and grief expert to explore how personal loss shaped Lucy’s groundbreaking approach to grief, healing, and human flourishing. Lucy expands our understanding of grief beyond bereavement, introducing the concept of “living losses”—the heartbreaks that don’t involve death but still deeply impact our lives. From divorce and estrangement to illness, infertility, and job loss, these experiences can leave people feeling untethered, isolated, and unseen—and asking, How will I ever get through this?

Through research and lived experience this conversation highlights the role of character strengths—including hope, forgiveness, curiosity, and perseverance—as tools we can draw on in times of adversity, even if they aren’t what we usually consider to be our strengths. These strengths don’t remove pain, but they can help us navigate it with intention, connection, and courage.

Dr. Jillian Coppley is a visionary executive recognized internationally for her expertise in character strengths, wellbeing, and organizational transformation. With deep experience in positive psychology, strategy, and change, she has led large-scale collaborations, built global programs, strategic partnerships, and thriving organizational cultures that empower individuals, teams and organizations to flourish. Her leadership blends strategic vision, research-based innovation, and deep personal care for others —creating environments where people and programs thrive and where meaningful, lasting impact takes root.

Dr Lucy Hone is a resilience researcher, grief specialist, and author committed to helping people face the toughest chapters of their lives with clarity, compassion and practical tools. Her TED talk, "Three Secrets of Resilient People," has reached over 9 million viewers worldwide, and her first book, "Resilient Grieving," is now in its second edition. She's spent over 15 years studying how humans cope with loss, disruption and change - blending lived experience with evidence-based strategies to help people rebuild after heartbreak.

This series is part of the Cynthia & Harold Guttman Family Center for Storytelling at the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the science of character strengths is integral to our work, creating a community of upstanders.

https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/

https://www.youtube.com/@holocaustandhumanity

Our thanks to the Mayerson Family Foundation and the VIA Institute on Character for their support of this series

https://www.mayersonfoundation.org/

https://www.viacharacter.org/

Episode Resources

Follow Jillian and Lucy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcoppley/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlucyhone/

https:// www.instagram.com/drlucyhone/

https:// www.facebook.com/DrLucyHone

https://www.tiktok.com/@drlucyhone

Buy Lucy’s new book available from Simon & Schuster:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/How-Will-I-Ever-Get-Through-This/Lucy-Hone/9781668227893

Lucy's TED talk

https://www.ted.com/talks/lucy_hone_the_three_secrets_of_resilient_people

Take your free character strengths quiz here

https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/upstander/assess-your-character-strengths/

Your relationships might be the most important thing you’re not training.

"We should invest our relationships, like our health and well-being depends on it, because it does." - Suzie Pileggi Pawelski

In this episode, Suzie and Dr. James Pawelski—the husband and wife who co-authored the book Happy Together—explore how thriving relationships aren’t all about finding the perfect match, but about putting in the right kind of effort to build something worth having.

Dr. Jillian Coppley is a visionary executive recognized internationally for her expertise in character strengths, wellbeing, and organizational transformation. With deep experience in positive psychology, strategy, and change, she has led large-scale collaborations, built global programs, strategic partnerships, and thriving organizational cultures that empower individuals, teams and organizations to flourish. Her leadership blends strategic vision, research-based innovation, and deep personal care for others —creating environments where people and programs thrive and where meaningful, lasting impact takes root.

Suzie Pileggi Pawelski has a Master of Applied Positive Psychology degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a freelance writer, well-being consultant, and international speaker specializing in the science of happiness and its effects on relationships and health. Her 2010 Scientific American Mind cover story, “The Happy Couple,” was the catalyst for Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts. Happy Together was named a best book of 2018 by Business Insider, Success magazine, Fatherly and The Greater Good Science Center.

James Pawelski is Professor of Practice and Director of Education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania where he co-founded the Master of Applied Positive Psychology Program with Martin Seligman in 2005. The Founding Executive Director of IPPA, he is currently leading a three-year, multi-million-dollar grant investigating connections between the science of well-being and the arts and humanities.

This series is part of the Cynthia & Harold Guttman Family Center for Storytelling at the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the science of character strengths is integral to our work creating a community of upstanders. https://www.youtube.com/@holocaustandhumanity

Our thanks to the Mayerson Family Foundation and the VIA Institute on Character for their support of this series

https://www.mayersonfoundation.org/ https://www.viacharacter.org/

Episode Resources

Follow Jillian and her guests on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/suziepileggipawelski/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcoppley/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-pawelski-1636572a3/

Find out more about Suzie & James’s work

https://www.suzannpileggi.com/ https://jamespawelski.com/

Take your free character strengths quiz here https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/upstander/assess-your-character-strengths/

The most successful people aren’t the ones who manage to avoid failure. Entrepreneur and author Fiona Macaulay says they’re the ones who learn how to fail forward.

“When we have a failure, it doesn’t make you a failure—it’s simply having a failure. The real question is: what strategic intelligence can you learn from it?”

- Fiona Macaulay

In this episode of Standing Up Strong, Dr. Jillian Coppley sits down with Wild Network founder Fiona Macaulay to talk about the truth behind success that most people never see: the long trail of setbacks, pivots, and lessons that make it possible.

Fiona shares how perfectionism nearly derailed her early success—even landing her in the emergency room with a panic attack while her company was thriving. That moment forced her to rethink what failure really means and how leaders can transform setbacks into what she calls “strategic intelligence.” Fiona explains why talking openly about failure can be liberating—and how it helps people move from shame to learning.

Dr. Jillian Coppley is a visionary executive recognized internationally for her expertise in character strengths, wellbeing, and organizational transformation. With deep experience in positive psychology, strategy, and change, she has led large-scale collaborations, built global programs, strategic partnerships, and thriving organizational cultures that empower individuals, teams and organizations to flourish. Her leadership blends strategic vision, research-based innovation, and deep personal care for others —creating environments where people and programs thrive and where meaningful, lasting impact takes root.

Fiona Macaulay is a leadership expert and keynote speaker who designs immersive learning experiences that drive lasting behavior change for Fortune 500 companies, global nonprofits, and professional associations. With 25 years of experience, her approach combines practical frameworks with real-world application, ensuring participants leave with tools they can use immediately. Fiona is Founder/CEO of The WILD Network, connecting 25,000 purpose-driven leaders across 100+ countries in global development and social impact. In the academic world, Fiona serves as Adjunct Professor and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.

This series is part of the Cynthia & Harold Guttman Family Center for Storytelling at the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the science of character strengths is integral to our work creating a community of upstanders. https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/ https://www.youtube.com/@holocaustandhumanity

Our thanks to the Mayerson Family Foundation and the VIA Institute on Character for their support of this series

https://www.mayersonfoundation.org/ https://www.viacharacter.org/

Episode Resources

Follow Jillian and Fiona on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcoppley/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/fionamacaulay/

Buy Fiona’s book, “Aim High and Bounce Back” https://a.co/d/0eqsJg3m

Take your free character strengths quiz

https://www.holocaustandhumanity.org/upstander/assess-your-character-strengths/